The organizers of the Classique Pif and Baseball Sherbrooke are dreaming of a synthetic field. Ideally, at Quintal Park, where the activities of the largest slow-pitch tournament in North America are held, as well as those of the baseball sports-studies and the Passion + Baseball Academy.
The Amédée-Roy stadium could also be a targeted location, according to Baseball Sherbrooke.
When contacted by the Tribune, the City of Sherbrooke simply responded that “there are currently no projects underway for a synthetic baseball field.”
Once again, the Pif Classic had to cancel part of its activities due to rain and a lot of effort was put into maintaining the course and repairing it following the rainfall.
“We’ve seen all sorts of things over the years,” confirms Marco Leclerc, president of Pif. “We get rain every year at Pif. That’s normal, our event lasts a week. So you have to expect a little rain, like every week. In general, we did well this year. However, there are two more important evenings: Friday and Saturday. This year, we had to cancel Saturday’s evening, with the fireworks and the home run contest, the evening when there are the most people at the park. It hurts the budget!”
“The fields are finished in Sherbrooke,” notes Jean-Charles Doyon, general manager of the event. “The Americans always play on a synthetic surface and when they arrive in Sherbrooke, they see how damaged our field is. We had a great project with the Passion + Baseball Academy. The idea of the dome was excellent. A synthetic surface would already be a nice compromise and a nice addition. The City must invest in its baseball fields and quickly!”
Marco Leclerc recalls how much work the city employees and volunteers did to maintain the grounds again this year during the Pif.
“Why are there several synthetic soccer fields, but none for baseball?” asks the president of Pif. “We must not simply maintain one sport, we must invest in all sports that are popular in Sherbrooke, such as baseball and slow pitch.”
Same story from Baseball Sherbrooke.
“Baseball Sherbrooke reaffirms its desire to position itself as a partner of choice for the City of Sherbrooke and recognizes the efforts of previous administrations to maintain municipal baseball infrastructure. Despite all the goodwill of local stakeholders, it is clear that Sherbrooke is lagging behind equivalent cities in terms of the modernity of its infrastructure. Whether it is for a synthetic field, indoor infrastructure or batting cages, we would be delighted to join a joint working group to improve the baseball offering in Sherbrooke,” said Richard Noël, Director of the Initiation component at Baseball Sherbrooke.
“On a smaller scale, it is possible to increase the supply of services by making improvements that are communicated regularly to the City as part of an open dialogue,” he adds.
Some improvements are planned on the Sherbrooke baseball fields and everything is conditional on the acceptance of the budgets each year.
In 2025, the purchase of synthetic mounds for Bureau Park and Central Park is planned.
In 2026, no investment is planned on the baseball fields since the City must change the synthetic Olympic 1 field.
In 2027, the city plans to redo the field, lighting, dugout and protective nets at Couturier Park, and it hopes to replace the fence at Amédée-Roy Stadium in 2028, according to the documents provided.
It’s not just the baseball fields that need love, according to Jean-Charles Doyon, also director of the Festival des traditions du monde, but also the various festivals in general in Sherbrooke:
“Our tournament is still very popular with the teams. We reach our maximum every year. The spectators are also more and more numerous. I only had to renew one sponsor, all the others were back. Costs are exploding and in the event sector, it has become difficult. The City must continue to support its festivals, improve the assistance provided and above all, we must stop starting with new ones, because the leisure dollar is increasingly rare. There is a committee formed on this subject at the City, it should produce results, but we don’t expect anything within a year!”
2024-07-08 08:13:23
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