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The first phase of the Ontario Regional Sports Complex is expected to be completed soon, a long-planned project that will include a city-owned 6,000-seat baseball stadium.
The $800 million complex will include multipurpose sports fields, a park/picnic area, an indoor athletic facility, a community center, aquatics center and tennis and pickle ball courts.
Ontario officials expect the complex to attract about 1.2 million visitors a year, generate more than $61 million in spending and create more than 600 jobs.
Last month, the Ontario City Council approved the sports complex’s environmental impact report, which moved the city closer to starting construction on the ambitious 200-acre project this fall.
Ontario has a signed agreement with Rancho Baseball LLC, owner of the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, to bring a Single-A team to the stadium, which will be built between Vineyard and Archibald avenues south of East Riverside Drive.
While the agreement between Ontario and Rancho Baseball doesn’t mention the Quakes – a Los Angeles Dodgers affiliate and a member of the California League – it’s likely that the Quakes are the franchise that will land in Ontario for the start of the 2026 season.
“We’re going to have a Class-A Dodger affiliate playing in Ontario,” Councilman Alan Wapner said. “If that ends up being the Quakes, then Rancho Cucamonga will have to find another team to play in their stadium.
Major League Baseball, which provides the players and coaches of their affiliated teams, and Rancho Baseball will decide which team ends up playing in Ontario. If that is the franchise now known as the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, the team’s name won’t make the move.
“There will have to be a name change,” Wapner said. “Ontario Quakes doesn’t sound right.”
Ontario and Rancho Baseball are negotiating a stadium lease, said Scott Ochoa, Ontario’s city manager.
“We hope we can reach an agreement,” Ochoa said. “We’re still in that 30-day period when someone can file an objection to the environmental impact report being approved. Other than that, there aren’t any obstacles.”
None of this means that Rancho Cucamonga, which has been home to the Quakes since 1993, is giving up on minor league baseball.
Rancho Cucamonga has signed an agreement with the Rancho Baseball to upgrade the 4,900-seat LoanMart Field and bring it up to the standards for minor league ballparks established by Major League Baseball four years ago.
The franchise has played at Loan Mart Field since it moved to Rancho Cucamonga from San Bernardino 31 years ago. During that time, the Quakes were an affiliate of the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Angels before the team reached its current arrangement with the Dodgers.
“We are going to upgrade the ball field and its surroundings, and we will continue with a team called the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes,” Mayor L. Dennis Michael said. “The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes aren’t going anywhere. We will have a minor league team in The Epicenter, and it will play under the name Quakes.”
For that to happen, LoanMart Field will have conform to the updated stadium standards, which include 1,000-square-foot clubhouses for home and visiting teams, improved lockers, better food preparation and dining areas in both clubhouses, better field lighting and training facilities and separate space for female staff members.
In the meantime, The Epicenter Sports Complex, where LoanMart field is located, will also undergo substantial improvements.
In December, the city council unanimously passed the Epicenter Master Plan, a 74-page blueprint for a renovation of the 56-acre sports and entertainment complex on Rochester Avenue immediately south of Foothill Boulevard.
Located in a commercial and light industrial area, the master plan’s cost has not been determined nor has a construction time been announced. It calls for the creation of a “walkable urban fabric” that will be the centerpiece of a new downtown.
Retail space, commercial buildings and entertainment components will be added to the facility to create year-round foot traffic, while walkways will be installed that will connect the stadium to Victoria Gardens, Cucamonga Station and sections of Foothill Boulevard.
The master plan shows how to bring more people to a part of Rancho Cucamonga that is seriously underused, Councilwoman Lynne B. Kennedy said.
“It will make that part of the city more vibrant, and it will bring (people) into that area beyond what the stadium brings in,” Kennedy said during the Dec. 20 meeting, when the master plan was approved. “It’s going to have year-round use, and it will compliment Victoria Gardens. It will also help with some of the things we’re trying to do in that part of the city.”
Upgrading The Epicenter and keeping minor league baseball in Rancho Cucamonga is a big part of the city’s economic future, but there’s more than economics involved, according to Michael.
“We see it as a lifestyle issue.” Michael said. “The Quakes have always drawn well, but I don’t know if any city makes a big profit off a minor league baseball team. The point is that the The Epicenter has been here for awhile, and it has become a big part of the community.”
Adding a team in Ontario would give the Inland Empire four California League teams: beside the Quakes, the region is also home to the Inland Empire 66ers in San Bernardino and the Lake Elsinore Storm.
Having two teams so close together would also be unique in minor league baseball, said Brent Miles, Quakes president.
“It would be a great rivalry, kind of a cross-town thing,” Miles said.
That arrangement, a minor league version of the Dodgers vs Angels, could be a boon to both franchises and the Inland Empire, Michael said.
“I think the market would easily accommodate two teams, but I don’t see it as a rivalry,” Michael said. “I see it as something that would be good for the entire region. I don’t think (Major League Baseball) would approve it if they didn’t think it would work.”
