Regina Red Sox bought by Regina Pats owners

The Regina Red Sox baseball team is set to become a private, for-profit business this coming fall, with an upcoming sale to the Queen City Sports and Entertainment Group.

The group, which also owns local hockey team, the Regina Pats, will take 100 per cent ownership of the Regina Red Sox on Oct. 1, 2025, at the end of the current season, pending league approval. The specific financial details of the deal were not disclosed during the announcement Friday.

The baseball club was originally founded in 1913, which the team says makes it the longest-running baseball franchise in the country. It has historically operated with a volunteer board of directors. The team's current management said it was increasingly challenging to operate as a non-profit organization.

Regina Red Sox team governor and vice president Alan Simpson said that while the non-profit model the club was started with was "noble and worthy," the reality is "that model is no longer really sustainable in the Western Canadian Baseball League."

"It's becoming a much more competitive league," Simpson said. He said Red Sox board members arrived at "a quiet, but shared understanding," that in order for the team to thrive long-term, things needed to change.

The club joins a growing number of teams in the league, including the Saskatoon Berries, that are privately owned.

Red Sox president Gary Brotzel said those teams are pushing the league to new levels and it was clear Regina needed to make a change.

Queen City Sports and Entertainment Group previously acquired the Regina Pats in 2014. Now, the two teams will be able to pool resources, said Shaun Semple, the group's CEO. 

"By bringing them together, it allows us to take some of the resources we have — ticketing, merchandise sales, marketing — combine all that, to be able to push the sport more," Semple said.

He said whatever the team needs, "it will get." He said the company has invested "10s of millions of dollars" into the Pats.

Semple also said he is willing to invest in a new stadium, instead of asking "the city to do it all."

New stadium teased

There have long been talks to give the team a new facility. Currie Field, where the team currently plays, is more than 60 years old. 

A study looking at the feasibility of building a new stadium in the railyards area of Regina is set to be released in the next few days, Simpson said.

He described the potential location as an "underutilized asset" in the city for at least a decade, but noted there are other potential appropriate sites.

Current Red Sox president Brotzel called a new stadium a personal dream, saying he has repeatedly raised it with the past three mayors, "to the point where they saw me downtown, they would cross the street and avoid me."

Brotzel said there is lots of room for improvement with the current stadium, as the city was dealing with mold issues before the season started.

Red Sox profitable as a non-profit

Despite limited resources, Brotzel said the team has turned a profit every year aside from its first.

"We've always paid our bills, we've never been in trouble financially," he said.

Semple said the acquisition was not driven by potential profits.

"We're doing it because this is our home, it's where we live," he said.