Diamond Baseball Holdings owns 48 Minor League Baseball teams and has invested nine figures into their stadiums. Now it is pivoting from team acquisitions to mixed-use real estate development and year-round venue activation, with youth sports infrastructure playing a central role.
Key Takeaways
- DBH has invested nine figures total into stadium improvements across its 48-team portfolio
- The 190-acre Ontario Sports Empire, managed by Sports Facilities Companies, is the largest youth sports complex west of the Rocky Mountains with more than 40 fields
- ONT Field, a $151 million, 6,000-seat stadium in Ontario, California, opened April 2, 2026
- A new subsidiary, Diamond Real Estate, is led by former M&A head Henry Shepherd, now Chief Strategy Officer
- Mixed-use development is underway around Louisville Slugger Stadium, with municipal partnerships required to make the economics work
Diamond Baseball Holdings Real Estate Pivot: From Acquisitions to Activation
DBH directly owns only two of its 48 stadiums, in Charlotte and Grand Chute, Wisconsin. The rest are municipally owned, which makes the company’s real estate ambitions inherently collaborative. CEO Peter Freund was candid about how the strategy evolved: “I would be lying if I said this was our core philosophy when we were putting 48 teams together. But I feel like these opportunities have come to us, as opposed to us chasing them, from these municipalities that want to see continued growth around these sports venues and want to see these places activated more than just the 70 home games a year.”
That activation challenge is exactly where youth sports enters the picture.
Ontario’s 190-Acre Youth Sports Anchor
The clearest example of DBH’s new direction sits in Ontario, California. ONT Field, designed by Populous and built by Tilden-Coil Constructors, is operated by Legends Global. The stadium is city-owned, and the San Bernardino Dodgers Single-A affiliate relocated roughly 20 miles to become the Ontario Tower Buzzers.
Surrounding the ballpark is the Ontario Sports Empire, a 190-acre complex featuring more than 40 fields. It is the largest youth sports complex west of the Rockies. Sports Facilities Companies manages the operation.
Freund described the multi-stakeholder arrangement frankly: “Yes, there were more cooks in the kitchen than typical. It’s not your classic, ‘here you go, here is the venue for 365 days, it’s all yours.’ It’s truly a partnership there.” On Sports Facilities Companies specifically, he added: “It’s really on-brand, and on-theme, but they’ve been great business partners.”
His assessment of ONT Field itself was unequivocal: “We think this is as good a minor league baseball stadium as there is in the country.”
Stadium Investment and the Municipal Partnership Model
Beyond Ontario, DBH has poured more than $10 million each into ballparks in Portland (Maine), Scranton, and Vancouver. All stadiums across the 48-team portfolio are now PDL compliant as of MiLB’s 2026 Opening Day. Teams in Kinston (N.C.), Modesto, and San Bernardino relocated because their previous stadium situations were unworkable.
The creation of Diamond Real Estate as a dedicated subsidiary, with Henry Shepherd moving from head of M&A to Chief Strategy Officer, formalizes what had been an emerging priority. A mixed-use project around Louisville Slugger Stadium is already in progress.
But Freund was clear-eyed about the financial realities: “There needs to be government incentives, tax incentives, a situation where we have a partner like we do in the city of Louisville, where the city says if you’re going to take this parking away to build an adjacent mixed-use development, we’re going to help build a parking garage. We need partnerships like that to make the financials work.”
Diamond Baseball Holdings Shifts for Youth Sports Operators
The Ontario model offers a replicable template for club directors and facility investors. A municipality builds the stadium, a professional franchise provides the anchor tenant, and a youth sports complex provides the year-round activation that municipalities want beyond 70 home games. Operators like Sports Facilities Companies step in to manage the programming across 40-plus fields on a 190-acre footprint. For youth sports businesses, the opportunity sits in the gap between 70 home games and 365 days a year. DBH and its municipal partners need tournaments, training volume, and programming to fill that void, and Diamond Real Estate formalizes the framework for co-development deals that make those economics viable. directly.
Source: Sports Business Journal
Image: Ontario Sports Empire
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