The Ball Park
| The Ball Park | |
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| Full name | The Old Orchard Beach Ball Park |
|---|---|
| Location | Off Saco Avenue (ME 5) at Cummings Boulevard Old Orchard Beach, ME |
| Owner | Town of Old Orchard Beach |
| Capacity | Baseball - 6,000 |
| Field size | Left Field: 312 ft Center Field: 405 ft Right Field: 327 ft |
| Surface | Grass |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | 1983 |
| Opened | April 18, 1984 |
| Renovated | 2009 |
| Tenants | |
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Old Orchard Beach Surge (2015-present) Old Orchard Beach Raging Tide (2011-2014) Maine Phillies (IL) (1988) Maine Guides (IL) (1984-1987) |
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The Ball Park is a baseball stadium located in and owned by the Town of Old Orchard Beach, Maine. The stadium has a seating capacity of 6,000 and was a former Triple-A baseball facility that was almost destroyed by years of neglect until a community organized volunteer effort revived the stadium.
The Ball Park is now the home of the Old Orchard Beach Surge of the independent Empire Professional Baseball League. This is the first professional baseball team in Old Orchard Beach since the Maine Phillies left in 1988. Prior to the arrival of the Surge, The Ball Park was home to the Old Orchard Beach Raging Tide of the New England Collegiate Baseball League (2011) and the Futures Collegiate Baseball League (2012-2014).
The Ball Park was opened in 1984. It was built primarily for baseball and was the home field of the Triple-A International League's Maine Guides from 1984–87 and the Maine Phillies in 1988.
The Guides were the top minor league affiliate for Cleveland from 1984–1986 and the Philadelphia Phillies from 1987-1988. The owners of the team believed that, due to the large amount of vacation traffic that the town enjoys in the summer months, numerous vacationers would attend games. However, after only five years in existence, the Maine franchise relocated to Moosic, Pennsylvania, following the 1988 season.
Although attendance was not a major problem during the franchise's existence, the park was hampered by three main driving forces: First, in the summer the stadium was home to a large population of Maine Black Flies that pestered fans. Second, there was only one road leading to and from the stadium, thus creating a traffic nightmare. Finally, soon after the stadium was built, current stadiums expanded and new ones were built to make it normal for most Triple-A stadiums to hold well over 10,000 people, far above the 6,000 that the newly constructed Ball Park held.
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