Capital City Stadium

Capital City Stadium

Home of the Columbia Blowfish 

Opened: 1991 (site has been in use for baseball since 1927)

Seating Capacity: 6,000

Location: Corner of Assembly Street and Dreyfuss Road, Columbia, Richland County, South Carolina

Games seen in Database Era: 123 between May 30, 2007 and August 17, 2013

Latitude: 33.983536 N

Longitude: 81.028345 W

Distance from my house point-to-point (as the crow flies): 37.04 miles

Driving time from my house: 54 minutes

Today Columbia, South Carolina's capital and largest city, does not have a professional baseball team. The city's college team in the South Carolina Gamecocks are treated as one, drawing far more fans per game than any of the minor league teams in the state.But at one time, this was not the case. Periodically between 1892 and 2004, Columbia had plenty of minor league baseball teams. Capital City Stadium first opened in 1927 to the Columbia Comers of the South Atlantic League. Columbia teams came and went as the Great Depression and World War II went through. But from 1946 to 1961, Columbia continuously hosted a Cincinnati Reds affiliate in the South Atlantic League. That came to an end with the consolidation of professional baseball leagues, and the city went 22 years without professional baseball until Columbia got a team in the new South Atlantic League to move from Shelby, North Carolina. This new team was a Mets affiliate, and would be renamed the Capital City Bombers in 1993 after playing under the generic moniker of "Columbia Mets" for ten seasons. In 1991, Capital City Stadium's outdated grandstand was replaced. The team was never among the top drawers of the South Atlantic League but got decent support of around 2,000 fans per game.

But the Bombers' momentum in professional baseball did not last long. While the stadium was rebuilt to meet new professional standards in 1991, other cities in the league such as Charleston did a better job replacing their stadiums in the later portion of the 1990s. Capital City Stadium sat as a park designed to be serviceable to fans but not fan friendly and definitely not modern. The clubhouses remained outdated, and the stadium's location in a floodplain caused for substandard field conditions. The parent Mets did not feel that Capital City Stadium was up to standards for their professional players, and pressured their team to find a new stadium. In the meantime, Capital City Stadium struggled to find a core group of good baseball fans. The Bombers featured a GM who was the designated "host", as if the Bombers were a show and not a baseball team. The affiliation with the Mets was also not likely good in the late 1990s and early 2000s when the regional MLB favorite Atlanta was locked in a heated rivalry with the New York team. And as other fan bases in the South Atlantic League grew, the Bombers remained stagnant and if anything lost fans.

But a few blocks away, another Columbia baseball power was growing. The South Carolina Gamecocks aside from a solid stretch in the late 1970s and early 1980s had never been a baseball power. In the late 1990s, the Gamecocks barely drew over 1,000 fans per game, much fewer than their professional neighbors. But things quickly changed in 2000 when the Gamecocks had the best regular season record in college baseball, and then made the national championship in 2002 which set off a string of three straight College World Series appearances. Now the Gamecocks more than tripled their fan base and were now starting to draw crowds twice that what the Bombers were drawing less than a mile away. Wanting a more modern stadium to remain competitive in college baseball, Gamecock coach Ray Tanner also demanded a new stadium. Wanting to not lose the gold they had found in Tanner and a rising baseball program, USC put pressure on the City of Columbia for a new baseball stadium. The city initially came up with a plan to satisfy both teams, proposing that the new stadium be shared by both the Bombers and Gamecocks. But USC demanded concessions from the professional team, wanting the Bombers to pay rent for stadium usage. As the quickly rising power in local baseball, USC wanted to be the primary tenant of the new stadium. Knowing that they would be stuck in Capital City Stadium in Columbia, the Bombers' ownership got Greenville (which had lost their Class AA team over the past year) to agree to a new stadium. As the Gamecocks became increasing professional-like in baseball, Columbia would no longer host professional baseball. 

