"When the Yellow Jackets left, there was a big hole in their league. They wanted to have someone back here."
Saskatoon Entertainment Group — which, under Mike and Colin Priestner, owns the Saskatoon Blades and Saskatchewan Rush — has added baseball to its sports stable. They’re bringing a WCBL expansion franchise to Saskatoon for the 2024 season, just over a year away.
“Even in conversation with the WCBL, when the Yellow Jackets left, there was a big hole in their league. They wanted to have someone back here,” SEG’s Steve Hildebrand said during a Wednesday press conference.
The Saskatoon Yellow Jackets played in the league from 2002 to 2014. Good players, both American and Canadian, came through Cairns Field — Andrew Albers, Jeremy Horst, Josh Taylor and Marco Gonzales went on to play in the Major Leagues, for example — but fan engagement was poor and attendance sparse.
Nearly a decade later, they’re ready to try it again, albeit with a new — and more deep-pocketed — ownership group.
“Talent was not an issue,” WCBL president Kevin Kvame said Wednesday. “It was the lack of resources to engage with the fans, and that piece has been totally filled with the Saskatoon Entertainment Group. We’re not worried about that at all.”
THE WCBL bills itself as “Canada’s pre-eminent summer collegiate baseball league.” The wood-bat circuit draws college players from around North America, seeking to hone their skills during the summer.
SEG has signed a 10-year deal to play at Cairns Field, and they’ll work on stadium upgrades, including a new infield, dugout fixes, and a deck down the third-base line.
“We have a really good background with the Blades and the Rush,” Hildebrand said. “We know how to put events on, and I really believe our team will do a great job and we’ll get people out.
“I think people are starving for this, and part of that is having a good baseball team right away. Our commitment to hiring a good coach, and having a good team right away, is going to be first and foremost.”
The team — currently called the Saskatoon Baseball Club until a nickname is found, with the help of fans — must now work on all the things that go into running a franchise: uniforms, logo, hiring a manager, finding players.
The league’s teams are based in Alberta and Saskatchewan, and Saskatoon’s provincial rivals will include Regina, Moose Jaw, Swift Current and Weyburn. There will be 12 teams in the league when Saskatoon throws its first pitch in 2024.
“I think baseball in Saskatchewan has grown (since the Yellow Jackets were here),” Hildebrand said. “Registrants in the city … there’s actually more registered in baseball this year than in minor hockey. Let that settle in for a second. It’s big. We want to be part of that, but we also want to keep growing the game.”
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