Column: Why is now the right time to expand Four Winds Field? 'We have some momentum'

SOUTH BEND — Andrew Berlin has always been ambitious. It’s part of the reason why he bought the South Bend Cubs minor league baseball team in 2011.

Even with the franchise — then called the Silver Hawks — at one of its lowest points at that time, Berlin saw potential. He had a vision few others had of turning a dormant product into a destination place for people in the area to go to in the spring and summer.

It’s his ambitiousness that’s leading to the biggest change to Four Winds Field since ground broke at Coveleski Stadium in the mid-1980s.

The second-smallest stadium in the Midwest League is about to become the biggest, as a $45 million bond through the South Bend Redevelopment Authority will help double the seating capacity, fix infrastructure issues and build additional buildings around the ballpark.

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The goal? Have 10,000 seats in Four Winds Field by the start of the 2026 season.

Ambitious indeed.

“I think right now, we have some momentum,” Berlin said. “It would be hard to do all of this if we had the crowds that they had in 2011, 2012. But now, we have about 350,000 people coming to this corner of South Bend between April and the first week of September — that’s quite a collection of people.”

The exact number is 314,591, per a website called The Baseball Cube. That’s how many people attended games at Four Winds Field in 2023, an average of 4,840 across 65 home games. It was the fourth-highest total amongst the 12 teams in the Midwest League, only trailing Dayton, Fort Wayne and West Michigan.

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With a successful operation going, it could be easy for Berlin and the rest of the Cubs front office to rest on its laurels. If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it, right?

That’s not how they think, though. In their eyes, if it’s good, why not make it great?

“As happy as we are, we’re never satisfied,” team president Joe Hart said. “We see people in the community, and they say, ‘The stadium is already fantastic. Why are you doing this?’ And, for me, it’s because they deserve it. The community deserves it; they’ve supported us, and anytime we can go out and do things even better, that’s what we’re going to do.”

There are a couple questions that come to mind with a stadium overhaul like this. One is more straightforward: with an average attendance of what the current seating allotment is, can the South Bend Cubs actually get 10,000 people to a game?

Berlin and Hart believe so. While the stadium currently has 5,000 seats, that doesn’t take into account the lawn areas and standing room tickets that can be sold. Berlin noted that the highest attendance they’ve had was 8,104 for a July 3 game a few years back.

“I think if we had more seats, we could’ve gotten 10,000 in that day,” Berlin said.

“Over 40 games a year, we’re down to just lawn seating available,” Hart added. “Adding additional seats gives us that capacity.”

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An expanded stadium also opens it up for more people to attend concerts and other events Four Winds Field has started hosting in recent years. Combined with the other investments being made into downtown South Bend, the city could have a totally different feel to it in the next five years.

This brings us to the second question, which is a lot more convoluted to answer: is a move up from High-A for the South Bend Cubs possible?

At 10,000 seats, they will have a bigger stadium than the Tennessee Smokies, the Double-A affiliate for the Chicago Cubs. It’ll rival the Triple-A affiliate Iowa Cubs stadium, which seats 11,500.

There are several logistical factors that would go into a move like that. Berlin mentioned South Bend needing to increase its population and it “making sense for baseball” in order for a change to happen. If the Cubs move up, that means another franchise has to move down.

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Moving up would also come with increased travel costs, as the Midwest League allows the Cubs to bus its players to road trips instead of flying. The current Double-A leagues are in the northeast, southeast and southern states of the country, while Triple-A is spread out across the entire United States.

“It’s definitely not my decision,” Berlin said.

However…

“I certainly feel ambitious that way,” Berlin added.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Column: Why is now the right time to expand Four Winds Field? 'We have some momentum'