Blue Jays: Cool venues to play a regular season game

There are plenty of awesome and thoughtful baseball stadiums in Canada for the Toronto Blue Jays to play a regular season game.

After Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred made the announcement that there will be more games like the Field of Dreams in Iowa going forward, that allowed the imaginations of baseball fans to run wild.

The Field of Dreams game was one of the highest rated regular season baseball game in the last 15 years. This has to be one of the reasons why Manfred and the owners are looking to pursue more games like this. Could you possibly see cities bidding to host Major League regular season baseball games? The economic benefit for local communities and cities would be astronomical, one would think.

It could also help baseball expand their reach and grow the game. It also could lead to more expansion ideas which would generate more money for Major League Baseball and its owners. Also, it would create more opportunities for players to stay in the Major Leagues.

In the following slides I present some ideas of where the Blue Jays can play some rivals for regular season games. The Blue Jays continue to be the only Major League Baseball team in Canada and I believe if they have an opportunity to play these regular season contests in these stadiums, that is a great opportunity to grow the game.

I’m going to suggest we go to the world’s oldest ballpark in the world. Yes, folks the world. We’ll also go to a ballpark on the west coast with a truckload of history and championships. We will also suggest an underrated beautiful ball park that houses a team in the American Association.

Blue Jays vs Minnesota Twins at Shaw Park in Winnipeg, Manitoba

If you could merge Labatt Park, Sahlen Field and Nat Bailey Stadium all into one it’d be Shaw Park in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The home to Goldeneyes of the American Association is an absolute gem located not too far from Portage and Main in downtown Winnipeg. You have the two levels behind home plate that Sahlen Field has with the luxury suites. You have the outfield walls covered in advertisements looking at a mix of some trees like the Nat, and a huge downtown with a flowing river beyond the outfield walls like Labatt Park.

The really cool part that I learned as per the ballpark website was that Shaw Park sits on treaty one lands. The land belongs to, the original territories of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and the homeland of the Métis Nation.

If the Blue Jays were to play a regular season game at Shaw Park, I would hope there is a priority to ensuring First Nations people to get access to not only watching a game but to also make sure they are celebrated during it as well. The more people you can encourage to get involved in the game of baseball the better.

The Blue Jays and Twins would attract a lot fans just based on where the location of this ballpark is. You would get fans from Thunder Bay and Regina. You’d also attract a lot of Twins fans that are between the Emerson, Manitoba border crossing.

Blue Jays vs Seattle Mariners at Nat Bailey Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia

Vancouver is an underrated and passionate baseball city. This was due to the help to a passionate restaurateur and the man responsible for the first drive in restaurant in Canada, Nat Bailey. Bailey was a massive supporter of Little League Baseball in Canada and was a part owner of the Vancouver Mounties of the Pacific Coast League. Vancouver was talked about a few years ago as a temporary home for the Arizona Diamondbacks as they were having issues with their stadium Chase Field.

In 1951 Capilano Stadium was built and the ballpark was renamed after Nat Bailey in 1978 for all of his contributions to baseball in the city. Much of the original parts of stadium have stayed in tact over the years even after renovations.

The Toronto Blue Jays and the Vancouver Canadians have had a relationship since 2010. The Canadians have won many championships with Blue Jays prospects including three in a row 2011-2013 under current Major League Coach John Schneider and Los Angeles Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullogh. Starting pitcher Alek Manoah was the most recent Canadians alumni to join the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Seattle Mariners ballpark T-Mobile Park is only 2 hours and 30 minutes from Nat Bailey Stadium. If you pack the stadium full with 6,500 fans I’m sure it’d be just a blast. The Hey Y’all Porch and the evergreen trees just outside of the outfield walls are something to look at. The grounds crew at Nat Bailey have won many awards under Head Groundskeeper Ross Baron. Baron won three straight Northwest League Sports Turf Manager of the year awards. There is no doubt that if Major League Baseball came to the Nat, Ross and his team would be ready. Vancouver will be ready to rock as well.