Cameron Bowl goes quiet this summer as Glace Bay preps for 2026 Little League championship
Glace Bay Colonels have won the championship five times and the community has hosted the nationals four times
The Cameron Bowl in Glace Bay, N.S., will be quiet this summer as it gets ready to host up to 15,000 spectators for the 2026 Canadian Little League baseball championship.
The Glace Bay Colonels have won the championship five times and the community has hosted the national tournament four times at the 75-year-old ballpark that sits in a bowl-shaped valley created by Renwick Brook.
"We'll see the entire amphitheatre, the setting that we have here, just completely jam-packed and it is second to none for the kids across the country," said Derrick Hayes, chair of the championship organizing committee.
"It just gives that intimate feeling of being close to one another," he said, recalling "in the vicinity" of 10,000 to 15,000 people in attendance during the 2013 championship in Glace Bay.
The ball field has bleachers, but the overflow crowd for the nationals is standing room only.
"They'll be standing in the hills. They'll be in the trees. They'll be everywhere across this amphitheatre setting," Hayes said.
In preparation, the Cameron Bowl field is getting all new turf and concrete pads to make it accessible, and the dugouts are getting a lift.
That work is expected to start this summer, Hayes said.
Dave MacKeigan, the Cape Breton Regional Municipality councillor for the district who also sits on the organizing committee, said CBRM has set aside $200,000 to cover some of the cost of the renovations.
The federal government has promised to kick in an additional $250,000 and the committee is awaiting word on a possible provincial contribution.
MacKeigan recalls the excitement of being at the Cameron Bowl in 1988 when the Colonels won the championship on home turf.
"It was just like they were hanging from trees trying to watch the game," he said. "It was just amazing the number of people that were here attending those games."
Even though the Colonels have won the Canadian title five times, for the 11- and-12-year-olds, it's not about the scoreboard.
"Just the experience of playing, and playing teams from across Canada, and it being known that you're one of the top teams in Canada, the players have got to feel real good about that," said MacKeigan.
"At the end of the day, we want to make sure that they will remember it for the rest of their lives," Hayes added.
"Winning is always nice to see, but it's not as important as the memories that these children will have of that tournament."
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