Ottawa Titans: Baseball Returns to Canada’s Capital

Jackie Urbaez congratulates an Ottawa Titans teammate during a Frontier League game. (Courtesy of Timothy Austen)

 

The first weather alert went out about two hours before the Ottawa Titans of the Frontier League were to play their 2024 home opener. The warning to residents of Canada’s capital from Environment Canada was grim: prepare for heavy rains and wind gusts of over 100 kilometres per hour.1

An hour before game time, torrential rain and heavy winds struck.2 A crowd of 3,000 huddled on the covered concourse.3 The first pitch was delayed by an hour.4

“We’re planning to play,” said a post on the team’s account on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.5 Added to the post was, “#HereToStay.”

The Titans are the latest iteration of professional baseball in Canada’s capital, hoping to capture something that eluded its predecessors: long-term, sustained success.

“Clearly there has been a demand” for baseball in Ottawa, says team general manager Martin Boyce.6 “I feel like it would be a little bit naive to believe that that demand just doesn’t exist anymore.”

The Frontier League announced in September 2020 that it would add a team in Ottawa, with baseball set to return in 2021.7 At the time, league commissioner Bill Lee called Ottawa “a major league city that deserves professional baseball.”8

When the Frontier and Can-Am leagues merged in 2019, Ottawa appeared destined to join the new outfit. But the city’s team, the Champions, were left out of the merger.

In autumn 2019, the Champions’ owner, Miles Wolff, had two groups looking to purchase the franchise and its assets. One group included three local investors. A second ownership group had experience with independent-league baseball and local sports teams:9

• Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG), which owns the Ottawa RedBlacks of the Canadian Football League and the Ottawa 67’s of the Ontario Hockey League.10
• Sam Katz, a former Winnipeg mayor who has owned the Winnipeg Goldeyes of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball since 1994.11

Any deal to buy the Champions was contingent on signing a lease with the municipal government for use of Ottawa’s ballpark and the city recouping a debt of nearly half-a-million-dollars from the Champions.

“We’re trying to minimize our loss and get our money back. It’s been part of the negotiations,” then-city manager Steve Kanellakos told local councilors in September 2019.12

“We feel now that we have two viable, legitimate owners’ groups who are interested in the team [and] who have the financial means to be able to deal with that outstanding debt.”

At the time, local officials had already signaled their support for Katz and OSEG, even though Wolff said an agreement-in-principle had been reached with the group of local investors.13 By December, city staff presented a plan to municipal politicians to negotiate a lease with Katz and OSEG.14 The final 10-year lease included:

• an annual base rent for three years of $125,00015
• annual increases in the base rent starting in the fourth year, with each increase tied to the rate of inflation
• a designation that exempts the stadium from municipal taxes so long as “business activities taking place at the stadium are related to baseball and other related events”
• a provision that Katz and OSEG accepted the stadium as-is and without any additional work by the city
• an agreement that the ownership group would pay the Champions’ debt of more than $473,000
• an effective date of January 1, 202116

Katz believed baseball could thrive in Ottawa just as the Goldeyes had in Winnipeg for years. The cities shared some traits: Both are cold weather cities, where playing baseball outside is an option for only a few months of the year. Local sports fans have been built around National Hockey League teams—the Senators in Ottawa, the Jets in Winnipeg—and CFL teams.

And both had large populations that sustained a variety of minor-league sports teams.

“Ottawa is a city of a million people, so the other teams in our league are successful in markets that are 100,000 people,” Boyce said in 2024. “There’s just so much to draw from that how could (the team) not be a success?”17

In autumn 2019, Katz had also noted something else that could help the team succeed: Ottawa’s economy and high per-capita income.18

Being the national capital, Ottawa is home to a large, educated workforce. The City of Ottawa’s website notes that the region is the largest hub of federal workers in the country, has a median family income of $102,000 (which is one of the highest in the country), and has a workforce with more PhDs per capita than any other major region in Canada.19 Those conditions suggest that local residents have more disposable income than residents of other Canadian cities.20 A study of attendance21 at Carolina League games found that a team being located in a region with a higher per capita income can help increase attendance at games.22

But that high per capita income could have less of an impact on attendance in large cities: A 2009 study23 found that attendance in the South Atlantic League declined as per capita incomes and populations grew. The authors suggested that populations in larger cities with more disposable income had more options on where to spend their entertainment dollars. Baseball was competing with everything else.

