Jim Goulart

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.