📍 Kannapolis, North Carolina
⚾ Home of the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers

Based in a mid-sized suburb of Charlotte, the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers often get overlooked in discussions about minor league baseball – North Carolina, after all, has the second-most affiliated teams in the nation. But their contemporary venue, Atrium Health Ballpark, opened in 2020 and is paving the way, for better or for worse, the future of minor league baseball stadiums.

Minor league baseball first arrived in Kannapolis in 1995, when the Spartanburg Phillies ended a more than thirty-year tenure in the Hub City and relocated to Cabarrus County. First the Piedmont Phillies, and then the Piedmont Boll Weevils, the team finally settled down as the Kannapolis Intimidators after being purchased by NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt – whose nickname was “The Intimidator” – in 2001. Tragically, before the team played a single game under their new moniker, Earnhardt was killed in a crash at the Daytona 500 in February of that year.

Since their arrival in the area, the Intimidators had played at Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium, which was later known as CMC-NorthEast Stadium and Intimidators Stadium. Admonished for its lack of shade and modern amenities, the quaint ballpark was often only frequented by diehards and hyper-local families looking for a cheap outing, particularly in the venue’s waning days. The Intimidators played their final season at the stadium in 2019, intending to move to a new downtown ballpark the following season. To coincide with the move, the team was rebranded as the Cannon Ballers, named so in honor of the famous textile mill that was based in the city for decades.

Although the Ballers didn’t play their first game at the new Atrium Health Ballpark until 2021 due to the canceled Covid-19 season, the stadium still opened to the public in 2020 as a public park. To this day, it remains one of only a handful of minor league stadiums that is open daily for folks to peruse, though it is quickly becoming more common in newer ballparks such as Rocket City and Knoxville. The completion of the new ballpark also helped push along the redevelopment of downtown Kannapolis, which had been under construction and in disarray for several years prior to the ballpark’s construction. Today, the revitalized shops and public spaces that lie just outside the stadium gates give fans even more reason to hang around before and after games.

Atrium Health Ballpark boasts a capacity of about 5,000, just a handful more than its predecessor, but is full to the brim much more often, thanks in part to the increased amenities and comfortable atmosphere. During games, the lively tunes of Greasy Keyz – a talented organist who also performs at Charlotte Checkers games – float through the humid Carolina air, along with smells from concessions stands all along the concourse, which cater to a wide range of tastes and offer traditional ballpark fare, craft beer and barbecue. The family-friendly atmosphere is cemented by the large playground on the third base side and the enormous bounce house in the likeness of the team’s Earnhardt-esque mascot Boomer.

With a legacy that includes producing notable MLB All-Stars such as Jimmy Rollins, Carlos Quentin and Gio González, the Intimidators – and now, the Cannon Ballers – have consistently demonstrated their commitment to developing top talent and to remaining in the city of Kannapolis for the long haul, weaving themselves into the fabric of this textile town – all puns intended.