ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Coca-Cola Park has been the home of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs since the team's inception in 2008.
On Thursday, that minor league stadium showed itself to be Major League-ready as $10 million in renovations were unveiled to media and local dignitaries.
- The IronPigs unveiled mandated stadium upgrades on Thursday
- The $10 million project came in close to budget, General Manager Kurt Landes said
- Upgrades included expanded clubhouses, male and female locker rooms, training facilities, hydro space and a new center field entrance
IronPigs mascot Ferrous and Phillies Hall of Famer Steve Carlton were also in attendance – the latter masquerading as a construction worker – as the ‘Pigs showed off the nearly completed construction of the clubhouse expansion and renovation that, over the last nine months, brought heightened drama to Allentown.
“We said we were going to save the IronPigs and we DID save the IronPigs!” Lehigh County Executive Phil Armstrong said at a brief news conference where the new clubhouses were unveiled and will be officially known as the St. Luke’s Sports Training Center.
Not long ago, the team’s future was in jeopardy as Major League Baseball changed how it managed minor league affiliates and enforced new facilities standards.
Teams were told to bring their minor league stadiums up to major league specifications. Or else.
Planned upgrades to Coca-Cola Park included expanded clubhouses, male and female locker rooms, training facilities, hydro space and a new center field entrance.
It all came with a hefty price tag, and the IronPigs were well short on funding. But in December, the team announced money would come from several sources, including state and local government, in order to complete the renovations.
The IronPigs also signed on to lease the stadium from Lehigh County through 2052 – ensuring the team would remain a fixture of the Lehigh Valley for years to come.
It’s big league ready … for Bryce Harper?
IronPigs General Manager Kurt Landes had been looking forward to unveiling the updated facilities. He’s also breathing a little easier these days as the team was the first minor league club in the Phillies organization to complete the mandated renovations.
“We're very proud of this, and very proud of the Phillies affiliation and partnership,” Landes said in an exclusive interview after the tour. “This was necessary for minor league baseball as a whole to make a leap forward to improve our facilities.”
He said the focus over the last few months has been making sure construction was finished by the April 1 deadline so that Coca-Cola Park “will have baseball indefinitely.”
“Major League Baseball will have facility audits, and at those facility audits you get deducted points if you don't have the right size of padding on the field, the right size of netting in the batting tunnels, and if you don't have the right amount of square footage in all these different rooms that we went through, including even the commissary and dining areas.”
Those improvements will be ready for the home opener on April 4 against the Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, Landes said. Then, the attention will turn to the fans filling the ballpark and to the reactions of players to the new amenities.
“With this project nearly done it’ll be nice to be able to turn our focus in future years to be able to provide new and additional fan amenities as we move forward,” Landes said.
"With this project nearly done it’ll be nice to be able to turn our focus in future years to be able to provide new and additional fan amenities as we move forward."IronPigs GM Kurt Landes
But he couldn’t help but mention the little spike in ticket sales centered around the return of a certain superstar outfielder who might find himself rehabbing in Allentown again this season.
“It’s amazing, because I just saw an article that was posted that says, ‘Hey, this timeframe would put [Bryce Harper] back around July 1. And we have seen … there’s a homestand that centers right before the Fourth of July holiday and we've actually seen an uptick in ticket sales in the last week.”
He said there haven’t been specific discussions about Harper rehabbing so far this season at Coca-Cola Park, but he’s anticipating it could happen.
“At some point, you would think they'd want to get him in a position to actually take some live at bats, much like they did last year, because you can do those things in the [batting] cage and it certainly is helpful for repetition and muscle atrophy and so forth.
“But to actually step in with a full ballpark, and live pitching in game situations, those things are priceless. So it's hard to believe that he wouldn't make an appearance again.”
‘Robot’ umps and other rule changes
The Automatic Balls and Strikes system will also be something new at all Triple-A parks this season, Landes confirmed, including Coca-Cola Park — meaning so-called “robot umpires” will be used to call balls and strikes.
“It's a big process to put that technology into all 30 Triple-A ballparks and Double-A ballparks, but Triple-A will have it first,” Landes said. “I think they're hesitant. My instinct is to have it ready for Opening Day, because I don't know if they'll be consistently ready at all ballparks. But it will be, shortly after Opening Day, if not Opening Day.”
The technology has been used at different levels of the minor leagues since 2019, but this is the first time the system will be used in Triple-A games, but with different rules.
Half the games this season will be played with all calls determined by the electronic strike zone, while the other half will allow teams up to three challenge calls per game, with teams retaining those challenges if they’re successful.
ESPN recently reported that MLB’s intention is to use data and feedback over the full season to inform future choices, but it doesn’t have a firm date to implement use of the Automatic Balls and Strikes system in the big leagues.
“So the robots will be in place. The question that we have not received an answer to is … is it going to be the challenge system? Is it going to be just robot umps for every ball and strike? Or is it going to be certain days this way? Certain days that way?” Landes said.
“I think there's a lot of interesting questions of, ‘Hey, what is the best system for the future for Major League Baseball?’ Is it the challenge system? Is it every day? And I think across the minor leagues this year, we'll be testing that.
“But I don't know if they're gonna change it by the day, the week, or by homestand. I think they're still trying to understand what's the best path to test it so it's prepared for the majors in the future.”
