Five County Stadium

• Name: Five County Stadium
• GPS-able Address: 1501 NC-39, Zebulon, NC 27597
• Ballpark Owner: Wake County; Town of Zebulon
• Architects: ODELL Associates
• Groundbreaking: 1/19/1991
• Minor League Baseball Teams: Carolina Mudcats (A) 2021-present; Carolina Mudcats (A+) 2012-2020; Carolina Mudcats (AA) 1991-2011
• Class/League History: A/Carolina League 2022-present; A/Low-A East 2021; A+/Carolina League 2012-2020; AA/Southern League 1991-2011
• First Professional Baseball Game: 7/3/1991; stadium debut of Class AA Mudcats
• Others Playing or Operating Here: None
• Previous Ballpark Names: None
• LF: 330 CF: 400 RF: 309
• Seats: 6,250
• Stated Capacity: 6,500
• House Baseball/Softball Record Attendance (as currently configured): 9,281, 7/4/1996

Five County Stadium in Zebulon, NC, is the home of the Carolina Mudcats, the Milwaukee Brewers' Single-A Carolina League farm team. "The 5Co" lies in Wake County, less than a mile from Franklin, Nash, and Johnston counties and just over 10 miles from Wilson County.

Then-Mudcats owner Steve Bryant chose the location after the Durham Bulls declined to waive their territorial rights so he could return affiliated baseball to North Carolina's capital, Raleigh.

Bryant, a local advertising executive, bought the Columbus Astros (of Columbus, GA), in 1988 and promptly changed their brand to the Columbus Mudcats. Zebulon's prospective ballpark finally reeled in his Mudcats in 1991, now dubbed the Carolina Mudcats, but it was not ready to host them until July 3rd. They played the first half of their season at Fleming Stadium in nearby Wilson. The ballpark's rushed construction was rudimentary, and it was extensively renovated in 1999.

Not only the stadium has undergone drastic change. The 'Cats ended the Affiliate Era a different franchise in a different class, league, level and farm system, than the team that moved in. Bryant's purchase was of a Houston-affiliated Double-A club in the Southern League. In 2011, facing increased overhead when Minor League Baseball said it would start enforcing a rule that requires teams to fly rather than bus most of their road trips, he sold them to Quint Studer of Pensacola, FL. Studer then helped Bryant acquire the Carolina League's Kinston Indians. The 2012 season thus dawned with Bryant's old team playing as the Pensacola Blue Wahoos and his new one as the Carolina Mudcats. The brand, still on that franchise, survived Bryant's 2017 sale of his team to the Brewers.

The playpen again appears to be facing the possibility of losing its team - ironically, to the same Wilson that temporarily hosted the Mudcats in 1991. The county seat of the aforementioned nearby Wilson County hosted professional baseball as long ago as 1908 but has now gone without it for 50 seasons, except for the '91 'Cats, and it lies more than 25 miles farther from Durham than does Zebulon. Wilson City Manager Grant Goings compares their situation not to marriage or even engagement but to going to the prom and open to what might happen.

On February 16, 2023, the city of Wilson and the Mudcats organization signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to explore the possibility of building a multi-use facility that would become, among other things, the new home of the Mudcats franchise.[1]

This could be a trial balloon, as the Wake County Commission has yet to act on stadium upgrades the Mudcats requested in the summer of 2022, but it could also be a way for the Mudcats to bypass the need to bring The 5Co up to new ballpark standards MLB included in its 2021 Minor League Reorganization by the 2025 deadline.

However, Wilson is serious enough that, four months after the initial memo, its city council approved $640,000 for the costs of exploring the possibility.[2]