June 24, 2025
Thomas More Stadium (Capacity: 4,500)
Florence, KY
Florence Y’alls vs Windy City Thunderbolts
Final Score: 3 – 6
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During a summer vacation to check off another state, I took a brief break from Bluegrass Country and made the hour drive to Northern Kentucky for a visit to a new ballpark. Much of this area can be described as suburbs of Cincinnati given that the Queen City is only 5-20 minutes away. However, there is an identity to the area, especially as you get closer to the Ohio River in places like Newport and Covington. 12 miles to the southwest is Florence, a city of 36,000 people. There really isn’t much unique to Florence except the visual that thousands pass everyday on the highway. The red and white striped water tower has “Florence Y’all” painted on it, as a failed advertisement for a mall in the 1970s was adjusted by a simple letter change. In fact, the water tower is inspiration for the name of the baseball team. Debuting as the Florence Freedom in 2003, the team rebranded for more of a local flair by going to the “Florence Y’alls” in 2020. They have always been part of the independent Frontier League and as of the time of visit, are still looking for their first league championship. Florence is getting closer though. After not making the playoffs in their first nine seasons, they’ve made the postseason several times in the last decade. Games are played at a ballpark with an ever-changing name and it opened in 2004. It’s somewhat of a cheaper stadium, but I love how they play up the Y’alls theme.
Prestige Ranking: 2.5 out of 5
Location
Thomas More Stadium is a little south of town and it stands in between a huge business park to the southeast and a conglomerate of retail shopping centers / American chain restaurants to the north. For even more of suburbia, the Florence Mall is further down the road. That’s where the famed water tower can be found as well. Not much reason to stick around the area, but you at least have Newport, Covington and Cincinnati as more entertaining destinations not too far away.
Location Ranking: 5 out of 10
Accessibility / Parking
Interstate access is plenty in the region, many of them starting with the number 7. Interstate 71 goes right by Florence and the ballpark can be seen from the highway. This road has more traffic than I would have thought as leading to the game and heading home from vacation both had notable slowdowns. This delayed my arrival to the stadium by 10 minutes. Exit 180 leads to a brief ride on US-42 and then to Freedom Way for entrance to the ballpark grounds. Plentiful parking can be found in lots both north and south of the stadium. Getting out after the game was no trouble.
Accessibility / Parking Ranking: 7 out of 8
Exterior
Thomas More Stadium has a boxy look to it, comprised of a couple different structures. The color scheme is really good as dark red is prominent, along with gray and charcoal. It isn’t exactly team colors, but it’s not far off. They did put logos and teams slogans on the outside though and that helps add character.
Exterior Ranking: 7 out of 10
Concourse
Upon entering, it seems like a typical covered concourse behind home plate with an open field view. However looking above, it’s quickly apparent that this is a cheaper tent-like structure and not the usual suites perched above. It’s not a big deal, just a little odd. The cover doesn’t last long as a wide walkway extends down both lines. Towards left field, this leads to the “General Store” and the thankful feeling of air conditioning on this sweltering evening. On the other side (after navigating a protruding and snaking concession line) is the kids zone and it is extensive. The huge slide modeled after the water tower is a really cool feature. They also have a train and legit basketball court with hoops at different heights. If that’s not enough, you could take the kids to the arcade back in the concourse.
Concourse Ranking: 4 out of 5
Food
I opted for a Chicken Tender Cup on this night and that came with potato wedges. It was filling enough for a meal and I was satisfied overall. There weren’t many exciting things, though at least the ballpark mainstays were all available. Fried Pickles, Cheese Curds and Loaded Tots was the most exotic. For alcohol, the Bourbon Slush was definitely the most unique item. We are in Kentucky and I was glad to see this at the ballpark (didn’t try though as I’m not a fan of bourbon). For beer, there was an IPA on tap from Fifty West Brewing (Cincinnati).
Food Ranking: 5.5 out of 8
Interior
Even though it wasn’t that bad, I don’t know why I had a cheaper feel to this ballpark. The bowl was set in concrete and the chairs were finely made. Must be me. Anyway, there aren’t a lot of rows to the lower structure as 10-15 of them make up the seating bowl that extends a little into the outfield. It’s an angled approach with with one section behind home plate and then the rest facing straight-ahead in this type of shape \_/. Slope is notably poor as I didn’t like the sightlines and would hate them even more if someone was sitting in front of me. Chairs have an interesting color scheme as the blues, yellows and reds were chosen to harken back to nearby Cincinnati’s old Riverfront Stadium. Customized tables are set up in front of the concourse and a picnic area is at the end of the first base side. The “grassy” area after that is made up of tough, fake grassy that is old-school artificial turf like (and that’s not a good thing). Behind that weird cheap overhang is a disjointed array of faux suites, press box and party deck. It helps only a little with providing needed shade. In spite of faults, there is character to this place and it does not have the look of a generic ballpark.
Interior Ranking: 7 out of 14
Scoreboard
There are two displays and the main one in left-center features a very wide and large screen. It looks good as a clean line score is displayed at the bottom, while the rest is used for player information. The other board is used for practically the same thing. Too bad they never used the quality video for anything game related. Just the between-inning theatrics.
Scoreboard Ranking: 3.5 out of 4
Displays
I love how all-in the team went with the Water Tower / Y’alls concept. Wherever they could, the ballpark features the color scheme or logo. The mascot looks great too. I’ll give Florence 1 point here for their efforts, because otherwise, there are no team displays, banners, pennants, statues or plaques.
Displays Ranking: 1 out of 6
Cost
Florence has one of the best deals out there. On Tuesdays, tickets are just two bucks and so are hot dogs and sodas. Throw in free parking and you have your evening made with barely a dent in your wallet. Tickets for other days aren’t bad either at $12 or $16 if you buy them ahead of time. Concessions feature a $8 cheeseburger, $5 pretzel and beer for $10 or less.
Cost Ranking: 8 out of 8
Fan Support
Being a Tuesday Night, I wasn’t expecting much and indeed there probably was less than 1,000 on hand. That’s not terrible given the league and weekday. You can credit the promo for getting them into the stadium. The Frontier League isn’t exactly selling houses out as most of the league’s teams hover around the 2,000 mark for paid attendance and Florence is no exception. Last year, that was good for the team to rank 7th out of 15 and so far this year, it’s 12th out 18.
Fan Support Ranking: 3 out of 8
Atmosphere
It was never going to get too loud given the crowd size, but there were some good cheers throughout the game. Regulars sat in the section behind home plate and they were the most vocal overall, producing some spontaneous cheers as well. After Florence scored a run, t-shirts were thrown from the press box.
Atmosphere Ranking: 7 out of 14
Other Stuff
It was hot for this one as the game-time temperature was 91 degrees and the dewpoint was 72, making the heat index, 99. There was a sign right at the front entrance that said “No outside food or drinks” and it’s ridiculous not to allow water on these nights. Thankfully the guy at the table could care less about my water…..When I asked Guest Services if they add any programs, the young lady said “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about”. I had to explain what a game program was while sulking away at feeling old…..Besides the great $2 Tuesday promotions, other weekly promos include “Wrestlin’ Wednesday” and “Family Sunday” which includes bark in the park…..Thomas More is not a person, rather a university and they currently have naming rights to the ballpark. The nearby school’s baseball team also plays at the field…..Speaking of the field, the surface is field turf which allows for other events and tournaments through the year.
Game
Windy City put up a single run in six of the nine innings and the lead they built was never really in jeopardy throughout. The Thunderbolts would go on to win 6-3. Florence’s Brendan Bobo went 3 for 4 with two RBI.
Stadium and Arena Visits 
