Verge: Don McDougall Park set to open in PEI in August
On January 17, Buck Martinez (left) and Charlottetown, PEI native Don McDougall (right) were in attendance for the announcement that Don McDougall Park, a new turf field, will soon be built in Woodstock, PEI. Photo: Jays Care Foundation
January 29, 2025
By Melissa Verge
Canadian Baseball Network
The number of baseball players in Canada’s smallest province has exploded, and a new turf field coming this summer will help give them a home.
Those numbers include a 300 percent increase over a five-year span in the western area of Prince Edward Island where the park will be built.
“It’s gone up dramatically year after year after year,” said Rhonda Pauls, executive director of Baseball PEI.
In 2019, they had approximately 178 registrants, Pauls said, and that number increased to 384 last year, leaving them with not nearly enough spaces for people who wanted to play.
The first and only turf baseball field in PEI will be built in Woodstock on the grounds of Mill River Resort, and is expected to open in August 2025 for players.
The park will also give the more western part of PEI a chance to host Nationals, Pauls said.
“This is going to give us the ability to host in a more rural area, and kind of spread the opportunity to host into a different region of the province,” she said.
The land for the park, which will be known as Don McDougall Park, was donated by Don McDougall, founding director of the Toronto Blue Jays.
McDougall, originally from Charlottetown, PEI, saw it as a need in the community and wanted to help them address it, Pauls said.
“[He] said ‘hey, if I gave you folks the land, do you think you could build a baseball field out here?’ And that's how the whole thing started,’” she said.
The $3.5 million dollar project will be funded by Jays Care, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the provincial government through PEI’s Rural Growth Initiative, and the Canada Winter Games legacy fund.
The park will not only help fill a gap but also provide a place for the number of baseball players in PEI to continue to grow.
“I think it's really generating a lot of excitement across the island, the potential for expanding leagues and opportunities for kids and adults to play baseball,” said Pauls.
The province currently has 78 places for athletes to play. The field will be adjustable, giving opportunities for both adults and youth to practice their game. It will be home to the Western Mariners, including 11U, 13U, 15U and 18U.
Phase one of the project includes an operational baseball field with a backstop, fencing, bleachers and a field house with change rooms and bathrooms, and a 600-metre track around the entire perimeter.
Phase two is adding lights for the field and the track. Phase two and three blended includes batting cages for players to practice their hitting.
The goal is to have the field playable by August, and the entire project completed in five years.
However, work isn’t quite done yet.
They still have a substantial amount of fundraising and sponsorship to secure, said Pauls.
“We would like to put that out there [if there’s] just some big organizations that would like to be part of this project that will help us,” Pauls said.