Ottawa’s stadium itself was also a source of potential. The ballpark was built for the Ottawa Lynx, a one-time Triple-A affiliate of the Montreal Expos (and, later, the Baltimore Orioles and Philadelphia Phillies). It could host baseball games and other events from a location easily accessible by car or transit. Notably, a pedestrian bridge over Ottawa’s key thoroughfare, Highway 417, connects the stadium to a station on the city’s recently opened light-rail transit system, which is being expanded to connect more parts of the national capital.24

“Ottawa is a no-brainer. It fits all the criteria for having a successful sports franchise,” Katz told the Ottawa Sun in September 2020.25 “Saying all that, it doesn’t mean it happens automatically just because, ‘Hey, we’re here, hello, come on down.’ You have to motivate and inspire people to come, you have to keep them coming back and you have to work hard to do that.”

The home opener for the 2024 season may have done just that.

The home team got out to an early lead, but fell behind in the top of the ninth when the Tri-City ValleyCats took a 6-5 lead. The home side drew even in their half of the inning before newly-named captain Jason Dicochea pulled one inside the bag at third for a walk-off hit.26 Maybe this team would live up to its name.

The team got its name through a contest the organization ran in autumn of 2020. In all, the contest yielded 700 unique names across 1,200 submissions and engaged local residents. The organization selected the name Titans from those submissions. Aside from the connection to Greek mythology, the name had another advantage for any team in Canada’s bilingual capital: it was the same in English and French.27

With that challenge complete, the team prepared for its inaugural season with another challenge: the COVID-19 pandemic.

Canada entered 2021 battling a resurgent second wave of COVID-19. Renewed government restrictions, including stay-at-home orders implemented by Ontario’s provincial government, aimed to curb the spread of the virus. The country then faced a third wave that peaked in April, followed by a fourth wave later in the summer.28 Public health measures aimed to curb the virus’s spread through physical distancing, mask mandates, reduced capacity at sporting events, and restrictions on international travel.29

The 14-day mandatory quarantine for incoming travelers posed a significant challenge for professional sports leagues.30 Visiting teams couldn’t fulfill their game schedules while isolating for such an extended period. Uncertain about the full reopening of the Canada-US border, the Frontier League presented its three Canadian teams—including the Titans—with the tough choice of playing all their games in the United States until at least July 1 (Canada Day).

In April 2021, the Titans and their fellow Canadian teams decided against playing south of the border.31 Ottawa would have to wait another year for baseball in the capital.

“This was not an easy decision, but we believe it is the right decision,” Titans vice-president Regan Katz said in a release.32 “We thank our staff, players, coaches and manager for their commitment to the Ottawa Titans and look forward to seeing them on our field next May.”

The decision meant the team spent its first year covering its operating expenses without a key source of revenue: ticket sales. The upside was that the organization gained time to renovate its home stadium.

The Titans’ lease agreement with the city required them to accept the stadium as-is. When the team moved in, they found a venue that was in rougher shape than the front office originally believed.33

Originally built in 1993, the stadium had a seating capacity of 10,332 and had been home to a series of ball clubs. After the Lynx left Ottawa following the 2007 season, the city leased the stadium to the Rapidz of the Can-Am League for one year in 2008, then the Fat Cats of the Intercounty Baseball League between 2010 and 2012, and the Champions between 2015 and 2019. In between teams, the stadium sat largely idle.34

The Titans encountered delays in getting the venue ready. Some work stretched into the preseason. Among the issues that fans noticed when they arrived at the ballpark were seats that weren’t bolted to the concrete stands and signage that still had the Champions’ logo.35 One fan described the venue as “below average” but thought that improvements could attract more people to games.36

Issues persisted well beyond the inaugural opening day. In 2023, the team had to reschedule games early in the season when a faulty transformer caused intermittent blackouts in the stadium.37 As Boyce described it, a facility that is over 30 years old will likely always have some maintenance issue that needs addressing.38 One reason is that something that wasn’t an issue one year may become an issue further down the line.

