Written in October, 2000
Wilmington
hopes to ride new-ballpark wave
When the Class A South Atlantic League announced that Wilmington, NC had
been granted an expansion franchise to begin play in 2001, BASEBALLPARKS.COM
immediately wanted to know where the team would be playing. The answer was
Brooks Field on the campus of UNC-Wilmington, east of downtown. Initial
press releases said that there was no firm plan for a new ballpark to be built
in Wilmington, so we assumed that Brooks Field was going to be the permanent
home of the team.
A trip to Wilmington to inspect the park revealed a most unimpressive
facility -- one which really made us wonder what the SAL was thinking when they
granted a franchise to play in this park.
 Here
is what we found. The location was nowhere near Wilmington's pretty
downtown. The part of town where the university is located is very
congested -- in fact, since the field is in the middle of the campus, access (on
crowded two-lane streets) can only be considered poor. Parking looks like
it will be a problem. And because it's on a college campus, we assume beer won't be
served.
The facility (see photo) hardly looked to be pro-caliber. Concession stands are
non-existent. There is little permanent seating, and there's no overhang
over any of the stands. The pressbox is quite modest. It didn't appear that team clubhouses are actually
part of the facility, and the scoreboard is certainly not high-tech.
All-told, it appeared that Brooks Field did not measure up to the standards for
Class A baseball.
To be fair, we decided that we had better check with the team for the full
story. Sims Hinds, the president and managing partner of the Waves, was
nice enough to explain two important aspects of all of this. First, work
would soon start to upgrade many aspects of Brooks Field, with the renovations
to be completed by the start of the 2001 season. Based on a
architectural/engineering plan from HKS of Dallas, 200 new field boxes and 1200
new bleacher seats are to be added. Landscaping, clubhouse and
concession-stand work will also be done. All told, the park will meet all
of the standards for Class A, except for seating capacity.
Second, the team is working with the city and county to develop plans for
a brand-new ballpark. The plans for this facility could be finalized by
the fall of 2001, with an anticipated completion by Opening Day 2003. They
might even be able to build the park on the scenic riverfront in downtown
Wilmington, which would be a wonderful idea. Mr. Hinds noted that his
team's new home could be patterned after Coastal Federal Field, Myrtle Beach's
gem of a park which opened in 1999.
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