Spartanburg minor league baseball team's name, logo revealed. City celebrates with party
The official name of Spartanburg's minor league baseball team has been revealed.
Next spring, fans from Spartanburg and beyond will gather to cheer on the Hub City Spartanburgers, an affiliate team of the Texas Rangers.
Spartanburg's last baseball team, the Spartanburgers, shared part of the team's name. The Spartanburgers were a collegiate summer baseball team in the Coastal Plain League that played at Duncan Park in 2021.
The announcement was made through a humorous video played to the crowd. The video featured a brainstorming session, hints at possible names (with Jack Black's "Peaches" playing on the radio), and a visit to The Beacon. Why Spartanburgers? The video said, "You can't beat a classic."
Jamarcus Gaston with Channel 7 News' Your Carolina hyped up the crowd for the name reveal with the help of a drumroll from Jack Roper.
The team name and logo, a hamburger wearing a conductor's hat over a retro fast food-styled team name, were revealed during a community block party on Daniel Morgan Avenue Saturday evening.
The merchandise shown during the event featured the primary colors of lettuce green and navy, with red, yellow and white accents. Local high school baseball players modeled some of the jerseys on stage.
The team's general manager, Tyson Jeffers, expressed his commitment to creating more quality experiences for the Hub City Spartanburgers' already large fanbase based on the crowd packed onto Daniel Morgan Avenue for the announcement. The name announcement party featured food trucks lining the streets, photo ops, a mobile video game trailer and plans to end the night with fireworks.
"We're here to stay and our team's mission and our team's vision is to make sure that we're creating an unbelievable experience for all of you every single time that we open the gates for whether that's baseball or some other type of event that we're hosting at Fifth Third Park," Jeffers said.
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Councilwoman Ruth Littlejohn, who watched the announcement on the stage in a Spartanburg Professional Baseball Club T-shirt, said she thought the name was "appropriate."
"The Beacon's right down the street and it's right in the center of Spartanburg," Littlejohn said. "Although, I never would have guessed that (name), I think that it's appropriate and I like it."
Mayor Jerome Rice called the stadium and its surrounding developments the "biggest project in Spartanburg's history" at the stadium's groundbreaking. Seeing the Spring Fling-size crowd on Daniel Morgan, Littlejohn was confident Spartanburg was ready for the 2025 season.
"I am so grateful to the Johnsons for their vision and for all of the investors," Littlejohn said, referencing the project's developers, Johnson Development Group. "I don't think I've ever seen this many people in the city of Spartanburg at one time, and for them to show up for just the name means that they are really going to show up and support this team."
Spartanburg's new downtown stadium: Ground breaks on 'biggest project in city history'
Fifth Third Park to feature 3,500 seats and more
The team’s future home, Fifth Third Park, will be a 3,500-seat, $58.76 million stadium with a public plaza and parking garage.
The stadium’s design received final approval in March, and crews have been working rapidly since the Nov. 2 groundbreaking to ready the site for baseball season next year.
The city will own the stadium, but Diamond Baseball Holdings will manage it and the team.
This month, the Design Review Board approved the design for the parking garage and its accompanying surface lot, which will open onto the plaza. The stadium will be surrounded by retail, more than 300 apartments, offices, and a new hotel.
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How many teams does Diamond Baseball Holdings hold?
In addition to the Spartanburg team, Diamond Baseball Holdings owns 32 other teams across the country in 21 other states and one in Canada, the Vancouver Canadians.
South Carolina: Hub City Spartanburgers
New Mexico: The Albuquerque Isotopes
Pennsylvania: Altoona Curve, Harrisburg Senators, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders
New York: Binghamton Rumble Ponies, Hudson Valley Renegades
Alabama: Birmingham Barons
California: Fresno Grizzlies, Island Empire 66ers, San Jose Giants Baseball Club
Georgia: Augusta Greenjackets, Gwinnett Stripers, Rome Emperors
North Carolina: Hickory Crawdads, Winston-Salem Dash
Iowa: Iowa Cubs
Michigan: Lansing Lugnuts
Kentucky: Louisville Bats
Tennessee: Memphis Redbirds
Texas: Midland Rockhounds
Mississippi: Mississippi Braves
New Hampshire: New Hampshire Fisher Cats
Virginia: Norfolk Tides, Salem Red Sox
Oklahoma: Oklahoma City Baseball Club, Tulsa Drillers
Maine: Portland Sea Dogs
Missouri: Springfield Cardinals
Minnesota: St. Paul Saints
Kansas: Wichita Wind Surge
Massachusetts: Worcester Red Sox
The Spartanburgers will be the only South Carolina-based team, but they are not the only team playing in South Carolina. The Augusta Greenjackets, based in Augusta, Georgia, play at SRP Park in North Augusta.
Stadium and surrounding Grain District project have statewide funding sources
The $58.6 million baseball stadium is just part of the larger $225 million multi-use project that will transform the area known as the Grain District.
The project is being funded by the state legislature, which provided $54 million, $1,873,000 from Spartanburg County, $3,610,319 from the Downtown Partnership Committee and $305 million of private investments.
The city is putting $67.5 million toward the project, which they are issuing bond debt, approved on first reading by City Council in April and up for a second reading Monday. The bonds will be paid back through Spartanburg County Accommodations Tax funds, City Hospitality Tax funds, additional funding from the Downtown Partnership Committee, and stadium lease payments.
Samantha Swann covers city news, development and culture in Spartanburg. She is a University of South Carolina Upstate and Greenville Technical College alumna. Contact her at sswann@shj.com or on Instagram at @sam_on_spartanburg.
This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: The wait is over: Spartanburg baseball team's name and logo revealed
