The City of Birmingham is spending big to make sure that Rickwood Field, built in 1910 and America’s oldest surviving ballpark, is ready again for professional baseball next year.

That may include the Rickwood Classic, which hasn’t happened since 2019, in which the Double-A minor league Birmingham Barons play one game at the ballpark historically associated with the city’s minor league team. The Barons played their home games at Rickwood Field from 1981-87, then at the Hoover Met from 1988-2012 before moving to Region Field in 2013.

Next year there’s also a possibility that Major League Baseball will play the “Field of Dreams” game at Rickwood Field as a tribute to the Negro Leagues. That has not been officially announced by MLB or the City of Birmingham yet. Numerous outlets have reported it will feature the St. Louis Cardinals playing the San Francisco Giants.

“I can’t talk about it,” said Gerald Watkins, chairman of the Friends of Rickwood. “It’s very nice to be considered. Major League Baseball is constantly looking at ways to expand their fan base, their viewership. They’ve had tremendous success with the games in Iowa.”

The “Field of Dreams” game has been held in an Iowa corn field at the filming location of the 1989 “Field of Dreams” movie starring Kevin Costner. Universal Pictures built the baseball field in 1988 outside of Dyersville, Iowa. When the movie finished filming, the field remained and became a tourist attraction.

Major League Baseball planned to hold a game there in 2020 that was cancelled due to the pandemic, but was rescheduled to Aug. 12, 2021, featuring the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees. The game drew the highest TV ratings for a regular season game in more than a decade, and the “Field of Dreams” game returned in 2022, but none is being held this year due to construction at the site.

Watkins noted that Major League Baseball has had success with off-site games in addition to the “Field of Dreams” games in Iowa.

“They had a tremendous success with games in Iowa and the game in London, in Mexico City, Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and Fort Benning,” he said. “They’re always looking at a way, a place to do more to increase their brand. The fact we’re even in the conversation is fabulous. I’m excited about that.”

On Tuesday, the Birmingham City Council approved a contract for $553,477 with Trawick Contractors Inc. for renovations at Rickwood Field, 1137 Second Ave. West.

“Obviously when you have a piece of history like Rickwood that is exposed to the elements, there are going to be repairs that need to be made,” said City Council member Hunter Williams. “This ballpark is such an important piece of the culture here in Birmingham and continues to bring so many people to our city. We’re happy to support the efforts to keep this field viable and successful for years to come.”

The city had already allocated an additional $2 million in its 2024 fiscal budget for Rickwood Field.

“It’s going to serve a few different purposes,” said Watkins. “That money is going to be spent to make some repairs to the concrete, steel and wood around the park. It’s just ordinary maintenance that we would be doing regardless of any future reports that are out there.”

The larger expenditures will go to work preparing the stadium for professional baseball to return.

“The city approved $2 million, which is going to be used for some turf renovation, improvements to the dugouts,” Watkins said. “They’re too small. Back when those dugouts were built, teams didn’t have that big a staff. Now they do, so the dugouts have got to be renovated.”

Rickwood Field hosted the Rickwood Classic as an annual event from 1988 through 2019.

“The Rickwood Classic was halted due to COVID, and then the Major Leagues took over the minors,” Watkins said. “When they did, they came out and looked at the park and said, ‘For you to get that game to come back, you need to make some improvements, because the guys that play on the Birmingham Barons are potential big leaguers and they need to have a very big league-esque playing surface.”

“In order to get the Rickwood Classic back, we have to do some improvements to our turf. We’ve got to put up extended netting to protect the fans. We have to do a few more things like possibly put padding on the outfield walls. All those things are necessary for us to even be considered to bringing the Rickwood Classic back, which for many years was our biggest fundraiser.”

Friends of Rickwood raises money and helps keep the field, owned by the city, in good condition.

“The city has been enormously generous in helping us get to that point so we can get the Rickwood Classic and who knows beyond that,” Watkins said. “We could maybe serve as an off-site event for the SEC tournament in case of rainouts. It’s always been my dream to have Alabama and Auburn play here. There are things that we can go after with those improvements that are kind of challenging the way we are now.”

Rickwood needed significant upgrades, he said.

“The city stepped up really big and we are raising money in our own way to try to supplement that so we can make the park a place to come for many years,” he said.

“We have a ton of activities now,” Watkins said. “We have our own home run derby, we have a fantasy camp in October. We try to mirror what they do in the big leagues. We have corporate events, 125 -130 baseball games and maybe another dozen events that are not necessarily baseball games but they revolve around being at the oldest park in the country, being at the oldest Negro League Park in the country. Not only was baseball played, but we’ve had concerts here like KISS and Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ringling Brothers Circus has been here and three major movies were filmed here.”

The movie productions include “Cobb,” a 1994 movie starring Tommy Lee Jones as Ty Cobb, “42,” a 2013 film starring Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson, and “Soul of the Game,” a 1996 TV movie starring Blair Underwood as Robinson.

“We offer a lot of history,” Watkins said. “We’re the last ballpark that truly served as a Negro Leagues home field. No one else can lay claim to that. This is original. You’re going to see the ballpark mostly as it was then.”

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 from1920 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 Baseball Hall of Fame documented to have played at Rickwood, more than half of all members of the Hall of Fame.

The renovation work could begin immediately.

“The first phase could begin anytime,” Watkins said. “The contract was approved this week. Now that’s done, it could start Monday.”

Rickwood Field is open daily for free tours from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Watkins said.

See also: MLB Field of Dreams game coming to Birmingham’s Rickwood Field in 2024, report says