Non-operational amenities at Foothills Stadium will be removed in the coming months, preparing the area for potential future redevelopment.

Crews have begun the work of removing the seating, concessions, ticket booths, washrooms, the outfield wall and two pieces of lighting infrastructure. The City said these areas have been fenced off from the public since 2021.

Foothills Stadium originally opened back in 1966, and eventually became home to the AAA Calgary Cannons, the farm team for the Seattle Mariners and Chicago White Sox. Major renovations were done to the stadium in 1985 to make way for the new club, and then again in 1994 and 2004.

The Cannons left Calgary in 2002 largely due to inadequate facilities.  The Calgary Outlaws, Calgary Dawgs (now Okotoks Dawgs) and Calgary Vipers also played in that stadium. The latter folded in 2011.

Now, the University of Calgary Dinos play on that field, along with other local organizations. 

Ward 7 Coun. Terry Wong said that there are several parts of the structure surrounding the field that have become unsafe.

“We have concerns about public safety and others. There’s people crawling around there in an unsafe structure,” Wong told reporters Tuesday.

“So, what’s being done now is to tear down that portion of structure so that the individuals that who choose to shelter in those spaces, they are not in harm.”

The City said that they would be removing the amenities over the winter so the diamond is ready for play again in the spring. They expect work to be complete by spring 2025.

“We recognize that the Foothills Stadium has been a valued community hub and a home for many community groups over the years,” read an emailed statement from the City of Calgary.  

“This change positions the athletic park for its next chapter as part of the Foothills Athletic Park Master Plan, continuing to help Calgarians meaningfully enjoy an active lifestyle and vibrate sports culture.”

‘That was our baseball home’

Former Calgary journalist Joe McFarland, who now works in communications, is behind the popular baseball history site and podcast Alberta Dugout Stories.  The site chronicles Alberta’s colourful past on the diamond.

McFarland said unfortunately this day has been coming for a long time. The one he feels most sorry for is former Cannons owner, Russ Parker.

“I can’t imagine being in Russ’s mind right now,” McFarland said.

“Seeing this thing that you poured your blood, sweat and tears into over and over and over again, not just to build it, but also to renovate it in the mid-90s, and try, with all of his might in the late 90s, early 2000s to keep the Cannons alive. That’s got to be a tough one.”

The stadium structure, while run-down and largely unusable today, had its heyday for 20 years from 1985 to the early 2000s. It played a major role in Calgary’s baseball history, McFarland said. Baseball hall of famer Edgar Martinez, Alex Rodriguez, Tino Martinez, Danny Tartabull and Mickey Brantley played in Calgary, and early stars like Sammy Sosa cut their teeth as pros in the Pacific Coast League.

Now, it’s being torn down without even the murmur of an anxious baseball crowd on a hot summer night.

“There is that element of sadness that comes along with the fact that there’s this, at the time, this baseball landmark that is going to have to meet its maker at some point,” McFarland said.

“It’s sad because we didn’t really get a chance to give it the proper goodbye. We didn’t get a chance to document some of the memories, miracles and accidents that happened along the way at Foothills Stadium.”

McFarland said the only thing that didn’t happen at Foothills Stadium was a championship for one of the pro-affiliated teams – despite the Cannons being a part of many pennant races. Still, it holds a dear place in many Calgarians’ sporting hearts.

“From what I remember of Foothills… It was our version of Rogers Center in Toronto, or Fenway Park in Boston or Yankee Stadium, right? That was our baseball home,” he said.  

“It was sad because when I really came to appreciate it was around the time when it started to get weeds growing through the stands and that kind of stuff. I didn’t really get to fully appreciate the value that it brought.”

Moving into the future

McFarland said that there’s been talk of the teardown for years; more than a decade, as he recalls. While he recognizes the nostalgia attached to it, it’s best to move on. Plus, with a thriving baseball team – and stadium – in Okotoks (that had the third-highest attendance for a North American collegiate team) it takes the sting out of the Foothills Stadium loss.

“This has been over a decade now since this has been on the books, to tear it down and put the new fieldhouse there,” he said.

“So, it’s kind of like, OK, we can finally get on with this and move on to bigger and better things, instead of holding on to a dilapidated building that’s run its course.”

The City of Calgary said that the Foothills Athletic Park Master Plan will come in 2025. This removal of the structures at the site is a different project from the multisport fieldhouse and the Foothills Athletic Park Master Plan. It does, however, help that work along.

Calgary’s fieldhouse is currently unfunded. The City of Calgary does have $109 million set aside for the project, but no matching provincial or federal funding. The latest project estimates were $380 million (2023).

There is currently no timeline for the fieldhouse project’s completion, but the City said that it would likely be done within five years of securing full funding.

The City said the Foothills baseball diamond would remain until the area is needed for construction.