The Durham Athletic Park could be getting a facelift.

The storied park was home to the Triple-A Durham Bulls
baseball team for years, and scenes from the movie “Bull Durham” were filmed
there.

The park sits on almost 5.5 acres in the Central
Park area of downtown Durham. 

The city said the space is “underutilized,”
and has opened a survey on the future of the park.

The survey emphasizes the city does not plan to
sell or use the land private use, “such as privately owned or rented
condominiums.”

“Open space is
lacking in the urban center of Durham and this space shall remain accessible to
the public,” the survey said.

Employees and owners at businesses around the Durham
Athletic Park want to see more events and accessibility, while preserving the
open space and history. 

“My family
would visit all the time for games; we really love it there,” Atom Edwards, an
employee at Bull City Running Company, said. “I’d really like to see just more
community outreach and community events taking place there.”  

Chris Creech is the co-owner of the Glass Jug Beer
Lab, with one location on Foster Street. They’ve sponsored some baseball tournaments at the
ballpark. Creech said the space gets more use in the warmer months. 

“We see some traffic when there are bigger
events out there,” Creech said. “It’s nice having the Rare and Vintage Beer
Festival there in January. They obviously put up tents and heaters for that.
I’d love to see more events doing that sort of thing.”  

He believes some infrastructure could make the
space more inviting year round. 

“Having more rain covered or sun shaded areas with
tables and chairs and places for people to hang out,” Creech said.

Creech said events and upkeep of the space as an
urban park could bring more foot traffic to the already bustling Central Park
area. 

“There’s a lot of good bars, restaurants,
breweries on that side of town, but the more we can bring people to the north
side of downtown and give them other things to do and get them walking around,
it’s going to have people walk through our doors,” Creech said.

The City’s survey is open until Feb. 28.

Source: wral.com