DBAP to Get an Upgrade in Off-Season
by Aaron Schoonmaker, WRALSportsFan
Image of the new Durham Bulls Athletic Park.
With a restructured lease between the Durham Bulls and the City of Durham completed, all that stands in the way of a Durham Bulls Athletic Park facelift is the success of the product . Now that the Bulls have wrapped up play in the 2013 Governor's Cup playoffs their sixth trip to the postseason in the last seven years ground will be broken on more than $9 million worth of repairs, upgrades and renovations to the 18-year-old stadium.
Eighteen years ago, the Bulls were a thriving Single-A affiliate in a city on the precipice of a cultural resurgence, and naturally, the DBAP reflected that. Since then, the team has been promoted to Triple-A, the city has flourished in the areas around the ballpark and cultural ideals have demanded more than just baseball when attending a baseball game. Soon, the DBAP will reflect that growth as well.
When this place was built, it was built for a Class-A Atlanta Braves team. Now all of a sudden you have Triple-A and you have 10,000 people, the infrastructure from a concessions standpoint can't keep up, said Mike Birling, general manager for the Bulls. I think the great thing is, because of what has happened to downtown Durham, we have a great partnership with the city. It was always, how can we help each other?'
The solution came in the form of a lease restructuring three years in the making that will take the financial burden of day-to-day baseball operations away from the City of Durham.
In May, the city and the Bulls agreed on a lease that will keep the baseball team in the DBAP through the 2033 season and have the team assume all operating costs. In exchange, Durham will remain on the hook for $12 million in deferred and owed money and will collect a 3-percent share of any gross revenues that exceed $10.75 million annually for team-played home games and 1.25 percent for special events. The new deal is expected to save the City of Durham roughly $10 million over the life of the contract while estimates show that the Bulls generate approximately $7 million for the city annually.
Slideshow
Durham Bulls Renovation Plans
We started talking about, if we are going to keep spending all this money on things the fans aren't going to see, we are going on our 18th season at the ballpark, let's see if we can work out a situation where we can work out a longer lease, Birling said. The city didn't want to be in the business of maintaining a ballpark. We said, OK, we will take that all over but let's focus on trying to find a way that this stadium can be built up for the next 18 to 20 years to where people come in here and still say this is a new ballpark.'
The renovation plans for this offseason are targeted to cost $9 million - $6 million to be paid by the city and $3 million by the Bulls. Any costs that exceed the budgeted $9 million will be covered by the baseball team. The Bulls are currently owned Capitol Broadcasting Company.
Among the listed items on the renovation plans: an expanded club level gathering room with monitors, seating and a kitchen; added concessions on concourses; added picnic-style seating areas; improved field lighting and an added ticket gate along the left field line. The stated goals are to make the ballpark a viable place to host events in the offseason and have fans be able to enjoy the ballpark's amenities while missing as little game action as possible.
One of the big parts of minor league baseball is turning their ballparks into 365-days-a-year venues. You need the space where you can hold anything from fantasy football drafts to Christmas parties, Birling said. We also want this to be a food experience. That's what we are doing with these is adding concessions where you can still see the field.
The Bulls fell just short of drawing 500,000 fans during the 2013 regular season, totaling 498,735 for 70 home games. That breaks down to an average of 7,125 per game for a stadium that seats 10,000. And while DBAP is the smallest stadium capacity-wise in the International League, it continues to out-draw nearly all of them. Unfortunately, this leaves the current concessions over-populated on a routine basis.
That's where almost all our complaints come from our lines at the concessions. You can't see the game, I missed two innings,' Birling said. The biggest key is to try and fix that so the fans, when they think of our game experience, they love the on-field stuff, they love the facility, and now, the food lives up to those standards.
New stadium, new field
Separate from the offseason structural renovation projects at DBAP will be a long overdue field restructuring. New sod, drainage, underground plumbing and even new scoreboards will be part of a separately budgeted project funded by the franchise that will coincide time-wise with the structural facelift.
Normally, a Major League team will replace the sod every few years. Minor League teams usually do it every 8 to 10 years, Birling said. We are going all the way down - all the irrigation, all the pipes. This is 18 years old, we have plastic pipes that have broken. We have to go in and take everything out and start over.
The project will include doubling the size of the scoreboard on the Blue Monster in left field and making it completely LED. The rotating advertisement fixtures along the right field wall will also be converted to LED, making for easier customizations that will better cater to non-baseball events.
The deadline
In case you missed the announcement, the Durham Bulls and Durham Bulls Athletic Park will host the 2014 Triple-A All-Star Game. The nationally televised event is a five-day festival of showcases, galas, the home run derby and more all leading up to
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
When Canada qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026, OneSoccer knew this wasn'...
