Paterson Field

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Paterson Field is a baseball stadium in Montgomery, Alabama. The stadium has a maximum capacity of 7,000 people and was opened in 1949. Paterson Field has played host to the Montgomery Wings, an independent minor league team, in the past.

In 2001, they were part of the All-American Association; when the league folded, the Southeastern League of Professional Baseball picked them up for the 2002 season. The Wings were brought back for a final season in 2003 before an affiliate team from the Southern League, the Montgomery Biscuits took up residence in a newer waterfront park, Montgomery Riverwalk Stadium, which was opened in 2004.

The stadium is still in use today, having been used for high school and college baseball over the years.

[edit] A Short History & Description

A majority of seating inside Paterson Field is metallic bleachers with a few rows of box seats. Roof coverings shelter the three sections of the park behind home plate. The concourse is entirely covered, and situated below the seating. The concourse also provides no views of the playing field. Its location is in the downtown Montgomery area near the Cramton Bowl. The stadium was built with no view of the city while in the seating inside the park. Paterson Field has been continued to be used by amateur and high school teams even following the new ballpark opening back in 2004.

Montgomery's Paterson Field has been home to the NCAA Division II Baseball Championship since 1985 and not much else. Now, in addition to the smattering of high school and small local college games that have been staged here, there is a new team in a new league that has brought the crowds back to an area abandoned by affiliated minor league baseball in 1980.

Riding the wave of increased popularity in minor league baseball of any level, the independent All-American Association opened play in June of 2001 with teams in six cities. With the city's population count reaching 200,000, Montgomery was a logical choice for a franchise, and the city heartily welcomed the return of organized baseball to Alabama's capital city for the first time since the AA Southern League Montgomery Rebels left town 20 years earlier.