Despite all the bumps in the road, the Titans played their first official home game on May 24, 2022—a 2–0 win against the visiting Evansville Otters.39

The victory boded well for the team’s inaugural season.

The Titans were hot early in the season, but fell out of a playoff spot in early August. Ottawa earned itself a playoff spot with a furious end to the season as the Titans won nine of their final 10 games. After winning a wild card game on the road, the Titans fell in a best-of-three division series to the eventual champions, the Quebec Capitales.

“We didn’t know what to expect, in a new league, starting from scratch,” Regan Katz told the Ottawa Sun shortly after the season ended.40 “Competing in the playoffs is one thing, but we were able to put up a really good battle against probably the best team in the league and come really close.”

The 2023 campaign was, from a baseball perspective, not as successful as the 2022 season. After posting a 56–39 record in their first season, the Titans finished their second season at 48-48 and failed to make the playoffs.

Heading into the 2024 season, the Titans looked like a competitive team on paper. After a slow start, the Titans went on a roll over June and into early July, winning two-thirds of their games through that stretch before stumbling into the all-star break with a four-game losing streak. Still, that was good enough for third place in the division, four games back of the Quebec Capitales. Beating the Capitales would be high on the team’s on-field to-do list. Off the field, the team had another to-do item: forge a distinct identity among the growing number of sports teams in Ottawa.41 What the Titans wanted to do was solidify a brand as a fun, social experience—more than just a baseball team—that everyone in Ottawa could recognize.42

From the moment the league awarded Ottawa an expansion team, the ownership group had framed the business case for drawing fans around creating a welcoming venue, providing an entertaining time and making an outing to the ballpark affordable and family-friendly. Yes, the goal of any sports team is to sell out a venue, whether that goal is realistic or not, Sam Katz said.43 But selling Ottawa residents on the baseball was secondary to selling them on the team’s brand.44 The Titans wanted to make sure that potential fans knew they could come to the ballpark with a family of four and get in the door for far less money than to see other teams in town.

“Every city is a bit different, but the one thing you know people are always looking for is quality, affordable family entertainment—there’s never enough of that to go around,” Sam Katz told the Ottawa Sun in September 2020.45 “We intend to have lots of fun, win lots of games and the ultimate goal is to win a championship.”

The idea of affordable family fun that the Titans have promoted has a long tradition in independent baseball leagues.46 Selling local fans on the Titans was based on the idea that a trip to the ballpark was more like going to dinner theatre than a ballgame, as Lee, the Frontier League’s former commissioner, once described it.47

Promotions like fireworks and creative marketing have been shown to help boost attendance at minor league games, but a successful marketing strategy in one year won’t necessarily work in subsequent years.48 A whole host of changes—demographics and economic conditions, for example—could affect how residents decide to spend their entertainment dollars.

From Boyce’s perspective, the organization is getting the hang of creating new, fun experiences at games, evolving their promotions to capitalize on things happening in the national capital to draw fans.49 For instance, the team held a theme night for Canadian singer Shania Twain when she performed at the city’s annual Bluesfest music festival in 2023, even going so far as to hire an impersonator to belt out songs for fans. For the 2024 season, the concept got a revival with a night dedicated to Canadian rock band Nickelback when it performed at Bluesfest.

Work started before the first season when the organization renovated suites that overlook the field from the stadium’s second and third floors. Demand from the first season led the team to add more furnishings to the suites in the second season. The team hoped that some of those attendees would enjoy the atmosphere and come back to watch games on their own, with family or with friends.

Along with the suites—which were finished for the team’s third season—the Titans worked on a grassy area down the left-field line with a stand selling local beer. Families can hang out at picnic tables, children can run around on the grass and fans can stroll down the knoll to field-level and interact with players in the bullpen. That gave fans two spots to socialize in groups.50

What followed was work on a third-floor space that at one time was home to a restaurant. That area has been turned into a large group space that the team hopes will be used by corporate groups—which helps with attendance and revenues.

