Home of the Crawdads

Exterior of L.P. Frans Stadium, May-2013.

An attractive main seating area.

The view here is of nothing more than trees and the scoreboard.

Chronological Tour: Stop 149

• Location: Clement Boulevard N.W., ½ mile west of US 321 (on the Catawba-Burke county line), Hickory, N.C. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 1993
• Home team: Hickory Crawdads, South Atlantic League (1993-2024), Carolina League (starting 2025)
• Capacity: 5,062

Rating: 3 baseballs

So why wasn’t I terribly enthralled with this park? There were a few reasons. One is the pricing structure. Seems they think a new facility gives them a license to print money, in the form of higher-than-average prices. Fortunately, the ticket prices are now somewhat normal, although the place still gets a $3 parking fee (which can be avoided by parking in a gravel lot just east of the park).

Another is the limited stadium seating. More than the usual amount of the park is bench seating, which they may say differentiates the pricing levels but still takes away from the park.

Finally, although the view is into a wooded area, that’s all it’s into. There’s nothing dramatic about it, even though the city is in foothills.

The ballpark is named for L.P. Frans, who founded the Pepsi Bottling Company of Hickory. Naturally, Pepsi products are featured.

The shift of the Down East Wood Ducks to Spartanburg, S.C., for 2025 resulted in the reassignment of that club to the South Atlantic League, where they will be a natural rival to the Greenville Drive. The Crawdads are moving to the Carolina League as a result.