The Oakland Ballers said Thursday they will renovate and use a historic Oakland ballpark for their inaugural 2024 season and that tickets for the minor league baseball team’s games are now for sale.
Raimondi Park in West Oakland will be the Ballers’ home field, a park the team said in a statement is “renowned for nurturing baseball talent and hailed for producing more baseball stars than any park in the country.”
The Ballers said Raimondi Park was the training ground for legends such as Frank Robinson and Curt Flood. The Ballers said the park was its first choice, though when the team launched earlier this year, it said it would play at Laney College near Lake Merritt.
The Ballers got the official go-ahead from Oakland’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission (PRAC) on Jan. 10. The team will host their 48 home games at Raimondi Park, with the inaugural game slated for June 4.
The team has signed a field rental agreement with the city of Oakland and said tickets are now available at https://t.ly/Ballers12pack.
“As the Oakland Ballers, our mission has always been to revitalize Oakland’s ballparks,” said Bryan Carmel, the team’s co-founder. “We are honored to be part of the next chapter of baseball at Raimondi Park and eagerly anticipate collaborating with the city and local residents to showcase the potential of our city.”
The Ballers also unveiled a $1.6 million plan to renovate the field, funded through private investments, and the field will also serve youth baseball and softball leagues. The revitalization plan will be presented as a gift-in-place for the Oakland City Council to vote on at an upcoming meeting.
The team said the surrounding community will have access to the field for the 317 nights the Ballers aren’t playing there. New amenities will include a video scoreboard, which the team said can be used for various community events, including movie nights.
“I am a lifelong resident of Oakland and daughter of the esteemed ballplayer Ernie Raimondi, whose memory graces Raimondi Park,” said Penny Raimondi Isola, daughter of the namesake of Raimondi Park. “The park was renovated and rededicated in 2008, but now the opportunity has come along to further revitalize it for the neighborhood and for the entire city.
On behalf of the Raimondi family, I would like to extend my support for the Oakland Ballers efforts to activate Raimondi Park as a site for their team, soon to be ‘our team.'”
The Ballers will play in the independent Pioneer League as the minor league’s first team on the West Coast, with most of the competition playing in Midwest states Montana, Idaho, Colorado, and Utah.