The Canadian-American Association of Professional Baseball - also known as the Can-Am League - is expanding to Welland, Ontario in Canada next season. The team has chosen to use the help of a name-the-team contest to come up with a new name for the team. Management of the Niagara Professional Baseball Group - which has received conditional approval for an expansion franchise in the Can-Am League - is asking the public for suggestions on a new team name.
Fans can submit their name suggestions and ideas by emailing [email protected] or by tweeting @NiagaraProBall. The winner will receive a pair of season tickets and other great prizes that show off the new name of the franchise. The name-the-team contest will end on August 1st.
The team will be playing their home games at Welland Sports Stadium.
The ballpark features a main concourse area that is covered and overlooks the playing field. The seating area, including two lawn sections, can hold approximately 2,500 spectators. The playing field has symmetrical dimensions of 330 feet down the lines and 400 feet to straight away center field.
Welland Sports Stadium was the home of the Welland Pirates (Pittsburgh Pirates Low-A affiliate; NY-Penn League) from 1989-1994. When the Pirates left town following the 1994 season, the Welland Aqua-Ducks of the North Atlantic League moved in and played their home games at Welland Sports Stadium. After the Aqua-Ducks folded in 1996 - due to extremely low attendance numbers - Welland Sports Stadium went the next seven years without a baseball team. Then in 2003, the Niagara Stars of the Canadian Baseball League moved in to the ballpark. However, the Stars - as well as the rest of the Canadian Baseball League - quickly folded that same year due to poor attendance numbers.
Next year a team can finally call Welland Sports Stadium its home once again, and judging by the stadium's history of poor attendance numbers, the Can-Am's expansion team will certainly look to break the cycle by putting fans in the seats for their inaugural Can-Am season.