04/07/2026
Celebrates company's 80th anniversary
Rhodes have recently revealed that they will be producing a limited run of electric pianos in celebration of their...
04/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Cameras Empower Youth Broadcasting Program
Brie Clayton July 3, 2026
0 Comments
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and Blackmagi...
04/07/2026
iZotope Joins Boris FX
Boris Yamnitsky July 3, 2026
0 Comments
iZotope, the team behind RX and Ozone, is joining Boris FX. A letter from founder Boris...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/07/2026
New bundle & three Single Packs
Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...
03/07/2026
Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room
LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...
03/07/2026
Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV
3 July, 2026
Media releases
National Indigenous Television (NITV) has strengthened its commitment...
03/07/2026
1 February 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Death Star
Andy Marken July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Look, I can't get involved. I've got work to do. It's not that I like the Empire; I hate i...
03/07/2026
Berklee's New Visual Identity: Honoring Our History, Building for What's...
03/07/2026
Scripps Research scientists awarded $2M to advance global disease surveillance Two Gates Foundation grants will expand wastewater surveillance and AI-driven dis...
03/07/2026
Joan Pulupa joins Scripps Research faculty to study the organization of DNA in brain cells and its links to neurodegeneration Using smell-sensing neurons and ad...
02/07/2026
Entering her senior year, this hometown girl is paving a career in live sports production gaining experience in replay and audio and as a TD
In the live-sports...
02/07/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
02/07/2026
BLAST, a competitive entertainment company focused on esports, has announced more than $133 million in revenue for 2025, representing more than 40% year-over-ye...
02/07/2026
Riedel Communications has announced official SKAARHOJ panel support for SimplyLive production workflows, enabled through the SimplyLive 2.1 release. The integra...
02/07/2026
The Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic has deployed LiveU video-over-bond...
02/07/2026
Gravity Media USA has announced the appointment of Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development, effective July 1, 2026. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Bosto...
02/07/2026
TwelveLabs, a video intelligence company, has announced $100 million in Series B funding co-led by NEA and NAVER Ventures, with participation from Amazon, Radic...
02/07/2026
The Pro Padel League (PPL) has announced a broadcast partnership with USA Sports that will air five PPL championship matches on CNBC during the 2026 season, the...
02/07/2026
LiveLike, a digital fan engagement platform, has announced eight confirmed FIFA ...
02/07/2026
Cobalt Digital has received Future's Best of Show Award, presented by AV Technology at InfoComm 2026, for its blueCORE family of standalone signal processor...
02/07/2026
Synamedia has announced the appointment of Dr. Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transition...
02/07/2026
The Esports Foundation (EF) and Sony Group Corporation have announced an expanded collaboration for the Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC), taking place in Paris, Fra...
02/07/2026
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. ( Z') has announced exclusive broadcast and digital rights for the Bundesliga in India for five years, beginning with the...
02/07/2026
An effort uniting News, Sports, Local, and Telemundo, the 50+-camera live produc...
02/07/2026
Zoey Deutch, John Slattery, Ken Marino, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, and Ben Wang appe...
02/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
02/07/2026
A new era in unmixing and spectral editing
The latest version of Steinberg's spectral audio-editing software has just arrived, building on the strength...
02/07/2026
Aims to simplify additive synthesis
Sine Machine is the debut launch from Melatonin, a Vienna-based developer who have spent the past six years creating wha...
02/07/2026
Products to remain fully active & supported
Following the news of Native Instruments joining the inMusic brand line-up, Academy and Emmy Award-winning visua...
02/07/2026
What you missed!
Last weekend, Saturday 27 June 2026, saw the debut of Sound On Sounds new GearExpo UK event, the largest dedicated pro-audio event to take ...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Following the successful launch of its inaugural APAC Mentoring Programme last month, the Rise AV APAC Regional Council will bring the conversation around mento...
02/07/2026
Blackmagic PYXIS 6K Used to Shoot Director Takahisa Zeze's Cry Out
Brie Clayton July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Highly mobile camera supports tense and de...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions acquires BFE, expanding its lead in European broadcast, medi...
02/07/2026
Berklee Alum and Faculty Perform at Boston Public Library's 250th Anniversar...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions GmbH, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast media industry, is acquiring BFE Studio und Medien...
02/07/2026
Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has extended the ingest facility at leading Brazilian sports company LiveMode, work...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Standalone processors acknowledged for the innovation and value they bring to Pro AV
Cobalt Digital, a leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing ...
02/07/2026
Synamedia announced today the appointment of Dr Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transitio...
DBAP to Get an Upgrade in Off-Season
