The new owners of the Wilmington Blue Rocks (High Class A; Carolina League) detailed plans to update Frawley Stadium for 2016.
That Frawley Stadium is need of some TLC isn’t a secret, and the new ownership group — 11 partners, with Main Street Baseball holding the largest amount of shares — directly addressed the issue during a meet and greet with the local press. While specifics weren’t forthcoming, team president Clark Minker laid out some early ideas, including a wraparound concourse and a kids’ play area. From Delaware Online:
Minker envisions “a grand reopening” in 2016, he said. While architectural planning and financial figuring have barely begun, Minker does foresee a facility much more alluring to spectators. The Rocks will formulate those plans in concert with the stadium’s owners, the Delaware Stadium Corporation.
“We’re talking about a 360-degree wrap-around concourse,” Minker said. “What that means for folks who don’t know is, basically, our concourse ends on the third-base side and then it ends on the first-base side. There’s no way to connect those two places so you cannot currently walk around the stadium to different venues.
“One of the venues we want to create that we don’t have is a really large kids’ play area — an area where moms and dads can take their kids who get a little restless in a seat for three-and-a-half hours and give them a place to play, and make it a lot of fun.”
There may be a much grander plan being discussed, one that goes far past just the installation of a wraparound concourse. As noted, the bones of the ballpark are very solid — and a plan that allows use of the ballpark as well as the local attractions year-round may just what Wilmington needs.
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