Gastonia planning a 'light' the FUSE

Gastonia leaders have invested three years of effort so far in developing the planned FUSE District just west of downtown.

All of that work is about to culminate in a long-awaited groundbreaking for the multipurpose events complex that will serve as the centerpiece of the 16-acre project. And the city plans to treat the occasion as a significant benchmark, by not only pulling out the customary shovels and having dignitaries shovel dirt, but also throwing a full-scale party.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the Franklin Urban Sports and Entertainment District will take place from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 3. It will be held at 800 W. Main Ave., in a once-dismal pocket of the city that has become immersed in high expectations since the FUSE vision was announced in the late summer of 2016.

Expect a big boom

Officials planning the festivities are aiming to create a celebratory environment and give local residents a reason to revel as they look forward to the stadium facility being completed. It's slated to host baseball games and other events beginning in the spring of 2021.

Beyond the words it stands for, the FUSE acronym references the push to create new economic development and private investment in the area. The goal is to do that by “fusing” downtown — a few blocks to the east — with the budding Loray Mill Historic District a few blocks to the west.

The evening’s events on Oct. 3 will kick off with the groundbreaking ceremony itself, which will occur on South Trenton Street, looking toward the stadium site. The Gastonia Police Department will set off a bomb to symbolize the ‘lighting of the FUSE.’

Base pads will be marked off in their eventual spots on the playing field. Each official participating in the groundbreaking will get a personalized, engraved FUSE bat, and will either hit a baseball off a tee, throw a football or kick a soccer ball into the FUSE site.

Food and entertainment

Food and drink vendors selling their specialties that night will include Cavendish Brewing Co., Will’s Doggn’ It Deli and Dogs, RO’s Barbecue and Renaldo’s Culinary Experience. The Lincolnton dairy known as Paul’s Distributing Co. will give out 500 free servings of ice cream, and other freebies will include 500 free servings of popcorn and cotton candy, and 600 cans of Sun Drop.

Entertainment for children will include sports inflatables offering a field goal kicking challenge, a radar speed pitch game, and more. Face painters, fairy hair artists and balloon twisters will also be on hand.

Musical entertainment will be headed up by Julian Wilson, the director of bands at York Chester Middle School, via a variety of instruments and vocals.

The city’s most recent estimates have put the cost of building the stadium at more than $26.2 million. The expectation is that it will help to drive a wealth of private investment and new construction, complementing the redevelopment of historic properties such as the Trenton Mill and former Coca-Cola bottling plant.

You can reach Michael Barrett at 704-869-1826 or on Twitter @GazetteMike.

Facts about the stadium and multipurpose complex planned in Gastonia’s FUSE District:

Stadium capacity: 5,000 seats

Scoreboard: 23 feet high by 42.6 feet wide

Field turf: 135,000 square feet, 22,000 pounds and 11 tons

Facility footprint: 6.73 acres

Electrical wiring: 55.25 miles

Field lighting: 13,932,000 lumens

Concrete weight: 8,192 tons

Structural steel: 394 tons

Number of bricks: 43,830

Gallons of paint: 4,150 gallons

Glass: 2,230 square feet

Bathroom stalls: 92

Lockers: 65

Doors: 100

360-degree concourse distance: 1,790 feet around field (approximately 1/3 of a mile)

Construction: Rodgers Builders

Engineering: LaBella Associates

Architecture: Pendulum Architects