12-team tournament will be held May 23-28 at the DBAP
The Atlantic Coast Conference and Durham Bulls have announced that the ACC Baseball Championship will return to Durham Bulls Athletic Park in 2023. The 12-team tournament will be held next May 23-28.
The city of Durham has hosted the ACC Baseball Championship 12 times previously, including seven of the past 13 tournaments. The tournament single-game attendance record of 11,329 was set in 2013 at DBAP (North Carolina versus NC State) and still stands as the largest crowd ever to view a college baseball game in the state of North Carolina.
The Bull City also played host to the second-largest crowd ever to watch a tournament championship game (9,759 for Florida State versus NC State in 2015).
“There’s terrific excitement surrounding our return to Durham for the 2023 ACC Baseball Championship,” said ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips, Ph.D. “Our teams and fans always appreciate the first-class experience at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, and we’ve not only set attendance records, but have enjoyed some of the most exciting games in the history of the ACC Baseball Championship. The Durham Bulls are amazing partners, and we are looking forward to another outstanding event.”
“We are proud to once again partner with the ACC to bring its baseball championship to Durham Bulls Athletic Park and the Triangle to showcase the best college baseball in the country,” said Durham Bulls Vice President Mike Birling. “The DBAP has hosted many memorable moments in ACC Championship history, and we look forward to continuing that in 2023.”
“Each championship event is a unique opportunity to showcase Durham as a championship hub, particularly when such a premier event returns for a remarkable 13th time,” said Marcus Manning, executive director of the Durham Sports Commission. “It’s also a demonstration of the Durham Bulls’ leadership and continued commitment to hosting events that have a wide-ranging impact on Durham and the Triangle area. The DSC is very excited to have this event back in Durham.”
For the first time in tournament history, ACC Network will carry all games played Tuesday, May 23 through Saturday, May 27. ESPN or ESPN2 will continue to carry the Sunday Championship Game.
Durham Bulls Athletic Park has played host to the ACC Baseball Championship 10 times previously, most recently in 2019. The total attendance of 64,140 for the 2015 Championship was the third largest in tournament history.
Durham Athletic Park, the Bulls’ previous home venue, welcomed the ACC Championship in 1984 and 1986. The 2023 tournament will be the ACC’s 49th Baseball Championship and the 25th played in the state of North Carolina.
The 10,000-seat Durham Bulls Athletic Park, located in downtown Durham, can be accessed from the Durham Freeway. The ballpark reflects many characteristics of old-time parks and the historic downtown Durham architecture. A 32-foot-high wall stands in left field 305 feet from home plate, resembling Fenway Park’s Green Monster. The Blue Monster, as it’s called in Durham, contains a similar old-style manual scoreboard.
A roof covers approximately 2,500 seats behind home plate and down both the first and third base lines to the end of each dugout. All seats at the DBAP are extra wide with seat backs and extra leg room. More than 95 percent of the seats have cup holders. The stadium was designed and built so that every seat gives fans a great view of the field with an intimate ballpark feel.
The ballpark’s most distinctive feature is the Snorting Bull which stands tall above the Blue Monster. This Bull was modeled after the bull used in the 1988 film, Bull Durham.
Next spring’s ACC Baseball Championship will again showcase some of the top talent in all of Division I. Nine ACC teams earned spots in the 2022 NCAA Championship field, one shy of the league record and tying for the most of any conference last season. The ACC has placed at least six teams in the NCAA tournament for 18 straight years.
Additionally, the ACC has placed at least one team in each of the last 16 College World Series, including Notre Dame in 2022.
Fifty-eight ACC players were selected in the 2022 Major League Baseball Draft, including seven on opening night. It marked the 31st consecutive year at least one ACC player was selected in the opening round and the seventh straight year the ACC placed at least one draftee among the top 15 picks.
Ticket information on the 2023 ACC Baseball Championship at Durham Bulls Athletic Park will be forthcoming.
Thanks to DBBC’s Andrew Green for this Capcom story & graphic.
