Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Blue Rocks and Delaware Stadium Corp. begin renovation of Frawley Stadium

Delaware Public Media

Wilmington’s Frawley Stadium will be busy this off-season, but there’s no games on the field involved.

The Blue Rocks and Delaware Stadium Corporation are starting renovation of the nearly 24-year-old facility by replacing all of the 6,532 seats at stadium

“A good portion of those seats were 24 years old .  So, they really needed a facelift after 24 years. It was the logical place to start," said Delaware Stadium Corporation executive director Joe McDonald.

As part of the renovation, all aluminum bench seating will be removed and replaced with individual seats. 

McDonald says he expects fans will notice a difference.

“I think the seats will be a little bit of an upgrade.   They’ll be all uniform in color," said McDonald. "And when you walk in the stadium I think you’ll see it right away and say ‘Wow, it looks good.’”

The team and Delaware Stadium Corporation are selling the old seats.  They can be bought individually or in pairs for between $99 and $279.

The cost of replacing the seats - and doing additional needed infrastructure repairs and upgrades - is being paid for by $1 million allocated to the Delaware Stadium Corporation by state lawmakers this year.

And more changes could be coming in the coming years.  The Rocks’ co-owners, Clark Minker and Main Street Baseball,  announced last December when they took over the team that they intended to undertake a major expansion and renovation project.

McDonald says that larger vision is starting to take shape now.

“We’ve hired a firm that’s developing new designs for the renovation and at the same time they’re coming up with some realistic ballpark [estimate] of what it would take to do this complete renovation," said McDonald.  "Shortly, they’ll be giving us a presentation and then at that point we’d have to go about the business of trying to raise the money of trying to accomplish it."

McDonald adds Frawley Stadium has worn well over its 24 year history.  It was built in 1993 by the construction company owned by Clark Minker’s father, the late Matt Minker, who was also a long-time owner of the team before his death in 2007. 

And the team that calls Frawley Stadium remains popular.  282,437 fans came to  their 68 home games in 2015 – an average of just over 4,1oo per game.  That ranked third in the Carolina League.

Tom Byrne has been a fixture covering news in Delaware for three decades. He joined Delaware Public Media in 2010 as our first news director and has guided the news team ever since. When he's not covering the news, he can be found reading history or pursuing his love of all things athletic.
Related Content