Leland, N.C.- Step into the home of JFB’s office manager and you’ll realize right away that Doug Wahl is a sports fan. Jerseys hang on his walls, old trading cards are stored in closets. Autographed pictures of Gordie Howe, Arnold Palmer and Brian Urlacher are neatly framed.
Football, hockey, golf, even horse racing- he follows them all! But baseball is his first love. “It’s something I shared with my father,” he told us the other day. “Not just playing catch or Little League, but we would go on road trips to different stadiums, both professional and minor leagues. There’s nothing like being there in person. Going to the ballpark is the ultimate experience!”
That’s why Wahl and other sports fans in the Cape Fear region are very excited about the possibility that minor league baseball may be coming to town.
It was announced last month that the Town of Leland has been in talks with the Texas Rangers about the possibility of bringing a minor league team, ballpark, and entertainment venue to the area. Talks have included at least one trip where Rangers representatives traveled to Brunswick County to tour the area and another trip where community leaders from our area traveled to Arlington, Texas to visit the ball clubs professional facilities.
According to published reports, the Rangers, working in conjunction with a company called REV Entertainment, would construct a stadium off Highway 17 near the Brunswick Forest community. The proposed ballpark would have a seating capacity of 4,000. The site would not only host a minor league baseball team, but various events and concerts. The group released an official sketch of the park and surrounding areas that would occupy an estimated 1,400 acres.
“North Carolina is the most populated state that doesn’t have a professional ball club,” said Wahl. “And so minor league baseball is huge here! Everyone knows the Durham Bulls and the Charlotte Knights, Raleigh and Asheville also have teams. You look at a map and clubs are all over North Carolina, except in this part of the state.”
Currently there are ten minor league ballclubs in North Carolina. They range from Triple A organizations (the last stop before the majors,) to single A clubs which tend to feature kids directly out of high school. Kinston, Fayetteville, Greensboro, Hickory, Kannapolis and Winston Salem all have lower level clubs.
It’s been more than 20 years since a minor league club has called Wilmington home. In 2001 the Los Angeles Dodgers brought a team to Wilmington. The Wilmington Waves played their home games on UNCW’s campus, but the franchise only lasted a year. A decade later the Atlanta Braves tried to move a club to Wilmington with plans for a downtown ballpark that was ultimately rejected by New Hanover County voters.
That defeat on this side of the Cape Fear River may be among the reasons the Rangers are looking to Brunswick County. The proposed new facility in Leland would be publicly owned and needs the approval of voters. The timeline put forward by the Rangers would have the issue on this November ballot and, if approved, a groundbreaking would be held in the Spring of 2024, with opening day to take place in March of 2026.
While approval by the voters does remain a big question mark, the proposal does appear to have preliminary approval of several town leaders. The Leland town manager David Hollis issued the following statement in early February: “We are excited to have interest from REV Entertainment to work together with both Brunswick County and the Town of Leland to develop a world-class development concept with sports and entertainment as the anchor. We look forward to learning more about their interest and developing a potential partnership in the coming months.”
In addition to the stadium the baseball group would invest in the entertainment, restaurants, and hotel venues. “I’ve seen this happen before,” said Wahl. “Even with minor league clubs the stadium becomes a hub for the community, it becomes a business district with a lot of foot traffic during the games. I was in Oklahoma City when they developed an area around a new minor league park, and it became the trendiest part of town. I can see the same thing happening in Leland.”
The next steps in the process, according to published reports, are several more meetings between the town and the ball club. The two entities will likely have a joint press conference in late February or early March.