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Alexander Fysh recalls the days he’d wear his Ottawa Titans gear in public — covered with the logos he designed for the team — and hardly anyone would recognize it.
“Now, any part of the city I go to, I see people wearing the merchandise,” the local artist said. “And if I’m wearing the merchandise, people come and talk to me.”
Fysh has been a fan of local baseball ever since he was a kid, watching the former Ottawa Lynx play in front of packed crowds.
This weekend brought back those memories, as fans were shoulder-to-shoulder at Ottawa Stadium, watching the team make history as they claimed their first ever Frontier League title.
“When it’s packed like this — and you just see what baseball can be in this town and just how people get into it — it’s really neat. There’s electricity in the air,” Fysh told CBC after Saturday’s series-clinching Game 4 win.
Seeing thousands of fans clad in the logos he created way back before the Titans began competing in 2022 was extra momentous, he added.
“It’s just been very special to see it on them, and just everybody wearing it with pride as the team’s got more and more bigger this year,” Fysh said.
The Ottawa Titans celebrate with champagne after their win on Saturday. (Emma Weller/CBC)Team awarded for growing the game
The Titans defeated the Evansville Otters in Game 4 of the Frontier League championship Saturday night in front of 9,009 home fans.
They were trailing after Game 1 in the series following a 6-0 loss in Indiana, but bounced back, winning the next three games in a row to clinch.
Friday’s Game 3 on home soil drew in a sold-out crowd of 10,303 fans, a new single-game Frontier League record.
“These fans [did] something no one’s ever seen before in MLB-affiliated baseball. It’s just crazy,” said Titans president and CEO Sam Katz said after the series win.
The Titans also sold out on their home opener in May. The team says that was the first sellout since an Ottawa Lynx game in September 2002.
As a result of the Titans’ growth this season and their impact on the league, the Frontier League bestowed the 2026 Commissioners Award of Excellence on the ballclub earlier this month.
“The Titans organization demonstrated throughout the 2026 season why they are one of the top operations in all professional baseball,” the league said on its website when it announced the award.
This season also marked the fourth consecutive year the Titans game-day attendance increased, according to the league.
Friday night’s home game at Ottawa Stadium drew in more than 10,000 fans, breaking the Frontier League playoff attendance record. (Emma Weller/CBC)Improvements to come, team says
“It’s so impressive to see just how many people care in the city of Ottawa … and love baseball and wanna see baseball succeed,” said general manager Martin Boyce.
“So we’re incredibly grateful for the support and very proud of the achievement as well.”
The financial gain from this latest — and longest — playoff run will help continue that growth, Boyce added.
“To be able to have the extra revenue from these games is great long-term for the fan experience, because the more that we can do to improve the stadium experience … we will try to do. And this gives us more resources to do it,” he said.
Staff will decide on what those improvements are during the off-season, Boyce added.