Professional baseball has a long history in California’s Inland Empire, yet Ontario had been without a professional team for almost eighty years. The city’s long absence from professional baseball came to an end when Ontario became home to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Single-A affiliate, the Tower Buzzers.

With the new team came the debut of a state-of-the-art stadium, where the Tower Buzzers played their first game in spring 2026 and revived the local baseball culture that had faded after the Ontario Orioles’ 1947 season.

Construction on the new 6,000-seat stadium began in October 2024, with an ambitious schedule to have the ballpark ready for the 2026 season.

The tilework alone covered more than 27,000 square feet of the stadium’s floor and 28,000 square feet of its walls.

Continental Marble & Tile Company, a respected union tile and stone contractor based in Corona, California, used a complete system of products from CUSTOM to install mosaics, quarry tile, Spanish tile, and large-format Italian slabs in 70 separate areas. According to Marc Mercado with Continental, “On a project this size, consistency matters as much as performance. We wanted products our crew already trusted so we could stay focused on installation rather than troubleshooting.”

Substrate Preparation

Because the tile in the indoor bars, concession stands, bathrooms, and showers would inevitably get wet often, the first step in helping the installations withstand moisture and perform for the life of the stadium was to treat the substrates with RedGard® Waterproofing and Crack Prevention Membrane.

In the stadium’s outdoor areas, crack prevention was equally important because Southern California temperatures can climb over 100°F in the summer and drop to near freezing in the winter. This thermal cycling causes repeated expansion and contraction within the substrate and tile assembly. RedGard helps absorb that movement and minimizes the potential for non-structural cracks to transfer through the installation.

RedGard is a ready-to-use liquid membrane that rolls directly onto the surface, dries quickly, and forms a waterproof barrier while helping minimize the effects of substrate movement.

Tile Setting

Some of the stadium’s most impressive tile designs are in its two standalone bars. The indoor Flight Deck VIP Lounge has a unique swirling floor pattern fashioned from large-format 48” x 24” Italian slabs in contrasting colors, with mineral particles and stone flakes creating warm amber, rust, and white-gold tones on the surface. The circular bar in the lounge adds another focal point with burnt almond brown 6” x 10” glossy porcelain tile at its base and a glossy off-white tile lining the center column.

At the Hard Deck Bar, blue-and-white checkerboard tile wraps around the front and sides of the bar. The pattern gives the open-air space plenty of character, and the name is a playful nod to the fighter pilot hangout in Top Gun.

With a significant amount of large floor tile and tile going onto vertical surfaces, ProLite® Premium Large Format Tile Mortar was easy to specify since it could be used for most of the installation. The lighter 30-pound bags were also easier to carry around the jobsite than the ususal 50-pound bags, which made all the difference when getting materials to the next work area.

The Flight Deck VIP Lounge was the kind of installation where one tile could take longer than normal to set. The tapered hallway, door jamb, and floor pattern all required careful measuring and cutting before tile could be set. The team needed mortar with enough working time to make the custom cuts without stopping to mix a new batch.

“We were doing a lot of cutting in the lounge, so we couldn’t just set tile and keep moving,” said Bob Kelley, who is a lead installer for Continental. “At one point, we even had to call the door contractor to make sure we had enough clearance. Good thing the mortar didn’t start to seize on us while we were cutting. A quick mix and it was ready to go again.”

The curved bars were another place where ProLite made the job a little easier. Todd Poulsen, another lead installer, said the mortar made a noticeable difference as the crew worked on the curved elements. “On the floor, gravity is working with you. When you’re setting tile up and around curves, if the mortar doesn’t hold, everything starts to slide on you. The mortar we used held the tiles in place and made it a lot easier to keep everything lined up.”

ProLite is a lightweight, non-sag, non-slump mortar for large and heavy tile on floors and walls. It’s extra smooth, creamy to trowel, and it can be used for medium-bed applications up to ¾”. A 30-pound bag provides the same coverage as a traditional 50-pound bag.

Grouting

Continental spent months setting thousands of pieces of tile and stone. After putting that much work into fitting each piece properly and keeping the joints straight, it was imperative to use a grout that would protect the quality of the installation and complement the designs they worked so hard to create.

Prism® Ultimate Performance Grout was a great fit because it kept the color consistent and the finished look uniform even though the joints were grouted at different points during the project.

Todd noted, “Grout can make or break your install. When you’re working on this many areas, you want everything to clean up easily and look right when it’s done.”

Prism Ultimate Performance Grout is a lightweight, fast-setting grout with a smooth working consistency. It does not effloresce and can be used for grout joints up to ½ inch. It also requires no separate sealer, so there is nothing else to apply once the joints are finished.

The combination of RedGard, ProLite, and Prism from CUSTOM helped Continental Marble & Tile Company turn a long series of tile installations into a cohesive design that is as functional as it is distinctive. And now, that work is part of the new stadium where Ontario’s next era of professional baseball begins.