Skylands Park - History

History

Ground was broken in the fall of 1993 for a new minor league ballpark. The Hamilton Redbirds, the Cardinals' New York-Penn League affiliate, were in a transition to move out of their home in Hamilton, Ontario, to Augusta, New Jersey, and had temporarily spent the 1993 season in Glens Falls, New York, as the Glens Falls Redbirds. As part of the move, the team changed its name to the Cardinals. The team's new home stadium would be privately owned and financed, a rarity in professional sports circles.

The winter of 1994 brought the worst weather in several years to North Jersey, causing construction cost overruns. The owners of Skylands Park were forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but the new ballpark managed to open on time that June and the Cardinals moved in. The stadium's luxury boxes and other amenities were not completed until the following year.

The park is designed to look a little bit like a farm complex from the outside. Augusta has long been the home of dairy farms, and the Cardinals wanted to make their stadium blend in.

The Cardinals called Skylands Park home from 1994 to 2005. After the season the team was sold to a new ownership group based in University Park, Pennsylvania, home of Penn State University, and were relocated there to become known as the State College Spikes; the team is no longer affiliated with the Cardinals and is instead affiliated with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

In 1998, Skylands Park was designated the home field for the New Jersey Diamonds of the Ladies Professional Baseball League, a league for women that began play the previous year. However, the Diamonds played only eight home games before the league folded.

In 1999, the field hosted several games for the Newark Bears of the independent Atlantic League, prior to the completion of their new home, Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium. Skylands Park also hosted the Sussex County Colonels of the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League, a collegiate summer baseball league, for several seasons.

On January 10, 2006, it was announced that Skylands Park would be the home to the newly named professional baseball team called the Sussex Skyhawks of the Canadian-American Association of Professional Baseball. On May 29, 2006, the Skyhawks played their first regular season game at Skylands Park, dropping an 18-11 decision to the North Shore Spirit. In early January 2011, it was announced that the Sussex Skyhawks would not be returning for the 2011 season.

The New Jersey Stags, a Semi-Pro Football team in the BNEFF, played their inaugural 2010 season at the ballpark. But in May 2011, the Stags announced that they would not play at Skylands Park anymore, and instead used Macerino Stadium at Vernon Township High School for the 2011 season. The Stags folded in August 2011.

No professional team played at Skylands Park in 2011 or 2012. The owners, Millennium Sports Management, put the stadium up for sale for $1.99 million, but have not found a buyer.