Baseball is Back in the 'Burg!
How Spartanburg's new stadium can enhance walkability
This past Saturday, Spartanburg’s professional baseball team hosted a community block party downtown to celebrate baseball coming back to Spartanburg and to unveil the new team name. In this blog post I will discuss my experience at the block party, how this stadium (and the other developments associated) could enhance walkability in Spartanburg, and yes I will touch on the name of the team.
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Okay, the name.
Before I get into discussions of walkability and sports stadiums and community vitality, I will talk about what everyone wants to read about. If you are sick of the discourse at this point, feel free to skip over to the next section. This will likely be the last time I contribute to it in any capacity but I am sure at least a few readers of the blog want to know what I think.
The name of Spartanburg’s new Minor League Baseball (MiLB) team is the Hub City Spartanburgers. This name was notably also the name of a Coastal Plain League (CPL) collegiate that played only one season in 2021. The team moved to Spartanburg from Gastonia in 2021, with their former name being the Gastonia Grizzlies. It is important to note that the CPL team did not include Hub City or Sparkle City or Spartanburg within their name. They were simply just the Spartanburgers. When CPL folded the Spartanburgers, they cited the primary reasons being COVID-19 related financial difficulties and how much it would cost to renovate Duncan Park, where the team played.
The 2024 MiLB update to the Spartanburger’s name adds the Hub City part of the name and a train hat onto the currently unnamed burger mascot. The burger is also accompanied by a spatula named Flip and a pickle slice named Chip.
Now, I have heard plenty of folks express disappointment due to the name being hyped up only to be a glorified update to a name from fairly recently. I understand being a tad underwhelmed by the choice. I have seen other people on social media who are are just too self-serious to be caught dead in a hat, shirt, or jersey adorned with a burger. I find that to be kind of silly, but alas.
Ultimately, I do not know much about baseball or sports to comment too much further. I glanced at the list of other MiLB teams, and it seems like silliness is typical. You have the Montgomery Biscuits, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, the Lansing Lugnuts, and the Sugar Land Space Cowboys. I don’t get the general impression that MiLB takes itself all that seriously. I may get some pushback from locals on this, but I do think that the Hub City Spartanburgers is a much more fun and interesting name than the Greenville Drive.
Could the name have been better? Probably. But I am okay with it and I will be getting a hat and going to watch some baseball. Let’s move on to more important matters.
The Block Party
I will keep this section short. I had a lot of fun. A few friends and I grabbed coffee at Little River Coffee Bar, grabbed dinner at Konnichiwa of Spartanburg, and then hung out at the block party downtown. I saw a lot of folks I have not seen in awhile and even met some people in real life for the first time.
The energy at the block party was great. Folks were really excited for what is coming to our city. Once the name was announced, the merch line filled up quick. I will also note that there were a LOT of bicycles parked all over, which definitely shows that downtown needs to up their bike parking game.
The Stadium & Walkability
And now we shift to the key reason I want to write this post. The City of Spartanburg has talked a lot about how this stadium has the potential to bring about a “multiplier effect”, meaning that it will help drive further economic growth in Spartanburg. With this, I believe that it is vital that the stadium increases the walkability of our area.
This already seems to be the case, as the stadium will also include hotels, apartments, and mixed-use retail areas. I am also glad that the stadium is getting parking garages that are mixed-use, rather than massive surface lots like many suburban stadiums around the country. I hope to see a good capacity for bike parking in front of the stadium and I hope to even see the Hub City Hopper extended to the stadium. It would be great to give a safe path for families to walk or bike directly to a baseball game.
My other hope is that this stadium drives growth that helps all of us. I do not want walkability and livability solely for those who can afford to live downtown. I do not want urbanism for the rich. I want this stadium, and the developments fueled by it, to further expand our trail network so that folks all over my city and county have access to infrastructure that makes active transportation easy and safe.
We are already heading in a good direction in my opinion, but I want to push for that to continue. I want this stadium to enhance the walkability of the Grain District. I cannot wait to grab a coffee and work at the Coffee Bar in the afternoon before going to a baseball game that evening just a short walk away.
Until next time,
Liv.