Atrium Health Ballpark

• Name: Atrium Health Ballpark
• GPS-able Address: 1 Cannon Baller Way, Kannapolis, NC 28081
• Ballpark Owner: City of Kannapolis
• Architects: Populous
• Groundbreaking: 10/30/2018
• Minor League Baseball Teams: Kannapolis Cannon Ballers (A) 2020-present
• Class/League History: A/Carolina League 2022-present; A/Low-A East 2021; A/South Atlantic League 2020
• First Professional Baseball Game: 5/4/2021; stadium debut of Class A Cannon Ballers
• Others Playing or Operating Here: None
• Previous Ballpark Names: None
• LF: 325 CF: 400 RF: 315
• 'Seats: 3,218
• Stated Capacity: 4,930
• House Baseball/Softball Record Attendance (as currently configured): 5,391, 7/4/2022

Atrium Health Ballpark in Kannapolis, NC, is the home of the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers, the Chicago White Sox' Single-A Carolina League farm team. It was conceived as the key piece of a Kannapolis downtown renovation plan.

The city broke ground October 30, 2018, for its Populous-designed replacement and development anchor. While the Coronavirus pandemic would kill the 2020 season, the ballpark opened to the public that May and debuted baseball with a March 23, 2021, college game.

Once Kannapolis decided to revitalize, it used an option few cities have: to buy most of its own downtown. The process was simplified because most of the once company-owned mill town's property was still in the hands of one owner. Ground was broken for the ballpark on March 26, 2019 - but the over-arching goal is downtown revitalization.

Is it working? Initial signs are positive, with some businesses - not necessarily related to baseball - moving back to the area to take advantage of the increased traffic the ballpark brings. [1]

Atrium, then Carolinas HealthCare System, originally bought naming rights for the ballpark's suburban predecessor - five miles east of downtown - and dubbed it CMC-NorthEast Stadium to promote its Carolinas Medical Center-Northeast facility in nearby Concord. When the firm changed both its own corporate name and its facility branding, it renamed the old yard Intimidators Stadium supported by Atrium Health.

The franchise that now play as the Cannon Ballers moved from Spartanburg, SC, during the 1994-1995 off-season, originally playing in Fieldcrest as the Piedmont Phillies (1995) and then the Piedmont Boll Weevils (1996-2000).