Knights Stadium (1990-2013): Bye, bye old Friend :( (2/14/2015)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sonofsuperfly/sets/72157648565851434


After an unexplained delay, the former home of the AA/AAA Charlotte Knights, Knights Stadium/Castle in Subruban Fort Mill, SC (about 20 mins. south of Uptown Charlotte) is finally facing the wrecking ball . . .. .

Opened in April 1990, Knights Stadium was built by original Charlotte Hornets owner George Shinn, who bought the old Charlotte O's AA team just a couple of years before and moved the team to across the state line. George's original big dream was to have a MLB and/or NFL play at the stadium (which would've looked like SunLife Stadium in Miami as a multipurpose major league stadium). However, MLB passed over Charlotte early on in the 1991 Expansion Round (which saw Denver & Miami get teams) and the NFL eventually picked the Richardson Family and their Uptown CLT site (now Bank of America Stadium) to place their 1995 Expansion team.

Knights Stadium was a solid AA (1991-92) and AAA (1993-2013) Ballpark over its 23 years of operation. But the ballpark was built right at the end of the 'build it in the 'burbs' era of stadium/ballpark/arena building era in the early 90s. The trend quickly turned to building sports stadiums closer to the city's downtown core. Attendance was good for awhile for the AA/AAA Knights, but then attendance slowly started falling as fans started losing interest in the team due to the long distance to the ballpark. The Knights finally were able to move back to Uptown CLT with BB&T Ballpark opening in April 2014

I spent many summer/spring nights at 'the Castle' back in the college days at UNC Charlotte and later on when I moved back to town in Spring 1997; It was a ways out of town but it was still a solid minor league ballpark during its years . . . There was more than enough parking, easy access (it was right off of I-77) and it was pretty easy to get in/out of on most nights . . . . The Castle kept minor league baseball in town vs. moving to another city (which would've happened if a new ballpark for the then Charlotte O's had not been built eventually during the late 80s after Crockett Park burned down in Spring 1985) which Im sure many area baseball fans in the CLT area are happy about when everything is said and done !!!

KNIGHTS STADIUM (1990-2013) . . . Vaya con Dios . . . . Gone but never forgotten!!!!!!