Coastal Plain League President Pete Bock says Buck Hardee Field needs an upgrade, but the owners of the Wilmington Sharks seem happy with it.
Coastal Plain League President Pete Bock says Buck Hardee Field needs an upgrade, but the owners of the Wilmington Sharks seem happy with it.
Buck Hardee Field is an older Amercan Legion-style ballpark that's been upgraded by the Sharks ownership in recent years; it's now sporting more of a party atmosphere, according to Mark Cryan, who profiled the ballpark in his book, Cradle of the Game: Baseball and Ballparks in North Carolina.
While it's a perfectly good facility, Bock says it could use some upgrades, perhaps with some new seating. Conor Caloia, a team owner and director of operations for the Sharks, says the team isn't directly asking the city for improvements, but would be wiling to discuss them with the city.
The low-pressure approach taken by Bock and Caloia seems to have worked: city administrators say they're willing to look at long-term capital improvements to the facility. We're not talking anything fancy here; Bock mentioned the renovation of Finch Field as being a model.
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