New Fredericksburg Ballpark


The New Fredericksburg Ballpark is a multi-purpose stadium being built in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The stadium will have 5,000 seats, a 300-seat club facility, and 13 suites. The estimated cost of the stadium is $35 million. In 2020 it will become home to the Fredericksburg Nationals, a minor league baseball team of the Carolina League and the Class A-Advanced affiliate of the Washington Nationals. The stadium will also host a variety of community athletic and social events.

History

Background

The Potomac Nationals, playing since 1984 at Northwest Federal Field at Pfitzner Stadium in Woodbridge, Virginia, began seeking a better ballpark at least as early as 1998, with various proposals made in 2000, 2002, 2005, 2010, 2011, and 2016.
Meanwhile, Fredericksburg worked with the Hagerstown Suns in 2013 and 2014 on plans to relocate that team for the 2015 season, but those plans fell apart.

Approval

In June 2018, Potomac Nationals owner Art Silber announced that he had signed a letter of intent to build a new stadium in Fredericksburg that would open in April 2020. In November 2018 the Fredericksburg city council unanimously gave final approval for the Silber family, doing business as Potomac Baseball, LLC, to finance, build and maintain the stadium with the city as an "anchor tenant" making an annual payment to the club of $1.05 million for 30 years. The team held a contest to rename itself and announced on October 5, 2019 that the team would be renamed the Fredericksburg Nationals.

Construction

A groundbreaking ceremony was held on February 24, 2019, but construction work had not begun as of May 20, 2019. A month later it was announced that site work would begin in July 2019. In August 2019, the Fredericksburg Economic Development and Tourism Office released a video of earth being moved at the construction site.
The Potomac Nationals played their last regular season game at Pfitzner Stadium on August 29, 2019. On September 25, 2019, general manager Nick Hall said, "We're 100 percent planning on opening April 23, " and that the first concrete could be poured as early as the next week. MASN reported on January 13, 2020 that Hall had said that construction was on schedule; that he was confident the venue will be ready for the 2020 season; and, "The seating bowl should actually be finished by the end of next week."
With the 2020 season start postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nationals held a virtual opening day on April 23, 2020. Hall said that the stadium was baseball-ready though construction was not yet complete, even though, with construction deemed as essential business, "The construction progress has gone off without a hitch." Construction was continuing at the start of June 2020.
The start of the 2020 season was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic before ultimately being cancelled on June 30. Thusly, the FredNats may not play their home opener until at least 2021.