Shaw Park, formerly Canwest Park, is a baseball stadium in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is home of the Winnipeg Goldeyes of the American Association.
The ballpark is located in downtown Winnipeg, immediately adjacent to The Forks National Historic Site. It opened on May 24, 1999, replacing Winnipeg Stadium as the city's primary baseball facility. It has since been expanded and currently has a seating capacity of 7,481 for baseball.
Prior to its completion, Mind Computers, a Winnipeg-based company, acquired the naming rights of the facility. The company held a contest to name the new ballpark, with "Mind Field" being selected. However, the name was rejected because of the negative connotations associated with a name sounding similar to minefield. As a result, Mind Computers withdrew from the naming rights agreement. Winnipeg-based CanWest Global, which was one of Canada's largest media companies at the time, stepped in and purchased the naming rights and the new stadium opened as CanWest Global Park. The stadium's name was later changed to Canwest Park in 2008, following the media company's corporate rebranding.
After Canwest went bankrupt in 2010, the Goldeyes went into negotiations with Shaw Communications, which acquired the naming rights when it purchased Canwest's broadcasting assets. The stadium was renamed Shaw Park prior to the 2011 season. Coincidentally, the local Shaw TV channel was already the team's local television broadcaster.
The stadium served as the baseball venue during the 1999 Pan American Games and is occasionally used as an outdoor concert venue.
Famous quotes containing the words shaw and/or park:
“You’re only a beginner; and what you think is love, and interest, and all that, is not real love at all: three quarters of it is only unsatisfied curiosity.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“The park is filled with night and fog,
The veils are drawn about the world,”
—Sara Teasdale (1884–1933)