The owners of the Fredericksburg Nationals (High A; Carolina League) and the city of Fredericksburg are working to make the team’s new ballpark as green a facility as possible for the 2020 season.
With the 2020 MiLB season on hold for now, so has the openings of several new ballparks this year, including new facilities in Wichita, Madison (AL), Kannapolis and Fredericksburg. In Fredericksburg, the FredNats have worked with local officials to create a new ballpark with a green emphasis. The playing field is Shaw Sports Turf’s B1K: Batting a Thousand, already in use in three MiLB ballparks, and Fredericksburg will be its first installation in the minors. Yes, we know there are plenty of our readers, including plenty of groundskeepers, who are skeptical of synthetic turf, but there are green arguments for its use: the turf requires less water and maintenance, and more events can be held throughout the season.
The turf is part of the team’s green approach. From Fredericksburg.com:
“This turf eliminates the need to irrigate the field, saving tens of thousands gallons of water each year, and also eliminates fertilizers and other chemicals that can find their way to our watersheds,” said Seth Silber, whose family owns the FredNats….
Silber said that his family will pursue LEED certification for their stadium after it’s been opened for 12 months. It will be one of the first minor league baseball parks to have 100 percent LED lighting, including the field lights. That’s expected to save reduce electric usage by 30–50 percent compared with prior generation ballparks.
In addition, lighting for the parking lot and flagpole will be totally solar powered, and the stadium roofs are designed to support solar panels in the future. Plans originally called for involving The Brisben Center, which is training people to install solar panels, in installation of the lights.
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