9 replies to this topic

[cityboi]

Three of North Carolina's largest cities have downtown ballparks. Durham was the first with the construction of Durham Bulls Athletic Park in the 1990s. In 2005 NewBridge Bank Park (use to be First Horizon Park) opened in downtown Greensboro. And today BB&T Ballpark opens for its first game in downtown Winston-Salem

Durham Bulls Athletic Park opened 1995 - seating capacity 10,000 (Durham Bulls AAA)








NewBridge Bank Park opened 2005 - seating capacity 7,499 (Greensboro Grasshoppers Single A)













BB&T Ballpark opened 2010  - seating capacity 5,500 (Winston-Salem Dash Single A)

(photo courtesy of cosmophotography)












Charlotte 2012??????

Edited by cityboi, 14 April 2010 - 08:47 AM.

[kermit]

Nice photos, thanks!

FWIW: Both Kinston and Asheville have ballparks close to downtown, both neither is as central as in Durham and Gboro.

I would not bet on Charlotte's downtown park in 2012. They just extended their lease in Ft. Mill:
http://charlotte.biz...1044800^3161411

[cityboi]

kermit, on 13 April 2010 - 08:34 PM, said:

Nice photos, thanks!

FWIW: Both Kinston and Asheville have ballparks close to downtown, both neither is as central as in Durham and Gboro.

I would not bet on Charlotte's downtown park in 2012. They just extended their lease in Ft. Mill:
http://charlotte.biz...1044800^3161411

Yes both Greensboro and Durhams OLD stadiums are also on the edge of downtown but technically not in the central business district the old Durham Bulls park and War Memorial Stadium in Greensboro were both featured in the movie "Bull Durham" Until Greensboro got a new ballpark in 2005, War Memorial was the oldest active ballpark in the minor leagues (built in 1926).

I hear Charlotte is having a hard time with this. There is a guy suing to stop the stadium from being built (mainly because he has ambitions to bring major league baseball to Charlotte and building a new minor league stadium thats not expandable would hurt those chances) Ironically Knight's Castle was designed to expand for the majors. Not sure why it wasn't built uptown in the first place. But I guess that was during the era when building downtown stadiums and arenas werent the trend.

Edited by cityboi, 15 April 2010 - 09:35 PM.

[eastsider]

cityboi, on 14 April 2010 - 06:22 AM, said:

Not sure why it wasn't built uptown in the first place.

Two words: George Shinn

[twincity]

There is a difference. New Bridge Bank Park only has 5200 chair-back seats but a capacity of 7,499.  BB&T Ballpark has 5,500 chair-back seats.

[cityboi]

twincity, on 15 April 2010 - 08:03 PM, said:

There is a difference. New Bridge Bank Park only has 5200 chair-back seats but a capacity of 7,499.  BB&T Ballpark has 5,500 chair-back seats.

WFMY and the News & Record says Newbridge has about 6,500 fixed seats. NewBridge has an greater seating capacity because of grassy berms, upperdeck areas and table seating. The Hoppers expanded the party deck a few years ago and have been talking for some time about making the long grassy berm a chair back seating area easily adding another 1,000 plus seats. BB&T Ballpark also has plenty of areas to add more chair back seats. But while 7,500 total capacity at NewBridge has be mentioned by a number of sources, it technically holds about 9,000. That was the attendance at the opening of NewBridge Bank Park in 2005.

http://www.digtriad....?storyid=128219

Edited by cityboi, 15 April 2010 - 09:55 PM.

[twincity]

That information is wrong.  The only trusted source is from the official Greensboro Grasshopper website.  I was off by 100.

...The stadium's seating capacity currently stands at 7,499 which includes 5,300 chair back seats, 16 luxury suites and 2 grass berms and picnic areas...

http://web.minorleag...t=.jsp&sid=t477

[twincity]

Both Stadiums have much higher seating capacities of over 7,000.  In your initial post you counted actual fixed seats for one, but counted seating capacity for the other.

[cityboi]

twincity, on 16 April 2010 - 06:29 AM, said:

Both Stadiums have much higher seating capacities of over 7,000.  In your initial post you counted actual fixed seats for one, but counted seating capacity for the other.

I only used the source that was given. The only seating capacity number given for BB&T Ballpark was the 5,500. For some reason no information seems to be available for the over all seating capcity.

Edited by cityboi, 17 April 2010 - 10:24 AM.

[eastsider]

The official attendance for the dash home opener was 7,111.