Our local summer collegiate baseball team – the Highline Bears – announced Wednesday, May 27, 2020 that they will be cancelling all their home games and events this summer at Mel Olson Stadium at Steve Cox Memorial Park in White Center.
The Bears would have been starting their season this Friday, May 30, but the opening night had been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the letter to fans from the team, they state that they are planning on having the team play on the road with no fans – if permitted – in phase 3.
The Bears stated that they lost most of their partners and sponsors when the stay at home order went in place in March. The Bears did say even though local businesses were unable to purchasing advertising this summer that they would continue to offer advertising to all businesses at no cost for the next year, whether or not they play.
The Pacific International League that the Bears play in, has voted to start playing games in phase 3 when permitted but do have a drop dead date of July 6 for games to start before having to cancel the season indefinitely.
The Highline Bears exclaimed that they are planning to come back in 2021 “stronger, bigger and better” bringing the community the “best show in town.”
If you would like to support the Highline Bears during this difficult time you can purchase new 2020 merchandise on their website at shop.highlinebears.com.
For more information, please visit www.HighlineBears.com.
Here’s the full letter to fans:
The Highline Bears have made the tough decision to not host any home games, or events for the 2020 summer.
After discussing different contingency plans with our staff and King County Parks we have decided that we will not be able to host anything at Mel Olson Stadium this summer. With that said, we will be letting our players play on the road if permitted, when the state moves to Phase 3 of the reopening plan.
Our priority every summer is to bring the best experience to our fans, community and of course the players we host from all over the country. Unfortunately, with the current state of events we will not be able to have the normal summer we are used to, playing baseball and putting on a show in front of hundreds of fans every Friday and Saturday night. This summer will be 100% committed to providing our players a safe opportunity to play if allowed to. Our players college seasons were canceled, and we will do everything we can to get them back out on the field when it is deemed safe to do so.
The Pacific International League has voted to move back the first day of the season to June 24th which would be the first day possible for our state to move to phase 3. The Bears will play games in Tacoma, Edmonds, Redmond and Everett along with some other locations this summer, all with no fans in attendance. The league hopes to play games into the second week in August.
In early March we spoke with our partners/sponsors and nearly all of them had to pull their commitment this summer to continue to support their employees and make sure their business could continue to operate. We have decided that we will continue to offer advertising for all of our partners throughout the year at no cost to them. In times like this we need to support our local businesses as much as we can. We ask that our fans please do their best to patronize all of our partners and continue to support our local business community.
We are optimistic that 2021 we will come back stronger, bigger, and better than ever, bringing our community the best show in town. All single game and season ticket holders will be given a credit for tickets in 2021, or can receive a full refund by contacting the Highline Bears.
If you would like to support the Highline Bears during this time you can do so by purchasing new 2020 merchandise at shop.highlinebears.com. We can’t wait to see you all back at the ballpark in 2021!
Thank You,
Highline Bears
