Mirabito Stadium

• Name: Mirabito Stadium
• GPS-able Address: 211 Henry Street, Binghamton, NY 13901
• Ballpark Owner: City of Binghamton
• Architects: Highland Associates
• Groundbreaking: 7/19/1991
• Minor League Baseball/Professional Development League Teams: Binghamton Rumble Ponies (AA) 2017-present
• Pro Baseball Class/League History: AA/Eastern League 2022-present; AA/Double-A Northeast 2021; AA/Eastern League 1992-2020
• First Pro Baseball Game: 4/14/1992; stadium debut of Class AA Mets
• Others Playing or Operating Here: None
• Previous Ballpark Names: NYSEG Stadium 2002-2021; Binghamton Municipal Stadium 1992-2001
• LF: 330 CF: 400 RF: 330
• Seats: 6,012
• Stated Capacity: 8,000
• House Baseball/Softball Record Attendance: 7,491, 6/21/2022

NYSEG stadium in April 2009

Mirabito Stadium in Binghamton, NY, is the home of the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, the New York Mets' Double-A Eastern League farm team. Opened in 1992 as Binghamton Municipal Stadium, the facility has since come close to losing its professional baseball tenant three different times.

1) Binghamton Mets ownership agreed during the 2012-2013 off-season to sell to a firm that would have used the franchise to return pro ball to Ottawa, ON, but the Canadian capital did not make necessary renovations to the former home of the Ottawa Lynx; 2) B-Mets ownership agreed during the 2015 season to sell to a different firm that would have moved the franchise to Wilmington, DE, but then found a buyer who promised not to move it at all; 3) The renamed Rumble Ponies were listed for contraction in MLB's 2021 Minor League Reorganization but, after the coincidental sale of their parent Mets, were retained.

Then-Binghamton Municipal Stadium's opening brought the former Williamsport Bills to New York state's Southern Tier. The year before, the Mets bought the Bills and arranged for the new stadium. Bills majority owner Marvin Goldklang, who also was and remains a New York Yankees minority owner, said the sale was forced by the 1990 Professional Baseball Agreement - the contract that, at the time, governed the relationship between MLB and the minor leagues. The Mets later sold the club to local owners. The ballpark became NYSEG Stadium when New York State Electric and Gas bought naming rights in 2001. NYSEG didn't renew after the 2020 season that never was, and Mirabito Energy Products took over in May 2021.

In between, the aging ballpark underwent a thorough renovation that doubtless saved professional baseball for Binghamton. The 2021 reorganization reduced Minor League Baseball teams by a net of 40 franchises; within those cuts, the net change within each of the 11 surviving leagues had to be an even number. The two lists that leaked to media in late 2019 were nearly identical, and both included the Ponies and the Erie SeaWolves. Perennially being the 12-team EL's bottom two in attendance made them logical candidates, and depending when the lists were made their stadiums' conditions may have moved them from logical to obvious. Both could have been described at that time as aging facilities past their prime, but both underwent multimillion-dollar renovations before the restructuring was implemented or, possibly, even known.

Based on media reports, each team's ownership thinks it saved the other under the need for the league to maintain an even number. Perhaps that, instead of the usual geography basis, could be the basis for making their season series a trophy/grudge match?

Ironically, the Ponies remained the least-drawing EL club by both total and game-average in 2021 and 2022, while Erie finished tenth in those years. However, there was a jump in 2023, when the team reported in late June that first-half attendance was 52% higher than the first half of 2022.

Perhaps as ironically for Binghamton, one seven-figure renovation was quickly followed by another. The new standards MLB required to remain in the Professional Development League by 2025 generated projects totaling nearly half that of the 2019 voluntary facelift. The Ponies missed their self-imposed deadline of the start of the 2023 campaign, after and because the Mets changed some of the specs, but they say work will continue during the campaign.[1]