GREENSBORO, N.C. — The crack of the bat and the roar of the crowd are some of the things you experience inside First National Bank Field from April through September when the Greensboro Grasshoppers play.
"Minor league baseball is all about family, affordability, fun, bringing the community together for a common cause," said Scotty Brown, who is an operating partner of Temerity Baseball. 'We have kinda identified the Greensboro franchise as one of the strongest in all of minor league baseball."
Temerity Baseball bought it back in January because it's a strong franchise. The group also owns the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers.
"With the proximity to our first franchise, the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers, this made a lot of sense," said Brow. "A lot of synergies, the potential to do things in conjunction, this was very attractive to us."
Brown said the goal here in Greensboro is to create a year-round experience for fans.
"They really want to develop this section of downtown and those things take time, but there are already plans looking at partnerships with land buildings to perhaps activate this section of downtown more than it is," said Brown.
Looking at what Temerity did in Kannapolis, the Cannon Ballers' stadium has become a public park.
"We get a lot of traffic because the gates swing open every morning, something that we’re looking at, I think that may be something a couple of years down the road," said Brown.
With the 2022 season underway, Brown said this year is about watching and listening.
"This is our chance to get to know the community a little bit better," said Brown.
It's also a time to start creating plans.
"One of those things might be enclosing our party deck up on the top of the 3rd base side, enclosing that, creating a club of some sort that could be a host of non-baseball events," said Brown.
Temerity also wanted to enhance the players' experience.
"We’re looking at things like new batting tunnels, new weight rooms, new things for the players to develop," said Brown.
While nothing is set in stone, Brown said changes and upgrades will for sure happen.
"It’s fun," said Brown. "I call it tinkering with it because you know it's working, you know it doesn’t need wholesale changes."
It's all to enhance Hoppers baseball and the stadium for the community invested in this organization.
"It’s really great to see that people love their baseball here and we just want to turn it into an event every time we swing the gates open," said Brown.