The City of Birmingham has doubled its amount of guaranteed funding for construction to make sure updates of Rickwood Field are done in time for a Major League Baseball game next year.

The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday approved $4.5 million to pay the costs of capital improvements at Rickwood Field, which was built in 1910 and is the nation’s oldest surviving baseball park.

Major League Baseball has announced it will play a game at Rickwood Field as a tribute to the Negro Leagues on June 20, 2024. It will feature the St. Louis Cardinals playing the San Francisco Giants.

The city had already allocated more than $2 million for Rickwood Field upgrades.

Inflation has increased the expected cost, said Birmingham City Council member Carol Clarke. “It’s more than doubled,” she said.

The city owns Ricwood Field and it’s maintained and managed by The Friends of Rickwood, a non-profit group.

“I just want to thank the administration for finding a way for the Friends of Rickwood to get the upfront money to do the project and get started on time,” Clarke said.

Friends of Rickwood is coordinating private donations to help fund the construction project, she said.

“They’ve been out raising funds to match what we’ve already committed in the budget,” Clarke said.

The ordinance passed Tuesday authorizes the mayor to execute a funding agreement with the Public Athletic, Cultural and Entertainment Facilities Board of the City of Birmingham, the city and PNC Bank under which the city will pay the principal and interest on a Revenue Bond, Series 2023 to be issued by the PACE Board to PNC Bank with a principal amount of $4.5 million.

Construction is expected to begin in October.

“Hopefully, this is the start of a longer relationship with Major League Baseball,” Clarke said.

The Birmingham Black Barons won Negro American League championships in 1943, 1944 and 1948 playing with Rickwood as their home field, but lost the Negro World Series to the Washington Homestead Grays all three times. The Black Barons played at Rickwood from 1920 through 1960.

The players who have played at Rickwood Field include Fairfield native Willie Mays, Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb. There have been 181 members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame documented to have played at Rickwood, more than half of all members of the Hall of Fame.

Minor league teams that called Rickwood Field home included the Birmingham A’s from 1967-75, with future Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson playing there in 1967 before quickly moving up to the Major Leagues and going on to star with the Oakland A’s. Previous minor league teams playing at Rickwood typically went by the name Birmingham Barons and played at the park when it opened in 1910, on into the 1960s.

The Birmingham Barons, a Double-A minor league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, played home games at Rickwood Field from 1981-87, then at the Hoover Met from 1988-2012 before returning to Birmingham, moving to Region Field in 2013.

Rickwood Field hosted the Rickwood Classic as an annual event from 1988 through 2019, with the Barons returning to their former stadium for one game a season before the pandemic halted the tradition.

The Rickwood Classic will return next year also, with the Birmingham Barons playing the Montgomery Biscuits in a Minor League game on June 18, two days before the MLB at Rickwood game.

See also: Major League Baseball announces branding for Rickwood Field game

Rickwood Field renovations will have America’s oldest ballpark ready for return of pro baseball

Rickwood Field renovations to begin in October for 2024 MLB game

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