UCHealth Field

• Location: Colorado Springs, CO
• Team: Rocky Mountain Vibes
• League: Pioneer League
• Class: independent
• Capacity: 8,500
• Cost: $3,700,000
• Opened:1988

UCHealth Field in Colorado Springs, CO, was the home of Colorado Springs affiliated baseball from 1988 through 2019. After the Coronavirus pandemic-canceled 2020 season, MLB's 2021 Minor League Reorganization made the Rookie-Advanced Pioneer League - which included the Rocky Mountain Vibes - an independent circuit. The 2020 schedule at UCH would have included the PL-Northwest League All-Star Game.

Opened as Sky Sox Stadium in 1988, the ballpark brought the Pacific Coast League's Hawaii Islanders back to the mainland as a Cleveland Indians' farm team that branded itself Colorado Springs Sky Sox. The 1993 expansion Colorado Rockies brokered a switch, but later dropped the Sox after souring on the ballpark's location and age.

That happened because Elmore Sports Group simultaneously moved three of its teams during the 2018-2019 off-season. This filled a new stadium in Amarillo, TX, brought a Triple-A team to the Alamo City at least partly in the hope of getting a new stadium there, and got ESG's short-season club out of its ancient ballpark in Helena, MT.

Rather than keeping their predecessors' name and colors, the former Helena Brewers became the Vibes. The brand derives from "Happy Campers" - a nominee from the naming contest - and aims to play on the area's laid-back lifestyle. The mascot is a s'more named Toasty. Team and brand continue after the reorganization in the now-indy Pioneer League.

Sky Sox Stadium was built on the back end of a ballpark era - just as an arc of suburban stadiums began trending back downtown. It is located inside city limits, but nearly as far from downtown as is the Colorado Springs Airport. Security Service Credit Union's purchase of stadium naming rights funded a 2005 renovation. After that deal expired following the 2018 season, UCHealth picked it up just as the ballpark dropped five levels in the Minor League Baseball hierarchy. As it aged, even with the renovation, its location had become more and more of a liability.