Giants planning world-class baseball stadium for Adelaide

The new owner of the Adelaide Giants has outlined his vision to build a $40 million baseball facility close to the heart of the city.

The Australian Baseball League franchise was acquired by Ross Pelligra from the Adelaide Crows last week, and the multi-millionaire property tycoon has already toured several potential sites for a new stadium.

The Giants, formerly known as the Adelaide Bite, currently play out of the Diamond Sports Stadium at West Beach, and previously played at Norwood Oval until 2016.

Victoria Park, the Riverbank precinct between Royal Adelaide Hospital and River Torrens, and a site adjacent to the SA Athletics Stadium are potential locations for the new stadium which would seat around 5000 spectators.

Mr Pelligra said he wanted to build the best baseball-specific facility in the country, with plans to host international games, attract visiting clubs from Asia and potentially incorporate a sports academy to train local and international talent.

Pelligra also recently purchased the recently-renamed Adelaide 36ers Arena, the former home of the 36ers which is undergoing a $30m upgrade, and is also a joint owner of NPL Victoria club, South Melbourne FC.

“We’ve started looking at potential sites and we’re getting our design team to look at what other international standard stadiums look like overseas, and then we’ll look at how that fits into the potential sites” Mr Pelligra told The Advertiser.

“For us it’s important that we get the right location. It’s going to be in the CBD fringe so that before and after the game you create that carnival atmosphere – you get the before-and-after traffic back into the CBD, which all the businesses thrive off.”

Husky Ballpark in Seattle and Jane Sanders Stadium in Oregon have been identified as examples of the type of stadium that would fit into Mr Pelligra’s vision.

See a list of Baseball Stadiums in Australia >

Some of the potential sites for the new Olympic-standard Adelaide Giants baseball stadium include:

• Riverbank – between Royal Adelaide Hospital and River Torrens
• Victoria Park
• Mile End – adjacent to the SA Athletics Stadium 
• Park 27B – parklands across from Bowden (current home of West Adelaide Soccer Club)
• Park 21 – southwestern parklands on corner of South Tce and Goodwood Rd
• Park 17 – southeastern parklands on Greenhill Rd
• Park 4 – end of O’Connell St in North Adelaide
• Park 24 – parklands at the western end of Ellis Park

The 2021/22 ABL season is scheduled to commence on November 18, with a 120-game schedule played across a 10-week home and away campaign, including 20 home games for each team. Due to challenges associated with Covid, both the Auckland Tuatara and Geelong-Korea will sit out the upcoming season.