Baseball came back to uptown in 2014 with Truist Field, the ballpark you see here, home of the Charlotte Knights, the Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, and one of the finest minor-league baseball stadiums in the country. The ballpark opened in 2014, bringing professional baseball back to the heart of uptown Charlotte after decades in the suburbs. The stadium was designed with a concourse open to the downtown skyline, so that fans watching a game look out over the city's towers — an intentional connection between the sport and the urban fabric around it.
The project was part of a broader revival of Third Ward, the southwest quadrant of uptown, which had been one of the most neglected areas of the city center. Minor-league baseball has a long history in Charlotte: the Hornets, named for the spirit that made British General Cornwallis call the region a nest of hornets during the Revolutionary War, played here for decades before the Knights took the name. On a warm summer evening, with the city lights rising beyond the outfield and a cold drink in hand, this is as good a place to watch baseball as anywhere in the minor leagues.