Politics, baseball culture muddle feelings on Carolina Mudcats’ move to Wilson

Story by Ethan Horton

Visuals by Carson Elm-Picard

The Carolina Mudcats, the minor league baseball team that has been the face of small-town Zebulon, North Carolina, for 33 years, officially decided in December to leave for a brand-new $73 million stadium less than 25 miles down the road in Wilson.

But the local and regional politics of the decision, the cultural and economic loss for Zebulon and the already-existing, deeply rooted baseball team in Wilson all complicate the move — even within the communities themselves.

The Mudcats’ relocation comes as a part of major consolidation and mandated stadium improvements in professional baseball. Back in February 2021, Major League Baseball announced it was changing the requirements for Minor League Baseball teams’ stadiums, setting off a scramble to improve facilities to stay within the new guidelines.

The Mudcats, the Single-A minor league affiliate of the MLB’s Milwaukee Brewers, were one of the scrambling teams.

Five County Stadium, which opened in 1991 for the team’s move to Zebulon from Georgia, was not up to the MLB’s new standards for minor league stadiums. Early estimates for required renovations were between $7.5 and $22.5 million, Zebulon Town Manager Joe Moore said.

The renovations — which would need to be made by the start of the 2025 season for any minor league baseball team to play in the stadium — included establishing women’s bathrooms and facilities in the home clubhouse and renovations to the away clubhouse and batting practice areas. 

The stadium, which can officially seat 6,500, was most recently expanded and renovated in 2004.

The Mudcats asked for $15 million in funding from the Wake County Board of Commissioners for the required improvements during a meeting in August 2022, soon after the team had extended its lease in Five County Stadium through 2027.

County staff said during the meeting that they were looking for affirmation from the county commissioners to continue to negotiate with the Brewers and Mudcats, and the Mudcats proposed the parties come back to the table in October 2022 for final discussions.

The Mudcats didn’t present again to the commissioners during an October meeting. By February 2023, just six months after the $15 million funding request, the Mudcats and Brewers had signed an agreement with the City of Wilson, about 20 miles east of Zebulon, for a brand-new stadium downtown, to be open before the 2026 baseball season.

Though the agreement between Wilson and the Mudcats was nonbinding, further negotiations on required renovations for Five County Stadium stalled.

Glenn York, the mayor of Zebulon, said the County even hired a negotiator to try to work things out with the Mudcats and Brewers. Moore said Zebulon negotiated with the Brewers in good faith until it was absolutely certain that Mudcats were leaving.

“But, once Wilson came in play and offered what they did, we could not match that,” Don Mial, the county commissioner for eastern Wake County, said. “That was where everything kinda went south.”

While the required women’s facilities for Five County Stadium were eventually paid for and completed, the improvements pale in comparison to the mixed-use development planned by Wilson, both in scale and cost.

The planned 6-acre-footprint stadium itself could cost up to $73 million, with up to 12 private suites, a view of downtown and a capacity of 4,500. 

But the full development — including a hotel, townhomes and a mixed-use building with 150 units of housing — would cost $282.5 million to build between the City of Wilson and its contracted developers.

Wilson’s inside baseball

Greg Suire was celebrating his 25th anniversary in Delray Beach, Florida, when he got a text from a colleague: “Did you know?”

Suire, the president of the Wilson Tobs — a non-MLB-affiliated baseball team with deep roots in the community — had no idea what the text meant.

But, back in North Carolina, the Mudcats had just signed an initial agreement to move to Wilson and inherit a brand-new stadium.

“The City blindsided us,” Suire said.

The Tobs have played, off and on, in Wilson since 1908. The team now plays in the Coastal Plain League, a summer league for college baseball players to showcase their skills for professional scouts. 

The team regularly draws crowds that fill Fleming Stadium, a nearly 100-year-old, 3,000-capacity stadium in the western part of town. The North Carolina Baseball Museum is a part of Fleming Stadium, and the Tobs are on the museum’s board.

The Tobs were in talks with Wilson for improvements to Fleming Stadium — or, Suire said, even for a new stadium downtown — during the late summer of 2022. Suire said the City was receptive to the ideas, but cut off communication suddenly in September 2022.

Since signing an extension on the Tobs’ lease in November 2022, Suire said, he has not received any official communication from the City.

The new contract between the Mudcats, Brewers and Wilson even includes a clause expressly prohibiting any Coastal Plain League team from playing a game in the new stadium.

Wilson’s mayor, Carlton Stevens, did not respond to requests for comment.

Back when he first heard the news about the Mudcats’ move, Suire told the Wilson Times that the Tobs franchise would fold — market sharing, he said then, is not possible in baseball.

Suire said he is a little more optimistic about the Tobs’ future now, after seeing the response from fans in Wilson.

“We have had strong season ticket sales and, if you believe social media — which sometimes that’s a good indication and sometimes it may be exaggeration — the support’s very strong for us,” Suire said. “There are a lot of people who are still very disappointed in how this process unfolded.”

The Mudcats’ contract with Wilson also includes a provision that the City can stop the team from moving within 25 miles of the new location. Five County Stadium is 24 miles away by road.

Zebulon’s ‘gathering spot’

The Mudcats — though well known locally for their baseball water tower outside the stadium and mascot Muddy the Mudcat — were never a money generator for the Town of Zebulon or Wake County, which own 15% and 85% of Five County Stadium respectively.

Funding for renovations at the stadium, and even regular maintenance, is the responsibility of those two governments, and will continue to be for at least another two baseball seasons while the new Wilson stadium is being built.

When it was completed in 1991, Five County Stadium was — as the name implies — intended to be the responsibility of the five surrounding counties: Wake, Nash, Johnston, Franklin and Wilson.

But, York said, over time and as the four other counties saw little economic impact from the stadium, Zebulon and Wake County took on a bigger role and had to pay more money to keep the stadium up to par.

Scott Dupree, the executive director of the Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance, said the benefits of the stadium in the eastern Wake County landscape and the opportunities it brings can often be intangible, from economic development and jobs to the mere presence of 60 home games every summer.

“To a lot of people in the Zebulon and eastern Wake area, it’s painful,” Dupree said. “It’s just a loss. It hurts to lose baseball.”

Now, though, there’s an economic opportunity for Zebulon, who won’t wait around for the Mudcats to officially leave in 2026. 

Moore said the Town is already in contact with several potential newcomers for Five County Stadium. Concerts, travel baseball, cricket and soccer are all on the table.

Hundreds of new homes are being built nearby — within walking distance of Five County Stadium. The Town has designated the area as a stadium district, with plans to renovate the area around the stadium and build mixed uses to bring people to the area — a “gathering spot,” as Moore, the town manager, said.

Plans for the district include a “Main Street” that bends around from one of Five County Stadium’s gravel parking lots to the other, a hotel, bike lanes and a dozen mixed use buildings.

“That’s really what the community was gravitating to,” Moore said. “As a quickly growing and diversifying town, having one common meeting space was the most important thing.”