The City of Fayetteville’s baseball team, the Fayetteville Woodpeckers, will mark five years as the City’s official partner with Project Homerun on April 18.

The City of Fayetteville signed the memorandum of understanding for construction of a stadium on Aug. 23, 2016, broke ground on Aug. 21, 2017 and held a ribbon cutting ceremony on April 13, 2019. The Woodpeckers played their first home game at Segra Stadium on April 18, 2019, five years ago this Thursday.

“The Woodpeckers have had a tremendous positive impact on our community, not just in revitalizing our downtown area, but also with the tax revenue the team generates for our City,” said Mayor Mitch Colvin in a press release. “This project has helped everyone see how Fayetteville continues to grow and improve and is a wonderful place to live, work and recreate.”

Since the Woodpecker’s first season, more than 800,000 people have attended a game at the stadium, averaging more than 205,000 visitors per season. 

The Woodpeckers have contributed $1.15 million in sales taxes since 2017. The team is also a viable corporate citizen through such enterprises as the Community Leaders Program that gives back $65,000 a year to the community, a reading program that provides free tickets to children who complete the Bunker’s Reading Challenge, school tours for Cumberland County K-12 students and more than a hundred mascot and team appearances.

To date, a total of 20 Woodpeckers players have gone on to make their Major League Baseball debut, including 2019 shortstop Jeremy Pena, who won the 2022 ALCS Most Valuable Player and World Series MVP.