PK Park

• Name: PK Park
• GPS-able Address: 2800 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Eugene, OR 97401
• Ballpark Owner: University of Oregon
• Architects: DLR Group
• Groundbreaking: 8/15/2008
• Minor League Baseball/Professional Development League Teams: Eugene Emeralds (A+) 2021-present; Eugene Emeralds (A-) 2009-2020
• Pro Baseball Class/League History: A+/Northwest League 2022-present; A+/High-A West 2021; A-/Northwest League 2010-2020
• First Pro Baseball Game: 6/18/2010; stadium debut of Class A-Short Season Emeralds
• Others Playing or Operating Here: University of Oregon Ducks
• Previous Ballpark Names: None
• LF: 335 CF: 390 RF: 335
• Seats: 2,988
• Stated Capacity: 4,000
• House Baseball/Softball Record Attendance (as currently configured): 5,178, 7/17/2019

PK Park in Eugene, OR, is the home of the Eugene Emeralds, the San Francisco Giants' High-A Northwest League farm team. The Ems are its secondary tenant, and events have created the need for them to find their own home.

The University of Oregon built PK to reestablish varsity baseball in 2009. Ducks' Athletics Director Pat Kilkenny helped fund the stadium that bears his initials. Its first college game was played February 27, 2009. In 2010, PK welcomed the Ems - and the rent they would pay - from Civic Stadium.

Unlike when its professional team played a short season, though, the ballpark's teams now must deal with overlapping schedules because MLB's 2021 Minor League Reorganization promoted the Ems into full-season ball. However, the Ems had already said - in March 2021 - that new ballpark standards resulting from the reorganization would require them to build a new playpen.[1] Around the same time, the state of Oregon budgeted $7.5 million toward such a playpen, and on September 27, 2022, Lane County commissioners voted to hike a pair of visitors-aimed taxes whose revenue would probably - but not necessarily - go toward funding a new Ems playpen. The project took its most significant step forward yet on November 8th when the Lane County Board of Commissioners voted to move forward with the first phase of designing an outdoor multi-use facility with the Ems as the anchor tenant.

However, in a June 27, 2023, meeting, Ems General Manager Allan Benavides told commissioners the team wants to stay in Eugene but cannot without a news stadium. MLB's deadline is Opening Day 2025, and while Benavides thinks a one-season extension might be possible it would require a credible and fully funded plan. "It may not be '25," the GM said, "but if I go to them with nothing right now, it's basically over." In the same meeting, county administrators said they are $43 million short of what a new stadium is expected to cost. [2]

The Ems' March 2021 statement said they must be in a new ballpark by 2025 - but the college has since said it would prefer 2024. The earlier year has become highly unlikely, and even the latter is on the cusp.

PK was among the first ballparks to install a new kind of artificial turf that those in the know say feels more like natural grass. The playpen shares its parking lot with Autzen Stadium, which is home to the Ducks' football team.