Carolina Mudcats to Play in Brand New Stadium in 2026

[Jim Goulart]

The Brewers scored a major player development win on Thursday night, and it wasn't because they acquired top prospects in a trade. There was a reason that Tyler Barnes, the team's Senior Vice President of Communications and Affiliate Operations, was on hand in Wilson, North Carolina, and in a congratulatory and celebratory mood. It was there that the Wilson City Council voted and authorized a major public investment of $69 million in bond financing for a new stadium for the Brewers-owned Carolina Mudcats, part of an also-approved partnership with private developers to invest upwards of $212 million in the surrounding community. This Wilson Times article provides us with further detail and photos from the council meeting, while this additional article from the Times includes many quotes with reactions, both from those thrilled and concerned.

Image courtesy of Drew C. (Wilson, NC Times) - Photo of Artist Rendering

Wilson is located about 25 miles east of the current ballpark home of Zebulon, North Carolina, and 45 miles east of Raleigh. Five County Stadium in Zebulon opened in 1991 and was extensively renovated in 1999. It has a capacity of 6,500 (the new proposed stadium will include 3,500 fixed seats with a total capacity of 4,500 on game day - source). The reduced capacity makes sense for a team playing at the low-A level. Five County Stadium was facing at least $20 million in upgrades in order to comply with the new stadium criteria set by MLB as part of the downsizing of minor league affiliates to 120 (four per organization).

Those new criteria included larger clubhouses, both for home and visiting teams, enhanced food prep and dining areas, better field lighting, weight room enhancements, batting and pitching tunnels, and separate locker rooms for female staffers. Those won't be concerns with the new stadium as all these factors will have been taken into consideration.

Before we highlight additional positives, we should point out that this is a tough break for Zebulon, the town of 7,000 (Wilson's population is 50,000). There are going to be longtime supporters and ticket holders impacted, and workers who will lose jobs once the next two lame-duck seasons are completed. We imagine some will make the move "three exits east" but there is a real concern regardless in the Zebulon community. This article is not written without pausing to share condolences in that regard.

There will also be an impact on the Wilson Tobs, an amateur team playing in the Coastal Plain League, an NCAA-sanctioned collegiate summer baseball league. They play at classic 1939-built Fleming Stadium (awesome link here) and have found solid support through the years within the Wilson community. By the way, the Tobs' mascot is a tobacco worm.

The Brewers completed the purchase of the Mudcats in October 2017, just as their first-year association with the affiliate was ending. The purchase price was not formally disclosed. Especially within the last year-plus, the organization actively shopped the concept of relocation, and became major lobbyists for the Wilson plan. It is not hard to see why. As of 2026, the facilities ladder of Carolina - Wisconsin (Appleton) - Biloxi - Nashville will be among the very top of quality in all of MLB. Affiliates entered ten-year Player Development Contracts (PDC agreements) starting in 2021 across all of baseball. As for the Milwaukee chain, the only kink may be what happens in Nashville should the city score an anticipated major league expansion team before the end of this decade.

Many of the players the Crew will draft domestically and sign out of Latin America prior to the 2026 season will be christening the new Wilson ballpark. But will the team still be called the "Carolina Mudcats"? The "Wilson Mudcats", perhaps? It seems there is language in the agreement which may force a recognition of the city name in the team's identity. It's going to be tough to have a Mudcat embedded within the letter W compared to the iconic letter C we're all familiar with, if Mudcats even remains the alias. Well, the Timber Rattlers have certainly made the W integration work, though much easier to do with a flexible rattlesnake.  Do yourself a big favor and visit this feature on the iconic Mudcats logo:

His logo made the Carolina Mudcats tens of millions of dollars. He got none of it.

In addition to the extremely positive player development aspect, there seems to be additional cause for celebration in the Milwaukee front office. Other than entering a lease agreement and paying rent once the park opens, it does not appear the Brewers are contributing any dollars towards the stadium plan itself, nor the surrounding development.

From a fan standpoint, for the devout fans of the Crew's minor league system, this is also excellent news, enhancing how the organization's prospects will impact the big-league club down the road (not thrilled with the artificial turf mention we’ve seen, however).

There is opportunity to fully maximize the new facilities and there will certainly be larger, boisterous crowds during the franchise's early existence in Wilson as fans check out the new digs.

Here at BrewerFanatic, we have been on top of this story since word broke in February. Since it did not gather much traction in the Brewers press coverage or online community elsewhere, you may wish to check out the thread that has been maintained to see how things progressed.

 

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[Joseph Zarr]

Thank you for writing such a thorough, thoughtful and well-written piece here Jim. This is a major announcement for the system. Very exciting. Very bittersweet. My thoughts go out to the Zebulon community.

From a strictly baseball perspective, however, this is just awesome for the lower levels and the DSL/ACL players promoted to Milwaukee's Low-A affiliate. 

I'm going to miss that massive CF wall at Five County. Hopefully, they pay their due respects and go bigger 😂. Really glad there is finality for the Mudcats future vision awaiting the ballclub.

[Jim Goulart]

 

[Jim Goulart]

 

[Jim Goulart]

 

[Jim Goulart]

 

[Jim Goulart]

 

[Joseph Zarr]

5 hours ago, Mass Haas said:

 

Boy, that article reminds me once again: All too often there just aren't manners or etiquette in politics and business. There's a lot to unpack in that article. In the end, the true 'travesty' of Five County Stadium was perhaps its original scope (?) being too broad - which, oddly, was filled with an implicitly stated dream of cross-county representation and participation. It's nice to see their community moving forward regardless with the vision of a community-centric stadium 'district' offering their growing community opportunities to enjoy a feature in their town. As to the shareholders in the community of Wilson, it certainly isn't a good look when the higher-ups allegedly shut down communication with a centuries old plus baseball institution in the Wilson Tobs. Can we not in the very least communicate clearly and directly in 2024? Granted, this is only told from the Tobs perspective so this may not be the case. Hopefully, their fandom and popularity continue (I imagine it will) even with the arrival of the Mudcats. Hopefully, the ongoing relationship at Five County stadium and in Zebulon can remain amicable over the next couple of season. 

[CheezWizHed]

Interesting change from our "norm".  Typically when you hear one of our affiliates getting a new ball park it means someone else coming in and we move elsewhere.  

Nice to actually own the pipeline this time. 

[MudcatsfaninBrunsCO]

I was watching this city council meeting live on the stream and I was like please no don't move and they voted yes): Also their mayor pro tem led the meeting because the mayor was out sick or something! Sad to see my fav minor league club move.

[Jim Goulart]

Clearing Begins on Mudcats Stadium

It’ll be a tight timeline for the 2026 planned opening.

[Playing Catch]

Does anyone else wonder what will happen to the Brewers AAA team if MLB awards a franchise to Nashville?

This move further away from Raleigh concerns me as this stadium probably won't draw from Raleigh, nor be a big enough stadium to go AAA.

[Jim Goulart]

It's a side note and the Wilson, NC area will hear about it throughout the next year-plus, but the long-existing college wood-bat league team is going to be steamrolled out via the new stadium, where they won't be allowed to play.

Will next year be Tobs’ last in Wilson?