Batter Up! New Minor Leagues Baseball Stadiums Up To Bat

Minor league ballparks are swinging for the fences with new stadiums featuring big-league amenities in Columbus, Georgia, and Spartanburg, South Carolina. 

The parks are home plate for two new Diamond Baseball Holdings (DBH) teams – the Clingstones, a double-A affiliate for the Atlanta Braves making their debut at Synovus Park in Columbus, and the Hub City Spartanburgers, a single-A Texas Rangers affiliate playing at Fifth Third Park in Spartanburg. 

“We’re bringing baseball back to two cities in the midst of exciting growth and revitalization,” Peter Freund, CEO of Diamond Baseball Holdings told VenuesNow in 2024. 

Since being formed by Endeavor in 2021, DBH has gone from nine teams under ownership to 42 with a focus on making an impact on the local community by attracting like-minded partners and scheduling events beyond game day. In 2024, DBH kicked off a new Music On The Diamond series at multiple parks featuring concerts by Miranda Lambert.

“Bringing new events and experiences that foster community and draw more people to our ballparks has been a goal of ours at DBH since the very beginning,” added Freund, a 2024 VenuesNow All Star (no one at DBH was available for comment for this story). 

DBH’s growth strategy targets teams and markets that have a strong baseball tradition and the potential for long-term community engagement and brand development. Whether hosting concerts, festivals or community events, the ballparks are designed to be year-round entertainment centers. 

DBH works with design and construction partners to ensure each venue reflects the community’s history while setting modern standards. W.C. Bradley Real Estate and general contractor Brasfield & Gorrie led the estimated $50 million renovations for Synovus Park, which is owned by the City of Columbus. DBH leases the stadium and has a multi-year naming rights deal with Synovus. 

The ballpark is a central fixture in the city’s downtown revitalization mission. The city estimates that the field could generate as much as $350 million in private investment with a mixed-use development around the stadium.

Columbus’ passion for baseball dates back to the 1880s, but the city hasn’t had a team since 2008 when the Columbus Catfish left for Bowling Green, Kentucky. In 2024, the Mississippi Braves moved to Columbus and adopted the name Clingstones, which is a variety of peach known for the way the fruit clings to the pit. 

Synovus Park is located on the site of Columbus’ earlier stadium, the 100-year-old Golden Park – where legends including Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron once played. MLB Hall of Fame slugging first baseman Frank “The Big Hurt” Thomas and four-time MLB All-Star starting pitcher Tim “Huddy” Hudson call Columbus home. 

“They’ve had other incarnations of professional and amateur baseball that came through the old Golden Park, but never with this type of investment from the city and [DBH] ownership,” said Pete Laven, Clingstones General Manager. “And you can’t leave out the fact that it is the Atlanta Braves double-A affiliate coming to town – in the heart of Braves country. That was never the case with the other affiliated teams and that is something people are really hyped about.”

Clingstones players are all drafted or signed by the Atlanta Braves. Laven said they don’t know which athletes are headed to Columbus until a few days before the start of the season. 

“When you can smell the popcorn, hear the music and the PA announcer introduces the team to the field for the first game, that’s when it really becomes a living, breathing thing – a real stadium,” said Laven.  

The completely refurbished 5,500-cap facility has kept the feel of the classic, red-brick park with a concrete seating bowl and three arches left over from the 1996 Olympics when Golden Park was used for softball competitions. The reimagined venue includes numerous social spaces and a wrap-around, open concourse. The ballpark also includes 11 new suites, hospitality amenities including areas for children and a beer garden for adults, golf cart parking for area residents, as well as upgrades to player facilities. 

“We’re definitely going to pay tribute to 100 years of Golden Park, but Synovus Park is going to be about the next 100 years,” said Laven. “It’s going to be a brand-new experience for the people of Columbus.”

The Clingstones’ inaugural 69-home-game season features as much entertainment in the stands as on the field with giveaways, theme nights (including Wet Nose Wednesday when you can bring your pet for free), special appearances and promotions including collectible bobbleheads. For the first game in franchise history on April 15 against the Pensacola Blue Wahoos (double-A Marlins), the first 3,000 fans will receive a commemorative ticket and enjoy post-game fireworks. 

