Trenton was chosen because it had just lost its affiliated team and it was only scheduled to host a team in the new MLB Draft League for college players. In addition, it was within the footprint of the Bisons’ schedule, which features games this year only against Rochester, Syracuse, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Lehigh Valley and Worcester.
The Blue Jays played 26 games in Buffalo last August and September and went 17-9 to help secure their first postseason berth since 2016. Those games were played with no fans as large swaths of the stadium concourse were used to house player facilities such as weight rooms, lounges and batting cages.
That will not be the case this year as the Blue Jays are planning to sell tickets and have fans in the stands for each game in Buffalo. Current New York State regulations for outdoor venues would allow them to have 20% of capacity – about 3,300 fans – at each game.
The Blue Jays and MLB made major renovations to the ballpark last summer but many were temporary. The current project is more expansive, providing many permanent solutions on the stadium’s service level to player amenities such as clubhouses, batting cages, pitchers mounds and training areas. On the field, the bullpens are being moved out of foul territory where they have been since the stadium’s opening in 1988 to beyond the fence in right-center field.
Many of the changes, which will be mostly funded by the Blue Jays and Bisons, will fulfill MLB’s new requirements for player amenities for minor-league stadiums. Teams must upgrade their facilities as part of their new 10-year license agreements that were signed earlier this year.