DestinationFAY

W hether you are an observer or a participant, Fayetteville and Cumberland County offer a variety of sports activities. Sports fans have access to no fewer than six professional teams that call Fayetteville home, as well as a collegiate summer baseball league and one of the region's top dirt-track speedways where you can watch or participate in the action. For those with a competitive nature, the county also features some of the best golf courses in the state and a half marathon celebrating our military heroes at Fort Bragg. The top sports attraction is found in the heart of downtown Fayetteville at Segra Stadium, the $40 million home of the city's Low-A East minor league baseball franchise. The Fayetteville Woodpeckers are an affiliate of the major league Houston Astros. They play a 132-game schedule from early April to mid- September. Half of those games will be played at Segra Stadium, where more than 176,000 poured through the gates a year ago, despite dealing with early limitations and rules resulting from COVID-19. The situation followed a 2020 season that was wiped out by the pandemic. "If you had to put a grade on the 2021 season, for us, it would be an A-plus plus," said Pete Subsara, the Woodpeckers' assistant general manager. "Just the whole planning for last year while not getting a schedule until seven weeks before opening day and all the COVID protocols. We had a super-successful season last year revenue-wise, attendance-wise, being able to still give money back to the community. "A big part of that was our season-ticket holders base. We lost very few season-ticket holders during the pandemic. We probably couldn't have done it without them. We had a bunch of rules last year, obviously, with limited capacity and space podding a little bit, and masks because of the pandemic. So we're super grateful our fans abided by those. You can definitely tell fans are ready to get back out here." The Woodpeckers, who finished 55-65 last season, started the 2022 campaign on the road April 8. The COVID protocols were absent when the home schedule began with a six-game homestand against the Salem Red Sox. Tickets to home games can be purchased for the full season, in multigame packages or for single games online at the team website, milb.com/ fayetteville/tickets/single-game-tickets, or at the Segra Stadium box office. Even though this is just the fourth year at Segra Stadium for the Woodpeckers, 15 of their former players are already on the 40-man rosters for major league clubs, including 11 with the Astros. Get in the game Sports scene has all the action for players, spectators PHOTO BY TONY WOOTEN 28 DestinationFAY 2022-2023

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