Segra Stadium
Fayetteville, NC
Review by Gary
Pro baseball returned to Fayetteville, North Carolina in 2019 with the construction of Segra Stadium and the birth of the Woodpeckers, a Houston Astros affiliate in the Low-A Carolina League. Having seen the Cape Fear Crocs migrate north to Lakewood, New Jersey’s Shore Town Ballpark, the city was devoid of professional baseball for 19 years. While Segra was being built, the Woodpeckers roosted at nearby Jim Perry Stadium in Buies Creek, NC for the 2017 and 2018 seasons as the Buies Creek Astros.
Segra Stadium is an attractive ballpark shoehorned among an Airborne & Special Operations Museum, an apartment building and a still-operational train station. The train tracks run right along the third base side of the ballpark with passenger and freight cars rumbling past during games. Passengers waiting for their train can try to see some of the game through the chain link fence that runs along the platform.
A commemorative Babe Ruth HR sign is right by the main entrance to celebrate where Babe Ruth’s first professional home run was launched, but little else was found to notate the history of baseball in the town. Fayetteville began hosting minor league teams in 1909, most recently at JP Riddle Stadium, where organized ball was played from 1987 through 2000.
Segra Stadium’s only entrance is at the top of a flight of stairs to the concourse behind home plate. The playing field is not dug out into a bowl like many ballparks so fans can either walk down to their seats or walk around the periphery of the ballpark on the raised walkway to a huge variety of 4,600 seating choices. Couches, bar stools, table-tops, picnic tables and numerous places to stand reveal that Segra Stadium can fit around 9,000 folks for events.
One unique feature was the plastic Rocking Chair section that juts out into the playing field and invites unusual caroms off the trapezoidal wall. While one must pay only slightly more than a regular seat to rock in this centerfield section, anyone without a ticket is verboten from entering. Even on a night when NO ONE was sitting here, a nice-but-stern ballpark employee was assigned to ensure that only those with a ticket enter this plastic-molded domain. Two unsuspecting fans who tried to sit in the rockers were booted. The Woodpeckers probably lost money paying the usher to guard the unsold rockers! Yours truly tried one rocker out while the arrest was taking place and decided that I would not have chosen to sit in the unbreathing plastic see-saw anyway.
Another field-encroaching (probably reserved) seating section can be found on the other side of the batter’s eye in right field, just to keep the outfielders on their toes. On the whole, Segra Stadium is a great place to spend an evening. With many food and drink options and plentiful seating options to “peck” and choose from (provided you have the right ticket), your price of admission will be a delightful investment.
2025
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