Astros Carolina League Affiliate To Play At Campbell

The soon-to-be Fayetteville Astros have found a home.

With no new ballpark in Fayetteville, N.C., scheduled to be completed before 2019, the Astros and Campbell University have announced that the team will play at the Fighting Camels’ Jim Perry Stadium in 2017 and 2018.

The team will be called the Buies Creek Astros since Campbell is located in Buies Creek, N.C.

The Astros’ new affiliate is part of Minor League Baseball’s decision to eliminate two teams–High Desert and Bakersfield–from the California League while bringing two new teams to the Carolina League. The Down East Wood Ducks are set to play in Kinston, N.C.’s Grainger Stadium.

While the new Kinston team had an existing stadium to move into, the Astros’ affiliate was homeless. The Astros and Fayetteville, N.C., have a memorandum of agreement to build a $33 million stadium to house the club, but no ground has been broken and no facility is expected to be completed before 2019.

The Buies Creek Astros will be sharing the facility with the Campbell team. The scheduling works out quite well, as Campbell’s season will begin at home on Feb. 17 while Buies Creek won’t play its first game until April 6, with a season opener against Salem.

Campbell’s schedule had only four home games scheduled after April 25, so while the facility will get plenty of dual use, the scheduling effects of having a college and a pro team in the same park will be relatively minimal.

Buies Creek is 35 miles from Fayetteville, the Astros’ long-term home. It has a population of a little less than 3,000 people.

By the time the Buies Creek Astros debut, Campbell will only have 10 home dates left in its season, and only four of those games will be after April 25. Campbell’s last home game is a three-game series against Longwood on May 18-20.

Campbell’s stadium dates back to the 1940s, but it has been extensively renovated over the past five years. It is named after Campbell alum and 1970 American League Cy Young winner Jim Perry.

The stadium improvements began in 2011 with new concession and ticketing areas. In 2013, the seating area was upgraded and expanded, bringing the total seating to 630 with 310 chair backs behind home plate. New turf was added behind home plate in an additional upgrade for the 2016 season and a new Jim and Daphne Perry Pavilion is set to be unveiled by opening day 2017. The new addition houses a new locker room, additional seating to bring total capacity over 1,000 as well as offices for the school’s baseball team.

The Astros and Campbell officials will hold at press conference in Buies Creek on Friday to officially announce the new team.