The stadium in a year quickly began to deteriorate, and the City of Columbia which owned Capital City Stadium was looking for a solution in how to use the park. Former Blowfish owner Bill Shanahan came up with the idea to save the park and keep baseball going on during the summer with a team in the collegiate summer Coastal Plain League. This new team would be called the Blowfish, named after the rock band Hootie and the Blowfish which formed at USC. The Blowfish quickly became one of the more successful teams in the Coastal Plain League, a league that generally has relied on smaller cities than Columbia like Florence and Edenton, North Carolina. The team drew an average of close to 1,600 fans their first season, not too far behind what the Bombers had drawn for professional baseball.

And part of that is because the Blowfish were marketed as a professional team as a replacement for the Bombers. The only problem was that the Blowfish are not a professional baseball team. The team plays in the Coastal Plain League, which generally takes mid-level college players who need a place to play in the summer. The Blowfish often takes Gamecock players, but generally Gamecocks who have not proven themselves yet and are known to USC fans. Blowfish attendance is now barely over 1,000 fans per game, often needing to give away tickets to local schools and Fort Jackson in order to keep their attendance near where it once was. They could still remain viable in the Coastal Plain League, but the City of Columbia now feels that more revenue could be generated through selling the land to a developer for a new shopping center.  The Blowfish as they were on their way to a league title in 2012 after six years of futility were potentially looking at their last season. Construction has been delayed now to Fall 2013, but it seems that the number of Blowfish games left at Capital City Stadium are limited. In six months, Capital City Stadium will likely have ceased to be.

Seating Capacity: A

The stadium holds 6,000, making it the largest stadium in the Coastal Plain League. The stadium was slightly bigger than most of its counterparts back when it was in the South Atlantic League, and seats about twice as much as a typical Coastal Plain League stadium. While professional teams sometimes faulted Capital City Stadium, capacity was not an issue. Even for big Blowfish crowds there is still plenty of room to move around in the park. Only when the Blowfish plays a team of ex-Gamecocks on the Fourth of July Weekend and when they host Fort Jackson Night in June does Capital City Stadium ever get close to capacity. Getting Blowfish tickets is never hard to do, and that is a plus here.

Quality of Seats: C+

Half of the seats at Capital City Stadium are chairback seats. But these seats are not very big and are mostly uncomfortable hard plastic that does not fold or bend. On a crowded night, this can occasionally be a problem. But the good news is that you will almost always have a back at Capital City Stadium, unless you arrive late for a crowded game. The view of the field is pretty good most places, particularly up high. In the front four rows which cost a dollar extra (often times you won't find somebody at the box office who can sell you a reserved ticket), the seats are usually at either a bad angle for visibility or too close to the wall surrounding the field. The exception is the front row behind home plate, which are only for season ticket holders. So the best seat at Capital City Stadium is up high behind home plate or down the line. You often have to go to the edge of the grandstand then since their is a screen that does not fit well with the regular backstop constructed on the top of each dugout after the Bombers' mascot was hit by a foul ball in the late 1990s. The home plate seats do have a roof protecting them which is very nice, although the roof is not as extensive as at Riley Park in Sumter.

Attractiveness/Uniqueness: C-

Look out towards left field, and you will see a deteriorating warehouse district along Assembly Street that also detracts from the location of the USC football stadium Williams-Brice. Look out towards, and you will see the large parking lot that goes uphill from the stadium (which affects drainage issues in the park). Columbia is actually a very attractive city, but you would not know it from the location of Capital City Stadium and especially Williams-Brice Stadium. The grandstand is a gray exterior with blue and yellow seats.  The stadium has a few trees along the Dreyfuss Road side down third base, and the third base side which looks more towards USC is the saving grace of the park as you look out towards College Corner.