Other plans include creating patio decks where fans can hang out with a group of people instead of in seats.

‘‘The goal, essentially, with all of these plans would be just to make the ballpark more lively,” Boyce said.51

The work in Ottawa will require removing some seats. Depending on which seats are removed, the ballpark may feel like a more intimate setting to watch baseball and a game with 2,000 fans may feel like 5,000—and 5,000 fans may feel like 10,000.52

Club officials have spoken about how 10,000 seats are far too many for the team’s needs. According to a list maintained by BaseballPilgrimages.com, Ottawa’s stadium is the second largest for any professional baseball team in Canada, behind only the Rogers Centre in Toronto, and second largest of any independent league team on the list.53 The stadium’s capacity is also more than double those of the stadiums that are home to the other two Canadian teams in the Frontier League.54

“Having 10,000 seats is far too many for baseball at nearly every level, and certainly more seats than we need as is,” Regan Katz said in late 2023.55 “So these plans will actually start removing seats and converting them into mingling spaces instead.”

Teams in the Frontier League require an average attendance of 2,000 fans per game to meet expenses.56 That number may fluctuate based on market conditions, other sources of revenue, the size of any one-time expenses and annual increases in the cost of living.

Fans didn’t initially flock to Titans games in great numbers. Some of that may have been lingering impacts from the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, which included rounds of public health restrictions and lockdowns. In the summer of 2022, Regan Katz said that cautiousness around the pandemic had kept some fans at home early in the season, leaving the gate numbers below where the front office wanted them to be.57 But the numbers would turn around, just as they did at other sporting venues through 2022.

Attendance at sporting events in Canada jumped in 2022 after public health restrictions were lifted and vaccination rates rose. A 2024 report from Statistics Canada noted that spectator sports, as an industry, witnessed a massive rebound in 2022 with operating revenues rebounding that year to pre-pandemic levels.58

Attendance at the ballpark reflected that growth.

The Titans’ regular-season finale in 2022 drew a crowd of over 3,500.59 More fans than that—3,777 to be precise—showed up for opening day in 2023.60 Attendance dropped off after the 2023 opener, and fell closer to the team’s per-game average in 2022 by the end of the homestand.61 By the end of the year, attendance rose. The Titans reported that fan appreciation day in 2023 set an attendance record with more than 4,600 people in the stands. Overall, average attendance increased by just over 27% between seasons one and two, rising from a per-game average of 1,211 fans in 2022 to 1,540 in 2023 but still under the league average of 2,148.62

At the end of the 2024 season, average per-game attendance had gone up again from the previous season, rising just under 29% to 1,982.63 But the attendance boost didn’t boost the Titans’ playoff fortunes in 2024. The Titans advanced to their second ever East Division series after beating the Tri-City ValleyCats 5-2 on the road in the East Division Wild Card game.64 In the first game of the series, the Titans rode some timely offence to walk-off the Quebec Capitales at home in extra innings to take an early lead in the best-of-three playoff.65 But the next two games didn’t go as the Titans hoped, first falling 10-6 and then losing the deciding match 8-7–leaving the tying run in scoring position in the ninth–to drop the series to the eventual league champions.66

There’s always next year. And likely years beyond that from the team’s perspective.

Sam Katz and the rest of the front office have repeatedly said that they are in it for the long haul in Ottawa, and that the Titans can succeed where others have not. Hence the hashtag in the team’s social media posts: #HereToStay.

To do so, the organization understands it has a few obstacles to overcome: baseball isn’t the most popular professional sport in Ottawa, and players transition faster out of the Frontier League than minor league teams, for example. So for Boyce, the primary focus isn’t necessarily baseball unlike past teams that may have focused less on creating a social experience for fans.67

‘‘Our goal is to approach this differently than teams have in the past and the common denominator with most of the teams, not all, was that fun wasn’t necessarily the focus and baseball was at times the primary focus,” Boyce said ahead of the 2024 season.68

‘‘We’re confident in what we do but we hope that it’s the successful magic potion that makes baseball successful very long term in Ottawa.”

