Dashing Around the Bases

Exterior of BB&T Ballpark, Aug-2010.

Looking down the left-field line from the concourse beyond the outfield berm.

The view from behind the plate, overlooking downtown Winston-Salem.

• Location: First and Green streets (alongside Business I-40), Winston-Salem, N.C.
• Opened: 2010
• Home team: Winston-Salem Dash, Carolina League (2010-present)
• Capacity: 5,500 (approx. fixed seats)

Chronological Tour: Stop 352

Rating: 3 baseballs

Since most of the parking is beyond the outfield, the main entrance and box office here is beyond the outfield. The only folks who walk in behind home plate are club seating ticket holders. The arrangement works fairly well, although the lack of escape routes does make egress a little bit slow.

While the park was certainly functional when I attended, it was incomplete. It appears that they plan to build a team store down the first-base line; as it stood at my visit, the team store actually occupied most of the space behind the plate that was originally designed as the press box. The radio crews do have separate booths off the room, but newspaper reporters have to work elsewhere. The space is tight enough that the line to pay for souvenirs bought from the store is on the concourse.

I also noticed that there is no whiteboard for the starting lineups. The visiting lineup was read rather quickly and with little advance notice, making it difficult to get it down on paper.

Otherwise, the park seems to work fairly well. Sightlines are good. The park is larger than some other High-A facilities, although its size compares favorably to the park in Wilmington. Perhaps when everything is complete, it will work even better. I may have to come back in a few seasons.

One pleasant, and notable, item is that the carousel from the old park was transplanted successfully to this facility. It operates in a separate kids’ area beyond center field.