The Weyburn Beavers Baseball Club's 2025 season starts now, with a Community Open House coming to the Coast Hotel Board Room at 7 p.m. this Wednesday, October 23rd.
President of the club, Garnet Hansen, said all are welcome.
"We want as many people we can get out, so that's past sponsors, people looking at sponsorship opportunities, it's fans, it's parents, it's people involved in minor ball, it's everything Beavers baseball," he shared.
Head Coach Cam Williams will be running the event via Zoom from Calgary, providing an update on the 2025 roster. They'll also have some alumni available via Zoom, and Mark Styles with the WCBL will be there in person.
"It's basically a reboot. We want to do a lot of things better both on and off the field, so we've got some ideas, we're going to launch our sponsorship guide and special ticketing pricing that we're going to launch that night."
Hansen said the special season ticket pricing will be available from Wednesday until the end of December.
"Those flex tickets, five-game 10-game, 28-game, those are perfect gifts for somebody that you're scratching your head and don't know what they need [for Christmas], certainly these tickets might fill that void."
He said they want to invite 'absolutely everybody' because of the variety of reasons the community would be involved in the next Beavers Baseball season.
"It's the revenue side, so that's sponsorships and game day revenue, we need to do a little better job of that," he said. "It's volunteers, community not-for-profit organizations, always looking for help for volunteers. The other part of that is, the host families. These guys are coming here, lots of them from all over Canada, the U.S., and even farther away than that, they need a place to stay for the two and a half months of our season."
The players, he noted, wouldn't be home too much during the season, which runs from May to mid-August, encompassing 56 games. "They literally some weeks have about one day off a week."
He said the players realize many perks of being in Weyburn for the season.
"They're either looking to improve their game, to maybe get a scholarship into the different universities or whatever, and in some cases it might lead to professional opportunities. I think we take for granted what Weyburn offers that's different than where they might be coming from," he explained. "It's quite easy to get around, so if you can imagine somebody playing in Edmonton, depending on where their host family is, they might be driving in traffic for more than an hour. Well, I think you can walk from anywhere in Weyburn and get to the ballpark in less than an hour, so not that they are, but you can, if they're close by, or they can ride bikes or get rides with their buddies or whatever."
He added the safety of our community is also something taken for granted when it comes to walking in Weyburn.
"The other part is, they're recognizable, so they feel like they're part of something, whereas if they're in a bigger city they're pretty much anonymous. These guys are not. People recognize them for what they are because they're wearing their Beavers hat or they've got their hoodie on, right? So they can't hide here, and that's a good thing. So they, I think fairly quickly, feel like they're part of something."
Looking ahead to the 2025 season, the game day experience is a high priority, on and off the field.
"We've had a couple of tough years in terms of our record on the field, and winning is just about everything in sports, so if you're going to be successful in the game day revenue, certainly a winning team is going to make that easier."
He explained that their roster post-COVID was zero.
"We had no returnees, and it really takes a couple of years to kind of build that roster, so I'm really looking for 2025 to be that season to turn it around."
Hansen said improving the game day experience means not only a winning product but people in the stands. "It's fun when there's people in the stands, right?"
The event on Wednesday should take about an hour and a half, he said, with an opportunity for community members to ask questions.
"It's everything that makes us successful both on and off the field. So really looking forward to seeing a good crowd out there and it'll be an informative, good evening."
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