JORDAN PRESS is a former journalist who now works as an editor at Canada’s central bank. He is married to a spectacular woman and a father to two wonderful daughters who love taking batting practice at the local park.

 

Notes

1 Andrew Osmand, “Severe thunderstorm warnings dropped but not before clouds darkened Ottawa skies,” CityNews Ottawa, May 21, 2024, https://ottawa.citynews.ca/2024/05/21/ottawa-rain-wind-thunderstorm-warning/. Accessed July 21, 2024.

2 Kiersten Vuorimaki, “The Ottawa Titans are coming in hot this weekend,” Apt613.ca, May 30, 2024, https://apt613.ca/the-ottawa-titans-are-coming-in-hot-this-weekend/. Accessed July 21, 2024.

3 “The Ottawa Titans are coming in hot this weekend.”

4 “The Ottawa Titans are coming in hot this weekend.”

5 The post can be accessed through https://x.com/ottawa_titans/status/1792988274459324758.

6 Martin Boyce, telephone interview, April 11, 2024.

7 “Ottawa Gets Frontier League Baseball Team for 2021,” CBC News, September 25, 2020, (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/frontier-league-ottawa-baseball-new-team-1.5739965). Accessed May 7, 2024.

8 Gordon Engelhardt, “Ottawa Becomes Third Canadian Team to Join Frontier League,” Evansville Courier & Press, September 25, 2020 (https://www.courierpress.com/story/sports/2020/09/25/ottawa-becomes-third-canadian-team-join-frontier-league/3532130001/). Accessed May 7, 2024.

9 Ottawa Titans Baseball Club Inc., “Ottawa Titans Expand Ownership Group Ahead of 2021 Season,” December 14, 2020 (https://www.ottawatitans.com/ottawa-titans-expand-ownership-group-ahead-of-2021-season). Accessed May 7, 2024.

10 Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group. For more information, see the website for TD Place Stadium: https://www.tdplace.ca/oseg/. Accessed May 7, 2024.

11 Winnipeg Goldeyes. More details are available on the “History” page of the team’s website at https://www.goldeyes.com/about/history. May 7, 2024.

12 “Ottawa Champions Left Off New League’s 2020 Roster,” CBC News, October 16, 2019. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-champions-left-off-2020-roster-1.5323308. Accessed May 7, 2024.

13 “Ottawa Champions Left Off New League’s 2020 Roster.”

14 Jon Willing, “Analysis: With OSEG Involved, Is the Ottawa Baseball Stadium Ripe for a Mini-Lansdowne Transformation?,” Ottawa Citizen, December 2, 2019 (https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/analysis-with-oseg-involved-is-ottawa-stadium-ripe-for-a-mini-lansdowne-transformation/). Accessed May 7, 2024.

15 All dollar figures in this article are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted.

16 Lease Agreement. Details about the lease agreement can be found in Tim Baines, “Play Ball! Sam Katz Confident Baseball Will Be a Hit in Ottawa When It Returns Next Year,” Ottawa Sun, September 23, 2020. https://ottawasun.com/sports/baseball/play-ball-sam-katz-confident-baseball-will-be-a-hit-in-ottawa-when-it-returns-next-year. Accessed April 8, 2024 ; Kevin Reichard, “Frontier League Returns to Ottawa in 2021,” Ballpark Digest, September 25, 2020. https://ballparkdigest.com/2020/09/25/frontier-league-returns-to-ottawa-in-2021/. Accessed May 7, 2024; and David Sali, “New Ownership Group Confident It Can Reverse Ottawa’s Pro Baseball Curse,” Ottawa Business Journal, September 25, 2020. https://obj.ca/new-ownership-group-confident-it-can-reverse-ottawas-pro-baseball-curse/. Accessed April 8, 2024.

17 Boyce interview.

18 “New Ownership Group Confident It Can Reverse Ottawa’s Pro Baseball Curse.”

19 City of Ottawa, “Statistics and Demographics,” https://ottawa.ca/en/living-ottawa/statistics-and-demographics#section-2224a97d-596c-47b0-bad5-dbd36957830b. Accessed May 7, 2024.

