June 25, 2010
Campanelli Stadium (Capacity: 4,750)
Brockton, MA
Brockton Rox vs New Jersey Jackals
Final Score: 9 – 3
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During a stay in Providence, RI for a work-related event, I made the 40 minute drive into Massachusetts to see the Can-Am League’s Brockton Rox play at Campanelli Stadium. The city of Brockton is surprisingly the 6th largest in the state and is located in Southeast Mass, about 45 minutes from Boston. It is known as the “City of Champions”, thanks to their successful high school & two local boxing heroes; Rocky Marciano & Marvin Hagler. The Rox used the Boston Red Sox as inspiration for their nickname and there’s even a shirt that has the Red Sox lettering logo, without the e, d or s and says “Half the letters, double the fun”. Brockton has captured one league title (2003) and have been playing in Campanelli Stadium since their inception in 2002. After a near shutdown of the franchise at the end of last year because of debt, new management has kept the Rox going.
Prestige Ranking: 2.5 out of 5
Location
Campanelli Stadium is located on the edge of the small city core as it sits adjacent to the high school and across from a shopping complex anchored by a grocery store. Fast Food places are also along this strip, nothing worth planning a pre-game meal for. Brockton’s downtown is 5 minutes from the area and despite many 3-5 story buildings along Main Street, there really is no need for a visitor to make the detour.
Location Ranking: 4 out of 10
Accessibility / Parking
I-95 is well off to the west and highway connections are needed to reach Brockton. This would involve I-93 or I-495 and then from there taking the north-south running Route 24. Despite it not having the interstate tag, this is a six-lane highway. These connections make it a straight-forward approach to the stadium, which is just minutes from Exit 31A. There also isn’t that much traffic in this neck of the woods (comparably to other parts of the region. The bad part is parking and from a first timer’s perspective the set-up is not good. There is no indication on where to go for the game and I ended up parking at the shopping center. Not ideal because despite a quick walk to the ballpark, you have to cross busy Route 123 to get there. Especially concerning at night. As I made the walk, I discovered the real place to park is the high school off of Memorial Drive. If there would have been signs pointing me to this or the Rox webpage had any information about parking here beforehand, none of this would’ve been a problem as that lot is more than sufficient (editor’s note, the Rox added detailed parking information the following season).
Accessibility / Parking Ranking: 6 out of 8
Exterior
The outside design has a red and silver look, with the outer walls looking a little run down. Behind home plate is the ‘core’ of the exterior. The box office is at the top of a gray brick structure and there is a small sign for the name of the stadium. A couple of long sets of stairs are on either side. One interesting feature on the outside is the presence of silo-like structures at the top of the stadium. Not sure why those were there. Regardless, the overall stadium look is good.
Exterior Ranking: 6.5 out of 10
Concourse and Food
The entire concourse has a view of the playing field and spacing seemed adequate. It was nice not to have the back of a press box in the way behind home plate, like it is at many other Independent League ballparks in the Northeast. Neat touches around the concourse were the artist renderings of Rox players drawn on the support beams. Not so neat were the renderings of clowns on the walls of the bathroom entrance. Creepy. The concourse just goes behind the infield on the first base side and there’s some open congregation and kids play in this section. Nothing goes into the outfield. Food and drink options were fine with several offerings, though the lone unique item seen was kielbasa.
Concourse Ranking: 3.5 out of 5
Food Ranking: 5.5 out of 8
Interior
Inside the ballpark is a one-level arrangement of seats that extend unevenly from near third base, to deep into the outfield on the other side. A nice touch is that on the longer side of seats, the end sections turn slightly towards the infield. The chairs are ok comfort-wise, but lack cupholders, plus the pitch of the seating bowl is more shallow than the average ballpark leading to a suboptimal sightline. The red look is consistently good as the seats pops as a result. I’m not sure why the Rox colors are brown and teal. The base for the seats is aluminum, not concrete, so it kind of cheapens the park (same for the siding used in the concourse). Suites and the press box are perched over the concourse and these have a generic look. An unusual feature that is mainly unrelated to the park is a banquet and entertainment facility called the Shaw’s Center at the end of the seats near third base. Parties during the game could use the back lawn to entertain and watch baseball. The outfield view at Campanelli is generally plain, though the high school football stadium can be seen in right.
Interior Ranking: 7 out of 14
Scoreboard
The square-ish scoreboard has an organized look as it starts with an electronic line score at the bottom, while a video screen is in the middle and surrounded by ads. At the top is a nice outline of the stadium name and a small clock. There is also a small out-of town scoreboard in right field that has space for just two teams. You guessed it, Boston and New York.
Scoreboard Ranking: 2.5 out of 4
Displays
Aside from the drawings and designs mentioned earlier in the concourse, I did not see much in the way of displays at Campanelli Stadium. Rox honors are ignored, but they at least honor sporting greats from the city. Both Rocky Marciano and Marvin Hagler have jerseys hanging on the outfield wall, with the number of official boxing victories they had in their career used as the uniform number.
Displays Ranking: 2 out of 6
Cost
Ticket prices were mainly under $10, except for a few rows near the field ($15). The rest of the costs were fine and concessions were relatively reasonable (though I can’t stand seeing “Cheese Cup…$0.50”).
Cost Ranking: 7.5 out of 8
Fan Support
This game was a typical night and thus far Brockton has averaged 2,296 in 2010. That’s consistently put the team second in the league’s attendance rankings. Digging deeper, the numbers are negative as the Rox have had lowered attendance every year since 2005 (when they averaged 3800). That’s nearly a 50% drop in the span of five years. This has been a recurring theme with baseball teams that I have seen of late. Brockton remains one of the stronger teams in the league, but support seems to be dropping off.
Fan Support Ranking: 4 out of 8
Atmosphere
A typical minor-league atmosphere accompanies the game in Brockton. The crowd was full of families and it also became a teenage hang-out. In the stands, fans were attentive and provided good cheers, though the number of 13 year-olds running around and gossiping was annoying.
Atmosphere Ranking: 6 out of 14
Other Stuff
Oddly, the team store is located outside of the gates in front of the ballpark. Fans can’t access it inside the stadium, which is very strange. To accommodate, a few merchandise tables were selling some limited Rox items…..Not many times does the mascot makes me chuckle, but “KO” was actually entertaining, along with the on-field MC…..This is the first ballpark where I have seen cheerleaders (the Roxies) and it really does not fit in well with baseball…..The stadium is named after Alfred Campanelli, a very generous citizen of Brockton who denoted a lot of his time and money to charitable acts. That includes this ballpark.
Game
In the game, Brockton started the first inning by scoring a couple of unearned runs. After a solo homer in the 2nd, New Jersey fought back with a pair of two-out hits that tied the game at 3. In the decisive fifth inning, Melvin Falu and Phillip Cuadraro hit a pair of two-run home runs for the Rox and the 7-3 lead that they built, held up for a 9-3 victory. Mike Wlodarczyk got the win.
Stadium and Arena Visits 
