Courtesy City of San Rafael

Albert Field in San Rafael

SAN RAFAEL — Professional baseball in San Rafael?

The City Council there will decide Monday night whether to allow a new, minor league team to play 45 games in a neighborhood park beginning next year.

If the plan is approved, San Rafael will become the second city in the Bay Area to have a minor league team. The San Jose Giants are a Class A farm team for the San Francisco Giants.

The team would be part of the North American League, which was formed last year and which, according to its website, “is the largest professional independent baseball league worldwide” and plays at a level equivalent to AA or AAA. It would not be directly affiliated with any major league teams.

Centerfield Partners, a company formed last year that purchased the franchise rights for the Bay Area, wants the team it forms to play 45 home games in Albert Park. The 11-acre park, which is in the city’s Gerstle Park neighborhood, already has a baseball field that can seat 700.

Centerfield would pay the city to use the existing field, and it would make a number of improvements to the park, including increasing seating capacity to 1,500, building lockers and concession stands, and bringing in 10 portable toilets and security guards to monitor the games. The city would reimburse Centerfield for the improvements.

Brian Clark, Centerfield’s CEO, said he chose Albert Park because of the small-town feel he thinks it can provide.  

“Baseball stadiums are hard to come by,” Clark said. “With that said, Albert Park has a phenomenal history to it and it has got a local, small-town charm to it.  It’s not an old, bloated, 10,000-seat concrete bunker. It lends a sense of intimacy that very few ballparks that I’ve been to provide.”

Neighbors are divided about the plan, which has the support of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. Many residents who live close to the park are worried about traffic, parking, noise and problems that could result from the sale of alcohol at games. Most of the team’s games would be played at night.

Centerfield dismissed concerns about traffic, saying that only 1,200 people would attend each game. The firm also promised to cut off alcohol sales after the seventh inning.