📍 Charlotte, North Carolina
⚾ Home of the Charlotte Knights

Featuring one of the most impressive outfield views in baseball, Charlotte’s Truist Field has been consistently ranked a top minor-league facility. The stadium boasts an intimate urban setting, nestled amongst the skyscrapers of the Uptown skyline, and a welcoming social environment. Home of the Triple-A Charlotte Knights, the glamorous Uptown ballpark has been the crown jewel of the Queen City sports scene for more than a decade.

Truist Field opened as the much needed replacement of Knights Stadium, a lackluster steel and concrete colossus in suburban Fort Mill, South Carolina. That ballpark, far-flung and inaccessible to most of the team’s fanbase, was home to the Knights from 1990 to 2013 and was designed to be expandable for a potential Major League team. Due to long-held desires to attract an MLB team, the team was blocked from moving to a more advantageous location in the city proper for years, causing the team to suffer poor attendance and declining interest. After the debacle finally concluded, the Knights departed the Castle on I-77 and triumphantly returned to Charlotte in 2014.

The Knights’ origin story starts in the mountains of North Carolina with the Double-A Asheville Orioles of the Southern League. In 1976, that team would move to Charlotte, rebranding as the Knights in 1988. By 1993, the club’s status had been elevated to the Triple-A level due to the growth of the International League, coinciding with Major League expansion that same season. Since 1999, the Knights have been the top-level affiliate of the Chicago White Sox.

In the Southern League, the franchise – then known as the Orioles – won two league titles, and have clinched two International League crowns since becoming the Knights. Sadly, the team has not much success on the field since moving to Uptown; it’s certainly been a different story at the gate, though, with drastically improved attendance and excitement surrounding the organization.

Truist Field’s capacity of just over 10,000 has enabled it to host some top-tier baseball events. One of the first major contests to occur at the ballpark was the 2016 Triple-A All-Star Game, won by the International League, 4-2. It has also hosted plenty of college baseball, including the occasional ACC Tournament and exhibition games amongst local Division I schools. In 2024, it even hosted hockey when the field was the site of the Queen City Outdoor Classic between the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers and Rochester Americans.

While the immersive skyline view sets the tone for most of the ballpark’s atmosphere, Truist Field does have a few cool features and amenities. One such oddity is the dragon statuette near the batters eye, emitting smoke from its nostrils when the home team takes the field and after every Knights home run. On the concourse, concessions like Hungry Howie’s and Smokies Sausage Shack line the walkways and – in a city renowned for its craft brewery scene – the selection of beers is plentiful. The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery is a popular stop, as is the Paper Mill Pub, a split-level restaurant in the right field corner that opened in 2023.

As Charlotte continues to blossom and bloom, baseball will remain a steadfast staple here on warm summer nights. But with a potential Major League team in North Carolina once again entering the discussion, the future of the Knights is unknown. Will MLB expand to the Queen City or will Triple-A baseball persist? All that can be said for certain is that the Knights are enjoying wonderful success at their beautiful Uptown facility and that the team expects to have a long-lasting legacy in the region no matter what the future may hold.