The inside of the Ottawa Stadium is busier now than it has been since the Fat Cats left town.

Two months since Ottawa's latest venture into Can-Am baseball was christened the Champions and less than a year to go before the team hits the field for the first time, there is a lot to be done.

For team president and minority owner David Gourlay and his people, much time is spent in meetings these days, a blur of talks regarding “public relations, ticket operations, concessions, and my favourite topic of all time, beer,” Gourlay said Thursday from the stadium.

Even talks down at City Hall are moving along smoothly, Gourlay said.

“We're talking to (the city) to get on the same page about the improvements to the ballpark,” said Gourlay of work to be done at the stadium before May, part of the city's $1.2 million investment in the project.

He said the city has been “just fantastic to work with.”

While the specifics of the improvements still being hashed out, Gourlay spoke excitedly about some of the possibilities for a facility that has been showing its age for some time.

“There's been discussion about paving the parking lot with new yellow lines and getting a new score board,” Gourlay said. “We're looking at options around bathroom renovations, cleaning up the concourse.

“People are going to walk into the ballpark next may and they're going to say, 'wow, this is different now'.”

Though Gourlay is a huge baseball fan, he has a vision for the type of crowd that will come to Champions games and knows it has to be as much about the experience in the stadium as the on-field product.

“I want this ball park to be a community centre much like the minor league ballparks across the United States are,” he said. “This is not necessarily just about the baseball game itself. A lot of people come to watch a baseball to come for the experience, run into people they know and enjoy the atmosphere.”

As far as baseball operations go, Gourlay and his staff are looking at candidates for the general manager and assistant general manger positions and hope to have those two important jobs filled by the end of the summer.

“We're actively interviewing for those positions,” he said.

Gourlay said he would be happy to attract somewhere in the neighbourhood of 3,500-4,000 fans per Champions game and insists there are a few key differences between the product he is building and previous failed baseball ventures in the city.

“This will be different because people will recognize that after years of dissapointments, the city has given us a 10-year less, they put (money) into improvements and we have a local guy as the president,” Gourlay said.

The team will also be unveiling its logo in the near future after inviting fans to submit ideas for the design.

“We've actually landed on one and we're making a few refinesents to it,” Gourlay said.

The AA Champions will play teams from New Jersey, Rockland, Quebec City and Trois-Rivieres in the 2015 Can-Am season, with the league also planning an expansion to Welland. ​

chris.hofley@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @chrishofley