MOOSIC, Pa. — The home of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders will have a different look when the first pitch is thrown in the 2025 season.
A renovation plan for PNC Field in Moosic was announced Tuesday morning.
PNC Field has to be improved to meet the standards for minor league facilities set by major league baseball.
More than $13 million in renovations is planned, including better training facilities, batting tunnels, and places to work out. There will be an improved locker room, showers, towel room, and private areas for male and female staff members.
The team, a Triple-A affiliate of the New York Yankees, is privately owned by Diamond Baseball Holdings (DBH), but Lackawanna County owns the stadium in Moosic. State grants will pay for about half of the renovation. Municipal bonds take care of the rest.
The county commissioners say there will be an improved fan experience, which includes better video boards, seating, and hospitality areas.
"When the ballpark was done in 2012 to 2013, it was more of the fan-facing part of it, so the outside—the concession, the lawn, and the kids' zones, those fun things, but the behind-the-scenes was left on the back burner," said RailRiders general manager Katie Beekman.
Tony Bruno, a New York Yankees vice president, believes the renovations help minor leaguers become major leaguers.
"It's all a step, as the stage, to the big stage in New York, so it's important our players along the way are getting everything available to them to make that journey, as possible, with the right facilities."
These changes were mandated by Major League Baseball and come with a major price tag
"The county taxpayers will see no difference," said Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan. "There's nothing coming out of the general fund. This is all revenue we get from the stadium and from the hotel tax."
While the changes may not be too noticeable from the stands, it's a game-changer for the players.
"The players play better, and it draws better. The more people that come out to the ballpark, it's better for them to be conditioned that way before they play in New York," Bruno said.
The project at the stadium in Moosic is set to begin right after the RailRiders season ends in September. It should be finished for the start of the 2025 home opener.
The field opened as Lackawanna County Stadium in the spring of 1989 as the home of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons, the Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies.
In 2007, the franchise signed a deal with the New York Yankees, ending the affiliation with the Phillies.
In 2010, the team announced an agreement with PNC Bank to renew the naming rights to the stadium.
A $40 million renovation project took off the upper deck of the stadium in 2012. Those renovations were completed in the spring of 2013.