When Hiram Bithorn Stadium hosts pool play in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, it will have 7,000 new seats as part of a nearly $9 million renovation.
In a report from El Vocero, a San Juan-based newspaper, San Juan mayor Miguel Romero Lugo announced that the stadium, built in 1962, has recently received a new field, and the second phase of the project will add a waterproofed roof, new seats, and a new paint job. The ballpark’s restroom capacity will also be increased by 50%.
“During the past year, we have been working on a series of initiatives aimed at positioning ourselves as a first-class facility for the enjoyment of not only San Juan, but all of Puerto Rico,” Romero Lugo said in Spanish at a press conference. “Today we are announcing that another investment has been awarded in the stadium to continue improving this space that is so important for San Juan and to ensure that it continues to be the best facility in the entire Caribbean.”
In addition, the dressing rooms, ticketing offices, signage, and other facilities around the stadium will be renovated as part of the project, which is expected to cost $8,426,106, on top of the approximately $40 million in renovations done after the stadium was announced as a site for the 2026 World Baseball Classic. The ballpark’s seating capacity will be increased to 25,000 from 18,000 as part of the renovation.
Currently, the stadium serves as the home of the Cangrejeros de Santurce and the Senadores de San Juan of the Liga Beisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente, Puerto Rico’s winter professional baseball league. It served as a secondary home for the Montreal Expos of Major League Baseball during the 2003 and 2004 seasons, and previously hosted pool play in the 2006, 2009, and 2013 World Baseball Classics, and held knockout round play in the 2006 WBC.
Aside from hosting 43 Montreal Expos home games in 2003 and 2004, the ballpark has hosted six MLB regular season games: a single game between the Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers on April 1, 2001, a three-game series between the New York Mets and Florida Marlins from June 28-30, 2010, and a pair of games between the Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Indians on April 17-18, 2018.
The ballpark is named for Hiram Bithorn, the first Puerto Rican to play in Major League Baseball, who played for the Chicago Cubs and White Sox on and off between 1942 and 1947.
Photo Credit: Wiki Commons