20 Institut de la statistique du Québec, “Per Capita Disposable Income Continued To Grow in Québec and in All Administrative Regions in 2022” (press release, April 25, 2024), https://statistique.quebec.ca/en/communique/per-capita-disposable-income-continued-to-grow-quebec-administrative-regions-2022. Accessed May 7, 2024.

21 Richard J. Cebula, Michael Toma, and Jay Carmichael. 2009. “Attendance and Promotions in Minor League Baseball: The Carolina League,” Applied Economics 41: 3209–3214.

22 David Quiring and Andrew Zimbalist, “Attendance and Promotions in Minor League Baseball: The Carolina League,” ResearchGate, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/46528525_Attendance_and_promotions_in_minor_league_baseball_The_Carolina_League. Accessed May 7, 2024.

23 Rodney J. Paul, Michael Toma, and Andrew P. Weinbach, “The Minor League Experience: What Drives Attendance at South Atlantic League Baseball Games?” Coastal Business Journal 8(1): 70–84. https://digitalcommons.coastal.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=cbj. Last accessed May 9, 2024.

24 Ottawa Titans Baseball Club Inc., “Ottawa Titans Announce Ongoing Ballpark Enhancements, Seek Stadium Naming Rights” (press release, September 12, 2023), https://www.ottawatitans.com/ottawa-titans-announce-ongoing-ballpark-enhancements-seek-stadium-naming-rights. Accessed May 7, 2024.

25 Tim Baines, “Play Ball! Sam Katz Confident Baseball Will Be a Hit in Ottawa When It Returns Next Year,” Ottawa Sun, September 23, 2020. https://ottawasun.com/sports/baseball/play-ball-sam-katz-confident-baseball-will-be-a-hit-in-ottawa-when-it-returns-next-year. Accessed April 8, 2024.

26 Ottawa Titans Baseball Club Inc., “Walk-Off Heroics Headline Titans Home-Opening Victory,” May 22, 2024, https://www.ottawatitans.com/walk-off-heroics-headline-titans-home-opening-victory. Accessed July 21, 2024.

27 Tim Baines, “Remember The Titans: Ottawa’s New Pro Baseball Team Gets a Name,” Ottawa Sun, December 3, 2020. https://ottawasun.com/sports/baseball/remember-the-titans-ottawas-new-pro-baseball-team-gets-a-name. Accessed April 8, 2024.

28 Christopher J. Rutty, “COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/covid-19-pandemic. Accessed May 7, 2024.

29 Canadian Institute for Health Information, “Canadian COVID-19 Intervention Timeline,” https://www.cihi.ca/en/canadian-covid-19-intervention-timeline. Accessed May 7, 2024.

30 U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Canada, “Message to U.S. Citizens in Canada: Update on Canadian International Travel Restrictions,” February 12, 2021. https://ca.usembassy.gov/message-to-u-s-citizens-in-canada%E2%80%AF-update-on-canadian-entry-restrictions/. Accessed May 7, 2024; Public Health Agency of Canada, “Government of Canada To Remove COVID-19 Border and Travel Measures Effective October 1” (press release, September 26, 2022), https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/news/2022/09/government-of-canada-to-remove-covid-19-border-and-travel-measures-effective-october-1.html. Accessed May 7, 2024.

31 The Québec Capitales and Trois-Rivières Aigles merged for the 2021 season, calling themselves Équipe Québec. The merged team played exclusively as a road team until August when it returned to the province of Quebec for home games. For more, see Paul Caputo, “Frontier League merges two teams into Team Quebec for 2021,” SportsLogos.Net, April 27, 2021, https://news.sportslogos.net/2021/04/27/frontier-league-merges-two-teams-into-team-quebec-for-2021/baseball/; and Jessica Lapinski, “La triste fin d’une belle épopée,” Journal de Québec, September 19, 2021, https://www.journaldequebec.com/2021/09/19/equipe-quebec-eliminee-par-les-wild-things. Both accessed August 12, 2024.”

