Seaman Stadium

Okotoks Dawgs, Western Canadian Baseball League

No Rating

The crowd files up the stairs about 30 minutes to game time.

Once you're inside, this appears to be a cut above your average summer league park.

The best shot I could get of the seating area. The press box behind home plate reminds me a lot of Orem.

I headed off for the 2 hour drive to Okotoks in August 2019, having finally decided to make a run down here. This is the best attended stadium in the 12 team Western Canadian loop, featuring summer league baseball in front of crowds that are usually in the hundreds(or under a hundred) except for here. This place reliably gets at least 2,500 a game. The town of Okotoks is only around 15 thousand, but being 20 minutes down the road from Canada's 4th largest city, Calgary, there's plenty of potential fans not far away. The team moved out here from Calgary after having to fight with the Vipers team there over home dates, eventually having to skip a season entirely. The joke ended up being on the Vipers though, as private donations, including from the Seaman family, whose name is on the park, financed this place and the fieldhouse immediately next door. It's a solid summer league set up and unlike a lot of teams in this league, they do attract some players from top Div I schools.

Even before I came here in person, I knew this was a nice park. I'd heard about crowds in excess of 5 thousand for holiday weekends, which here, would have meant fire code capacity. But when I got here, it was clear that this park could have for sure hosted a Rookie level team in the Pioneer League, never mind everything else that would have to happen. Our visit was in mid-July of 2019 for a midweek game against Medicine Hat.  There ended up being closer to 3,000 people here, which was steady, but not too busy to get anywhere. The concession items were all the usual staples, but there was nothing unique or distinctive either. The atmosphere was the best part of coming here, it wasn't overly enthusiastic, but people were generally into the game and if they weren't, they weren't into being overly noticeable either. 

I did not give the park a number rating, as I don't for summer league. Minor League contraction means that affiliated baseball is not coming here ever, which is too bad, as the park and the fan base could handle it. But, with the Pioneer League officially off on it's own now and the league's statement making reference to promoting baseball in the Western United States and Canada, it's not impossible that professional players could call this place home soon enough.