The peach theme is palpable with a peach mascot named Fuzzy and several peachy concession items including cobbler, frozen custard, peach IPA and a bellini. Instead of a first pitch, Laven said they are throwing the first peach.

“My favorite thing about it is that we will be the first professional team in all of sports to have the color peach as their dominant color,” said Laven. “We’ve all seen the popularity of the Savannah Bananas and their all-yellow uniform so this is going to be a uniform that nobody has ever worn – peach tops and peach pants. I think people will take notice.”

The fun-loving Savannah baseball franchise has scored big by combining athleticism and entertainment, recently selling out Raymond James Stadium with 65,000 fans in Tampa. MLB Minor League operators have taken notice. 

“I give a lot of credit to the Rangers and many other Major League teams that have affiliates that are leaning in the direction of fun and entertainment,” explained Tyson Jeffers, general manager of Hub City Spartanburgers. “I think there’s a lot of value in a team that has the opportunity to fill their ballpark every night, and the Major League teams are recognizing to truly develop our players, not only on the field and their skills, but in their ability to conduct themselves with fans, to be in high pressure environments with a lot of noise and people, it’s really important that the Minor League teams are finding success with putting the butts in seats.”

Tertiary markets need to be creative and look beyond the baseball purists to fill the stands. 

“We believe that every interaction we have should start and end in a smile,” said Jeffers. “I like to joke that we want you if you’re not a baseball fan, because we know we’re going to bring you just as much fun and as many memories as offer someone that’s there for the baseball.”

It’s been a 30-year dry spell for Spartanburg baseball enthusiasts. The last Minor League team to play in the city was the Spartanburg Phillies from 1963 to 1994. The Hub City Spartanburgers’ name is a throwback to the city’s history as a rail and mill town, with a wink. 

“Obviously being Spartanburg, South Carolina, you add a couple letters to that and you get a very funny visual of burgers and the burger character we call Chuck, and the spatula, and our pickle chip.”

Like Columbus, Fifth Third Park was purpose-built to host multiple events. The ballpark, which is owned by the city, is part of a larger $500 million mixed-use development on a 16-acre site, which will include apartments, a hotel, office space, parking and a public plaza. The Johnson Group is overseeing the baseball district development with Overland Partners as the architect and Robins & Morton as the general contractor. 

Fifth Third Park has a capacity of 5,500 with 3,500 fixed seats and includes a dozen premium suites, a 7,000-square foot club/multi-purpose event space, concourse level boxes and an outfield berm. Signage is reminiscent of a railroad station and there’s a 30-foot silo for children to climb and slide.

“One of the things that we were very mindful of building the ballpark was making sure that we were building to the scale of the market,” explained Jeffers. “From a Minor League standpoint, it is a really healthy number. It allows us to be very successful in business as well as creating an unbelievable energy and environment within the ballpark.”

Spartanburg county is experiencing significant population growth, with projections showing a gain of more than 100,000 residents within the next 18 years, and an average of 29 people moving to the area daily. 

“We are trying to be very intentional,” offered Jeffers. “It’s hard for us to control what happens on the field – I can’t make a guy hit a home run, I can’t make a pitcher strike someone out – but we can control the experience the fans are getting outside of baseball.”

DBH was also deliberate in making sure the ballpark had all luxury amenities people expect including topnotch audio, visual and broadcast capabilities not just for games, but for concerts and festivals. For live productions, there are openings large enough for trucks to have access to the field and adequate power to eliminate the need for generators. 

“So that the other 299 days out of the year that we’re not playing Minor League professional baseball, we’re activating that facility in some form of fashion, whether it’s a private event or a public event on a mass scale at a concert, as well as the ability to create very unique elements within the facility,” explained Jeffers.

Ticket prices range from $5 per person on the berm to $40 for premium options that include food and beverage. Grab-and-Go hospitality at DBH ballparks is operated by Oak View Group’s OVG360 (OVG is Pollstar’s parent company). 

“We hope that people from Spartanburg are proud to say, I’m from Spartanburg and I’m a Spartanburger,” said Jeffers. “It plays into our core values and mission: to create magical moments for people.”