32 “Canadian Teams Opt Out of Frontier League Season,” Observer-Reporter, April 17, 2021, https://www.observer-reporter.com/sports/2021/apr/17/canadian-teams-opt-out-of-frontier-league-season/. Accessed May 7, 2024.

33 Frankie Benvenuti, “Here To Stay: Regan Katz Committed To Baseball In Ottawa,” 13th Man Sports, July 11, 2022, https://13thmansports.ca/2022/07/11/here-to-stay-regan-katz-committed-to-baseball-in-ottawa/. Accessed May 7, 2024.

34 City of Ottawa, “The Ottawa Stadium – Community Visioning” (last updated November 15, 2023), https://engage.ottawa.ca/the-ottawa-stadium-community-visioning?tool=story_telling_tool#tool_tab. Accessed April 8, 2024.

35 “Here To Stay: Regan Katz Committed To Baseball In Ottawa.”

36 Michael Vavaroutsos, “Ottawa Titans Plan Further Changes To Make Baseball Park a More Social Space,” Capital Current, October 11, 2023, https://capitalcurrent.ca/ottawa-titans-plan-further-changes-to-make-baseball-park-a-more-social-space/. Accessed May 9, 2024.

37 Ken Warren, “Powering Up: City Fixes Problem That Forced Re-scheduling of Ottawa Titans Games,” Ottawa Sun, May 25, 2023, https://ottawasun.com/sports/baseball/titans-forced-to-play-morning-and-afternoon-games-due-to-power-issues. Accessed May 9, 2024.

38 Boyce interview.

39 Jackie Perez, “Play Ball! Ottawa Titans Mark Their Home Debut at RCGT Park,” CTV News Ottawa, May 11, 2022, https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/play-ball-ottawa-titans-mark-their-home-debut-at-rcgt-park-1.5898087. Accessed May 9, 2024.

40 Ken Warren, “Ottawa Titans Talk About Positive Future Amid the Frustration of Losing Divisional Final,” Ottawa Sun, September 12, 2022, https://ottawasun.com/sports/baseball/ottawa-titans-talk-about-positive-future-amid-the-frustration-of-losing-divisional-final. Accessed May 9, 2024.

41 Mario Carlucci, “What will it take for all of Ottawa’s pro sports teams to thrive?” CBC News, March 10, 2024, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/what-does-it-take-for-ottawa-sports-teams-to-thrive-1.7138764. Accessed September 13, 2024.

42 Boyce interview.

43 “Play Ball! Sam Katz Confident Baseball Will Be a Hit in Ottawa When It Returns Next Year.”

44 Ken Warren, “The Search for Fans: Ottawa’s Minor Pro Squads Look To Fill More Seats,” Ottawa Sun, May 19, 2023, https://ottawasun.com/sports/the-search-for-fans-ottawas-minor-pro-squads-look-to-fill-more-seats. Accessed May 9, 2024.

45 “Play Ball! Sam Katz Confident Baseball Will Be a Hit in Ottawa When It Returns Next Year.”

46 Paul, Rodney J., Michael Toma, and Andrew P. Weinbach. 2009. “The Minor League Experience: What Drives Attendance at South Atlantic League Baseball Games?” Coastal Business Journal 8(1): 70–84. https://digitalcommons.coastal.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=cbj. Last accessed May 9, 2024.

47 Hamza Ali, “New Stadium Lease Brings Hope of a Successful Revival of Professional Baseball in Ottawa,” Capital Current, October 20, 2020, https://capitalcurrent.ca/new-stadium-lease-brings-hope-of-a-successful-revival-of-professional-baseball-in-ottawa/. Accessed May 9, 2024.

48 Richard J. Cebula, Michael Toma, and Jay Carmichael. 2009. “Attendance and Promotions in Minor League Baseball: The Carolina League,” Applied Economics 41: 3209–3214.

49 Boyce interview.

50 Ottawa Titans Baseball Club Inc., “Ottawa Titans Announce Ongoing Ballpark Enhancements, Seek Stadium Naming Rights” (press release, September 12, 2023); and David Sali, “Titans Pitching New Uses for Ottawa Stadium as Renovations at City-Owned Ballpark Continue,” Ottawa Business Journal, September 21, 2023, https://obj.ca/ottawa-titans-pitching-new-uses-for-stadium/. Accessed May 9, 2024.

