Knights Stadium was a

baseball stadium A ballpark, or baseball park, is a type of sports venue where baseball is played. The playing field is divided into two field sections called the infield and the outfield. The infield is an area whose dimensions are rigidly defined in part ba ...

which served as the home of the

International League The International League (IL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the United States. Along with the Pacific Coast League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major ...

Charlotte Knights The Charlotte Knights are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. They are located in Charlotte, North Carolina, and play their home games at Truist Field ...

from 1990 to 2013 and had a capacity of 10,002. The park was located across the state line from

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 United ...

, in

Fort Mill, South Carolina Fort Mill, also known as Fort Mill Township, is a town in York County, South Carolina, United States. It is a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population of the town was 24,521. Some businesses and residents in th ...

. The stadium closed at the end of the 2013 season and the Knights moved to

Truist Field Truist Field is a baseball stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. The Uptown-area stadium hosts the Charlotte Knights, a Triple-A Minor League Baseball team in the International League. It is also the third sports building to be ...

in uptown Charlotte for the 2014 season. Knights Stadium was easily accessible from

Interstate 77 Interstate 77 (I-77) is a north–south Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States. It traverses diverse terrain, from the mountainous state of West Virginia to the rolling farmlands of North Carolina and Ohio. It largely supplants the ...

. Exit 88 (Gold Hill Road) connects the expressway with the former site of the stadium. A

water tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system, distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towe ...

painted to resemble a baseball on a tee, which can be seen from Interstate 77, was built near the stadium and still stands as of May 2025.

History

The stadium was built to

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

specifications to be used should Charlotte land a major league team. It was designed to expand to 40,000 seats by completely or partially enclosing the outfield. During construction, the Knights, then a member of the Class AA Southern League, played in an 8,000-seat temporary stadium known as Knights Castle. The present stadium was originally known as Knights Castle, but was renamed to Knights Stadium in the late 1990s. The stadium was still known among Charlotteans as The Castle. On July 13, 1992, the ballpark hosted the Double-A All-Star Game in which a team of

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is the younger of two sports leagues, leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western L ...

-affiliated All-Stars defeated a team of

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

-affiliated All-Stars, 4–3, before 4,009 people in attendance. The venue hosted the 1997 and 1998

Big South Conference baseball tournament The Big South Conference baseball tournament, sometimes referred to simply as the Big South tournament, is the conference baseball championship of the NCAA Division I Big South Conference. The top eight finishers in the regular season of the co ...

s, won by UNC Greensboro and

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, respectively. It also hosted the

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

and

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

Atlantic Coast Conference baseball tournament The Atlantic Coast Conference baseball tournament, sometimes referred to simply as the ACC tournament, is the conference championship tournament in baseball for the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). In 2017, the event adopted a modified twelve-tea ...

s, won by

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Established in 1885, it has the lar ...

and Wake Forest, respectively. On July 4, 2007, a franchise record 15,427 fans attended the game between the Knights and the

Durham Bulls The Durham Bulls are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. They are located in Durham, North Carolina, and play their home games at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, which opened ...

. This would be the exception rather than the norm for much of the new millennium, which saw sagging attendance. The stadium was located 20 minutes south of Charlotte, and many fans were reluctant to brave traffic on

to get there. The stadium hosted its last Knights game on September 2, 2013, a 4–0 Knights victory over the

Gwinnett Braves The Gwinnett Stripers are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League (IL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. They play their home games at Coolray Field in unincorporated Gwinnett County, Georgia (with a Lawrencevi ...

. After the game, several longtime employees dug up home plate and each of the bases and presented them to team mascot Homer the Dragon. Homer then saluted Knights Stadium one last time, and boarded a helicopter bound for Uptown Charlotte and BB&T Ballpark. In June 2014, York County sold the land to Cato Corporation, a Charlotte-based retailer of women's fashions and accessories. The contract Cato signed permits them to use the land for any industrial, commercial or residential purpose. The stadium was demolished in early 2015.

References

External links

Charlotte Knights - Knights Stadium
{{Charlotte sports venues Fort Mill, South Carolina Defunct minor league baseball venues Defunct baseball venues in the United States Sports venues in Charlotte, North Carolina Baseball venues in South Carolina Defunct sports venues in South Carolina 1990 establishments in South Carolina Sports venues completed in 1990 2015 disestablishments in South Carolina Sports venues demolished in 2015