Utah Valley Wolverines, Western Athletic Conference
6/10
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| The main entrance, possibly the only one, is on the third base side. |
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| Between innings versus Grand Junction. |
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| A walk to the center field berm produced a decent shot of the whole seating area. |
I got a game in here in September 2015, making it my last of the 8 Pioneer League parks I took in. I had a bit of a rough drive in from Denver, hitting some serious construction, plus a significant jam leaving Denver on I-70. Still, I made it in the 2nd inning I think.
This is a park that does double duty, serving as the home for the Utah Valley University team in the spring and the Owlz in the summer. The park is called Brent Brown Ballpark, but the team, and my ticket stub call it "The Home of the Owlz", for some reason. Oh well. It's well laid out, a little small, but most of all, has the weirdest netting I've seen so far. The net goes all the way up, then has a diagonal net to connect it to the top of the park's roof. This is supposedly to keep foul balls from getting anywhere near spectators, but I witnessed a few exceptions. One went into the net above the first base dugout, then up and around the whole net, but then down the other side. But the scariest was a foul ball straight into the straight-edged roof, which then deflected straight down into a woman's arm. She was given the ball, which had a significant dent in it.
The concession situation is only a little better, with standard options at a good price, but limited selection and certainly nothing unique. Of note, this park does not sell beer, as I'm pretty sure UVU is a dry campus. The previous home of the Owlz, in nearby Provo as the Provo Angels at Brigham Young University's park also featured no home games on Sundays to my knowledge as well, hence the move to Orem. I am hardly a double-fisting, 7th inning is the beer inning, drunken mess. But sometimes, I will have a beer at a baseball game. Some people will have more. Most teams make a fair chunk of cash, selling beer. But not the Owlz.
The atmosphere is very sedate, most people are baseball second types, with few really into the game. I went on a Tuesday night and only around 1,000 showed up and the park was a bit quiet and listless. There are three teams in the metro area of Salt Lake City and I think the Salt Lake Bees had a home game as well, which could explain things somewhat.
Overall, I would take off a half point each for the park, due to the netting issue and the concession, because of a lack of a selection and no beer. With this place on a prime spot of I-15, I will likely be back soon enough.
Update 2025: I ended up back here a year later, on my way to Anaheim to pick up the Blue Jays on a west coast roadtrip in 2016. It was the only park I could actually get on the way, with the Minor League playoffs nearly over. A sparsely attended game saw the Owlz take home the Pioneer league flag for the final time in Orem. The next year, the park took on the name UCCU Ballpark, after a local credit union.
Even before minor league contraction entered the conversation, ownership were already looking to
move the team to Colorado. That project fell through, but another soon took shape and 2019 was the last year for the team in Orem and in affiliated baseball. The team left for Windsor, CO, taking the name
Northern Colorado Owlz. This place is now "just" another college ballpark, so I doubt I'll be back. Still, the backdrop is one of the best I've seen anywhere.
Linescores
2015-09-01
123 456 789 RHE
Grand Junction Rockies(COL) 000 021 050 8 13 3
Orem Owlz(LAA) 000 002 000 2 4 2
Time: 2:34 Temp: 88F Att: 1,470
2016-09-16
123 456 789 RHE
Billings Mustangs(CIN) 000 101 000 271
Orem Owlz(LAA) 000 020 10x 351
Time: 2:13 Temp: 67F Att: 2,016
Note: Orem Wins Pioneer League Championship
