Ontario moves forward on sports complex

Ontario has moved a step or two closer to getting something the city has wanted for years: a minor league baseball team.

In a unanimous vote last month, the city council approved the environmental impact report and a zoning change related to the $800 million Ontario Regional Sports Complex, a 200-acre project that will be developed on land originally meant for housing but rezoned for recreational and commercial use.

That vote likely opens the door for the start of construction of the mega-project at the southeast corner of Vineyard Avenue and Riverside Drive south of the 60 Freeway.

A minor league baseball stadium is expected to be completed by the spring of 2026, with the rest of the project to follow soon thereafter, said Dan Bell, Ontario’s communications director.

Ontario will pay for the sports complex with revenue from Measure Q, a sales tax increase approved by voters in 2022.

When completed, the sports complex will include 13 multipurpose sports fields, eight softball/Little League Fields, and a center park with a picnic area, according to a staff report.

Other amenities will include a 160,000-square-foot indoors athletic facility that will feature basketball and volleyball courts, batting cages, training rooms and a kitchen.

Also scheduled for development: an administration building and 70,000-square-foot community center, along with a 13,000-square-foot aquatic center, exercise stations, a playground, an outdoor skate park, tennis courts, and pickle ball courts.

The main access points into the complex will be Riverside Drive on the north, Vineyard Avenue on the west, and Chino Avenue on the south. Ontario Avenue and the proposed A Street will serve as the primary north-south connection, according to the staff report.

Ontario annexed the property in the 1990s when it was part of the Chino Agricultural Preserve, Councilman Alan Wapner said.

“Everyone agrees that the city lacks parks and recreation facilities,” said Wapner, who was on the council when the annexation took place. “It was decided very early that the land should be used for that. Compared to other Inland Empire cities, Ontario’s parks are kind of embarrassing, and that’s not the kind of city we want.”

One possible downside to the sports complex is the housing it will cost Ontario. That issue was raised by several speakers during the July 16 council meeting, when the council approved the the environmental impact report.

But Ontario residents should support the sports complex because, like the 320-acre Grand Park that is expected to get underway later this year, the sports complex will serve the entire city, especially its youth, according to Wapner.

“Everyone in the city should be excited about this,” Wapner told the council. “We’re going to provide something that will improve the whole community, not just the north or the south side,” Wapner said. “It will improve Ontario’s quality of life.”

But the jewel of the sports complex will be the 6,000-seat minor league baseball stadium, which will be built on 16 acres at the southwest corner of Riverside Drive and Ontario Avenue, according to a city staff report.

That $120 million structure will host 71 baseball games a year, and as many as 46 concerts and other events.  It will be home to the A-League affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers, a designation currently held by the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes.

A three-story parking structure with 1,600 parking spaces will be built next to the stadium, along with a 2,100-square-foot retail center, a 70,000-square-foot hotel and a restaurant and outdoor recreation areas, each of which will cover 50,000 square feet.

Most of the project will be done by the spring of 2026, said Scott Ochoa, Ontario’s city manager.

“We’re going to have to move fast because the stadium has to be ready for the start of the baseball season in 2026,” Ochoa said. “And the flatter stuff, like the ballfields and the basketball courts, are easy to build and should be finished by the end of the year.

“The rest of the complex will depend on the market, and some other factors.”

The sports complex is expect to generate about 1.2 million visitors a year, generate nearly $62 million in spending and $1.5 million in tax revenue and create about 600 full and part-time, jobs, Ochoa said.

“This is a transformative project like getting back local control of Ontario International Airport,” Ochoa said. “Over time, it will change the entire city. I also think the numbers about how much revenue the sports complex could be just a jumping off pointer. Eventually, I think they could go a lot higher.”

Ontario has wanted a minor league team since the 1990s, but early on it decided to build what is now Toyota Arena instead of a baseball stadium, Wapner said.

“If all goes as planned the franchise that is now called the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes will play in Ontario starting in 2026, but they won’t be called the Quakes,” Wapner said. “They will have to play under another name. Ontario Quake doesn’t sound right.”

With or without a baseball team, Ontario will have eliminated one of its major deficiencies once the sports complex is up and running, according to Mayor Pro Tem Debra Porada.

“I support this project because we are landlocked in the northern part of the city and we desperately need park space,” Porada said. “We don’t have the vacant land to provide people with park space. I like the fact that it will be in the center of the city, because that will give everyone access to it.”