Concessions: C+

Capital City Stadium has the usual ballpark fare, much of which is decent and sells very well. The park carries a good assortment of Pepsi products as well, better than the small Coke product selection at USC games. But I have to give Capital City Stadium a lower grade than Sumter's Riley Park here for two reasons:  the food selection is not very good past the usual ballpark favorites, with the pizza from Village Idiot Pizza & Pub being rather poor (it is still arguably the best food at the park though). The food is also slightly more expensive than Riley Park despite being of a comparable quality. So while the food is not too bad for its level, the concessions could definitely be better here.

Parking: B-

Getting into Capital City Stadium's large massive lot behind the outfield is usually pretty easy except when the school groups are arriving 30 minutes early. And aside from fireworks nights where the exit is blocked off to control the fireworks, it is usually pretty easy getting back onto Assembly Street going out. But the big minus on the park's parking is three dollars to enter the lot. Three dollars is a lot more than typical for summer amateur baseball, and part of the misleading environment into thinking that this is professional baseball. But so far in my CPL visits Capital City Stadium is the only stadium in the league that charges to park. It is unnecessary and makes the Blowfish one of the more expensive teams in the league to visit. And part of the CPL's appeal is its affordability.

Lighting: C

It's not television-level lighting, but it certainly works for this level. The whole park is fairly well lit in the stands and you can get decent pictures when shooting at a high ISO level. It's definitely not great, but adequate.

Fans: D+

Much of the Blowfish crowd consists of drunks and children, which is a strange combination of a crowd. It makes for a very hyper crowd, one not all too focused on the game. Brian Wilmer of Stadium Journey, one of the easiest graders on that site, commented on how much fans seem to get up and walk around and block the view of those near the front of the general admission seating as they walk to and from the concourse. It was even worse when the Bombers were the tenants of the stadium. And part of the Blowfish's legacy is trying to get the same crowd that the Bombers had, which does not really care about baseball. And for the Bombers' fans interested in professional baseball, that is lost a bit when they see the very amateur play of the Coastal Plain League. The Blowfish do have some fans that care about baseball, mostly working class fans priced out of Gamecock sports. They provide enough support to prevent a failing grade in this category.

Other stuff: C-

Capital City Stadium has some modern amenities when compared to the league's worst stadiums. It is only 22 years old. Yet for a 22 year old professional stadium, it is not in very good shape. The field is prone to flooding, leading to cancellation of games when there should not be. The stadium is starting to fall into disrepair in some places, and received complaints about the clubhouse facilities during the 2010 American Legion State Tournament. One decoratively lit arrow at the stadium still has the name of the tenant that has not played at the park in over eight years. Capital City Stadium is generally well run for being handled largely by USC interns, and the staff is much more friendly than those working at Gamecock games elsewhere in Columbia.  Capital City Stadium is a pretty good amateur park. But it tries too hard to sell itself to the City of Columbia as a professional park, and that might be what is ultimately leading to its downfall.

Summary: Capital City Stadium was a very poor minor league stadium. But it works well enough for college summer league ball. If you are in Columbia this summer, make sure you get to a Blowfish game. While more expensive than most CPL stadiums, it is still cheaper here than at the SEC sports that dominate the city. And the level of play is not professional, but despite what is detractors might say the CPL is much better than the Legion ball seen in Sumter. This 2013 season will be dedicated by the Blowfish to the stadium's long history and trying to preserve what might be lost in October. Hank Aaron, one of the greatest home run hitters of all time, once played on the grounds as a visiting player in his final ever minor league game and will throw out the first pitch in the Blowfish opener on May 29. There is a lot of history here, so make sure you see it before the last Blowfish game on August 5. Hopefully it will not be the final Blowfish game, which hopes to move to Lexington County if leaders there are more cooperative. The real value of the Blowfish is to keep the Columbia sports scene alive when USC is dormant in the summer. I have no idea why city leaders do not recognize the potential loss of summer sports in South Carolina's largest city. If the Blowfish fail to find a home in Lexington, maybe they can come to Sumter's Riley Park which would be a big boost for Sumter. Capital City Stadium may not be the best stadium for amateur baseball, but it works to fill in the gap of the dead zone of summer. Overall GPA: 2.25