51 Boyce interview.

52 Boyce interview.

53 Baseball Pilgrimages, “Current Ballparks,” https://www.baseballpilgrimages.com/ballparks/current.html. Accessed May 9, 2024.

54 Canac Stadium in Quebec City has a capacity of 4,300 (for more, see “Sports facilities and competition venues,” Quebec City Business Destination, https://meetings.quebec-cite.com/en/sports-events-quebec-city/sports-facilities-competition-venues). Quillorama Stadium in Trois-Rivieres has seating for 4,000 and standing room for 500 (see “Stade Quillorama,” Tourisme Trois-Rivieres, https://www.tourismetroisrivieres.com/en/sports/facilities-and-equipment/stade-quillorama).

55 Michael Vavaroutsos, “Ottawa Titans Plan Further Changes To Make Baseball Park a More Social Space,” Capital Current, October 11, 2023. https://capitalcurrent.ca/ottawa-titans-plan-further-changes-to-make-baseball-park-a-more-social-space/. Accessed April 8, 2024.

56 Ken Warren, “Powering Up: City Fixes Problem That Forced Re-scheduling of Ottawa Titans Games,” Ottawa Sun, May 25, 2023.https://ottawasun.com/sports/baseball/titans-forced-to-play-morning-and-afternoon-games-due-to-power-issues. Accessed May 7, 2024; and Martin Boyce, telephone interview, April 11, 2024.

57 “Here To Stay: Regan Katz Committed To Baseball In Ottawa.”

58 Statistics Canada, The Daily – Spectator sports, event promoters, artists, February 14, 2024. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/240214/dq240214c-eng.htm. Accessed May 7, 2024.

59 Ottawa Titans Baseball Club, “History,” https://www.ottawatitans.com/history.

60 Ken Warren, “Ottawa Titans Talk About Positive Future Amid the Frustration of Losing Divisional Final,” Ottawa Sun, September 12, 2022. https://ottawasun.com/sports/baseball/ottawa-titans-talk-about-positive-future-amid-the-frustration-of-losing-divisional-final. Accessed May 7, 2024.

61 Ken Warren, “The Search for Fans: Ottawa’s Minor Pro Squads Look To Fill More Seats,” Ottawa Sun, May 19, 2023. https://ottawasun.com/sports/the-search-for-fans-ottawas-minor-pro-squads-look-to-fill-more-seats. Accessed April 8, 2024.

62 Frontier League website: “2022 Individual Statistics – Ottawa Titans – Ottawa Titans,” https://www.frontierleague.com/sports/bsb/2021-22/teams/ottawatitans; “2022-23 Baseball Statistics – Ottawa Titans,” https://www.frontierleague.com/sports/bsb/2022-23/teams/ottawatitans; “2023 Season Attendance,” https://www.frontierleague.com/sports/bsb/2022-23/attendance/attendance?sort=ata&r=0&pos=att (all accessed May 10, 2024).

63 Frontier League, “All Frontier League Teams Increased Average Attendance in 2024,” September 18, 2024, https://www.frontierleague.com/sports/bsb/2023-24/releases/20240918hly9wt. Accessed September 23, 2024.

64 Mark Singelais, “ValleyCats end season with wildcard loss to Ottawa,” Times Union, September 3, 2024, https://www.timesunion.com/sports/article/valleycats-end-season-wildcard-loss-ottawa-19739360.php. Accessed September 13, 2024.

65 Ottawa Titans Baseball Club, “Titans Strike First in Division Series with Walk-Off Win,” September 6, 2024, https://www.ottawatitans.com/titans-strike-first-in-division-series-with-walk-off-win, Accessed September 13, 2024.

66 Kevin Dubé, “Contre vents et marées, les Capitales de retour en finale: «Perdre n’était pas une option pour nous ce soir,»” Journal de Québec, September 8, 2024.

67 Boyce interview.

68 Boyce interview.