Burlington Athletic Stadium, home of the Burlington Royals (rookie; Appalachian League), will see some upgrades this season and next.
The ballpark is historic: it was originally built in Danville and then transformed piece by piece to Burlington, opening in 1960. It sat unused for many years while Miles Wolff worked to bring in pro baseball; he finally succeeded in 1986 with the arrival of the then-Burlington Indians. It’s been updated several times since those original Fairchild Stadium days, and the next two years will see more. From the Times-News:
The city finished several renovations during the team’s most recent off-season, including a new beer stand, railings in the bleachers, and a new scoreboard with advanced technological capabilities, among other renovations. The city also addressed drainage concerns in the outfield. Last season several games were lost during an above-average period of rainfall.
“In September, we are going to be expanding the visitor’s team clubhouse and dressing room facility,” Burlington Recreation and Parks director Tony Laws said. “There are two public restrooms we are going to convert into more space and then build new public restrooms adjacent to the stadium.”
Burlington Athletic Stadium is one of the most charming ballparks in the minors and certainly one of the best places to see a rookie-league game. As usual, there’s the preseason talk about how nice it would be to have a new downtown ballpark (a discussion that’s been going on for at least a decade), and as usual it’s talk that will lead nowhere.
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