Sylvan Lake Gulls Home Opener On Deck
September 8, 2020 9:28 pm | by WCBL | Posted In Feature News, News
September 8th, 2020
Sylvan Lake, AB – Media Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Western Canadian Baseball League is proud to announce opening day for the WCBL’s newest franchise the Sylvan Lake Gulls. The league is also eager to share the progress of the new stadium in Sylvan Lake as well as all it will feature once complete. The League is announcing today that the opening weekend for the Gulls at home will be June 11th-13th 2021. The first ever home opener and opening of the new stadium will occur on Friday June 11th, 2021.
“We are thrilled to see this massive undertaking come together with a firm date that fans will be able to mark on their calendars. It is great to see the WCBL continue to expand its roots within Alberta and we are very excited for the Gulls inaugural season in their new stadium,” WCBL President Kevin Kvame said Tuesday afternoon.
“We are very excited to announce the Opening Day for the Gulls Inaugural Season in 2021! There has been so much time and effort put in to get us to this point, having an Opening Day set gives us a firm target to focus our efforts towards from now to then. Our fans are seeing the progress at the stadium site, and what’s going on with the Gulls, having a date that they can put on their calendars to come and see an actual WCBL baseball game is going to create even more excitement,” commented Aqil Samuel, GM & President of Baseball Operations for the Sylvan Lake Gulls.
The WCBL took the opportunity to observe progress on the new stadium in Sylvan Lake. The site is seeing considerable headway on a daily basis. With the larger components being built off-site it is exciting to see all the pieces coming together at the stadium site.
“We thought we would prod the construction company along a little bit by giving them a drop-dead date that we call a home opener,” teased Kvame. “In all seriousness, they are making great progress and we can’t wait to christen the new digs next June.”
Samuel observed: “The progress at the stadium site can be seen on almost a daily basis. We currently have the concrete forms for the seats in place, dugouts and pony wall concrete is also in place. They are currently getting things ready for the next step which will be laying the outfield sod and prepping the infield for the artificial turf. Both should be in place in the upcoming weeks.”
The Western Canadian Baseball League is Canada’s premier summer baseball league and has over 80 years of history and counting! In 2019, the WCBL hosted approximately 300,000 fans in our ballparks and host over 20,00 fans each year on Canada Day.
The WCBL prides itself on connecting friends and family by providing a dynamic social and business networking opportunity for all those who attend. We like to see our ballparks as healing centres that allow people to escape, re-connect, vent, and come together in support of a common cause. For many, it fills a void that they cannot get anywhere else, the ballpark is family and home in the summer.
“Our league is operated completely in Canada making us unique in the summer college baseball world. Our talent is as good as any other summer college league based in the United States, but our experience is uniquely Canadian. Our franchises show this through their passion for baseball and celebrating each of their communities,” said Kvame.
We are proud of our Canadian roots and it’s focus on developing the Canadian player. This is strongly scripted into all of our franchises operating methods, not to mention that it is also a requirement each team carry a minimum ratio of Canadian players on their rosters.
The league is also excited about an initiative to promote tourism locally and beyond come next spring.
The WCBL is planning to come back in 2021 bigger and better before.
View video of today’s press conference here:
For information on the above, please contact Kevin Kvame, WCBL President, at president@WCBLeague.com or by phone at 403-315-4064 or Aqil Samuel, GM & President of Baseball Operations of the Sylvan Lake Gulls, at aqil@sylvanlakegulls.com or by phone at 587-377-6277.