Home of the Crawdads

Walking into L.P. Frans Stadium, Aug-1998.

An attractive main seating area.

The view here is of nothing more than trees and the scoreboard.

• Location: Hickory, N.C.
• Opened: 1993
• Home team: Hickory Crawdads, South Atlantic League (1993-present)
• Capacity: 5,062

Chronological Tour: Stop 149

Rating: 3 baseballs

So why wasn’t I terribly enthralled with this park? There were a few reasons. One is the pricing structure. Seems they think a new facility gives them a license to print money, in the form of higher-than-average prices.

Another is the limited stadium seating. More than the usual amount of the park is bench seating, which they may say differentiates the pricing levels but still takes away from the park.

Finally, although the view is into a wooded area, that’s all it’s into. There’s nothing dramatic about it, even though the city is in foothills.