The Winston-Salem Dash (High Class A; Carolina League) are among the minor-league baseball teams bidding to host the 2015 Atlantic Coast Conference baseball tournament.
The conference opens the event to bid and has been successful in recent years in attracting some high-profile pitches from successful MiLB organizations. Aside from the SEC tourney in Hoover, Ala., the ACC tournament may be the best-attended college-baseball event in the country. Last summer a record crowd of 10,229 showed up to NewBridge Bank Park, home of the Greensboro Grasshoppers (Low Class A; Sally League), for a semifinal game; all in all, 53,466 fans showed up for the 13-game event. This year the tournament will be held at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, home of the Durham Bulls (Class AAA; International League).
That the Dash management would want a share of something this major makes sense, and indeed Dash officials pitched ACC officials on the many pleasures of the ballpark and the market. What will hurt the bid: the small size of BB&T Ballpark, which can host 5,500 fans when you include berm seating. While that’s enough to host an average crowd, it’s not large enough to contain the sort of capacity crowds seen in Greensboro.
The ACC tourney will undergo changes in 2014, as Louisville, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh enter the 14-team conference (Syracuse, which is also entering, doesn’t field a baseball team). The top ten teams will play in a six-day, double-elimination event.
Image of the 2012 Atlantic Coast Conference tourney courtesy of the Greensboro Grasshoppers.
RELATED STORIES: Record crowd views ACC tourney game in Greensboro
—-
Share your news with the baseball community. Send it to us at editors@augustpublications.com.
Are you a subscriber to the weekly Ballpark Digest newsletter? You can sign up for a free subscription at the Newsletter Signup Page.
Join Ballpark Digest on Facebook and on Twitter!
Follow Ballpark Digest on Google + and add us to your circles!