For 35 seasons, a Zebulon summer had a soundtrack: catfish sandwiches, Muddy the mascot, and the crack of a Milwaukee Brewers farmhand's bat over on NC-39. That soundtrack ended on August 31, 2025, when the Carolina Mudcats lost 1-0 to the Delmarva Shorebirds and walked off the field for the last time in front of 5,877 fans.
What replaced it is not a smaller version of the same thing. It is a different arrangement entirely, and if you live here, the practical texture of a Zebulon weekend has already shifted around it.
What actually changed on NC-39
The physical building is the same 6,500-seat park that opened in 1991. Almost everything else about how it operates is new as of this spring.
- The name. Nomaco Park was known as Five County Stadium until 2026. Nomaco is a Zebulon-based foam-engineering firm, and the naming rights deal was announced on May 21, 2026.
- The operator. Capitol Broadcasting Company began leasing the stadium from Wake County and the Town of Zebulon on Jan. 1, 2026. The contract runs ten years, through December 31, 2035.
- The primary tenant. The Zebulon Devil Dogz are a collegiate summer baseball team in the Coastal Plain League, organized by OzBall, an organization which aids Australian athletes in finding employment abroad. The team's first game was on May 22, 2026, and their mascot is an anthropomorphic red Tasmanian devil.
- A second tenant. The contract also notes that the stadium will host Wake Technical Community College baseball, softball, and men's and women's soccer games, starting in 2026.
- A public investment. The County and Town will invest approximately $9 million in 2026 and 2027 for facility improvements, including replacing the existing field, outfield wall, scoreboards and lighting to accommodate multiple sporting and entertainment events.
That last point is the one most residents I talk to have not fully absorbed. The old lease treated the ballpark as a single-purpose asset for one High-A affiliate. The new one treats it as an eastern Wake civic venue that happens to host baseball.
The schedule reads like a neighborhood calendar, not a broadcast package
Coastal Plain League opponents have names that fit a small-town marquee. On a given week you can catch the Devil Dogz against the Holly Springs Salamanders, the Greenville Yard Gnomes, the Peninsula Pilots, the Tri-City Chili Peppers, the Carolina Disco Turkeys, or the Florence Flamingos. First pitch is usually 6:30 on weeknights and 5:00 on Sundays, which lands cleaner against a dinner reservation than the old MiLB start times did.
Promotions are built around families rather than affiliate marketing partners. June 27 was SpongeBob SquarePants Night, with players wearing specialty jerseys auctioned off during the game, and every Sunday home game has Kids Run The Bases for kids 12 and under. Single game tickets for opening night were $22.
Then and now, at a glance
The move from the Mudcats to the Devil Dogz gets described as a rebrand. It is not. Here is what actually changed for a resident who used to buy the mini-plan every year.
| Mudcats era (through 2025) | Devil Dogz era (2026 forward) | |
|---|---|---|
| League | Single-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers | Coastal Plain League, summer collegiate |
| Roster origin | Brewers minor-league system | Australia, New Zealand, and U.S. college players via OzBall |
| Season length | Full MiLB season, roughly April to September | Summer only, roughly late May to early August |
| Venue name | Five County Stadium | Nomaco Park |
| Operator | Team-run | Capitol Broadcasting Company under a 10-year lease |
| Other tenants | None | Wake Tech baseball, softball, and men's and women's soccer |
| Non-event access | None | Planned family viewing and play area on the first-base side |
The last row is the one that quietly matters most for daily life here.
What the $9 million buys a resident who never buys a ticket
The county-and-town investment is not going toward luxury seating. Reading the approved improvements, it is going toward converting a stadium into something closer to a park with a stadium in it. The plan removes the first base-side bleachers and adds a family viewing and play area that will be accessible on non-event days, replaces the third base-side bleachers with social gathering spaces, and starts a fund of approximately $1 million for ongoing capital maintenance.
The financial logic is also different from what most Zebulon residents assume. Annually, this new financial structure will save Wake County more than $75,000 and Zebulon about $35,000 in operating costs. The town is spending less on the building and getting more days of programming out of it. That is unusual for a municipal venue this size.
Building a Saturday around a 6:30 first pitch
Here is the practical version, using places already on Arendell Avenue and Gannon.
- 9:00 a.m. — Zebulon Farm Fresh Market. The Zebulon Farm Fresh Market is open every Saturday from early May until mid-October at the Zebulon Community Center, with vendors selling fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs, honey, baked and canned goods, beef, pork, poultry and much more. Bring a cooler and knock out the week's produce before the day heats up.
- 4:30 p.m. — Coffee reset at The Creative Cup. 113 North Arendell Avenue, Suite 101. It sits close enough to the rest of downtown that you can walk to dinner from here.
- 5:15 p.m. — Pre-game dinner on Arendell or Gannon. Depending on what you feel like: Norse Brewing Longhouse at 120 N Arendell for a pint and a bite, Smash Masters Tavern & Grill at 409 W Gannon for burgers, Armando's Pizza at 103 N Arendell for something the kids will actually eat, or Southland Steakhouse at 1007 Shepard School Road if the occasion calls for it.
- 6:15 p.m. — Park and walk in. Gates typically open an hour before first pitch, so if you are aiming for the 6:30 slot, plan to be on-site by about 6:00.
- 6:30 p.m. — First pitch. The Coastal Plain League is a wooden-bat league. The pace and the crowd sound different from a Mudcats game. Sit closer than you used to. Tickets are more available and cheaper than they were in the affiliate years.
- 9:15 p.m. — Postgame. Friday and Saturday home games often end with fireworks. If the kids are toast, you are five minutes from home. If they are not, Lounge Ninety6 at 204 N Arendell is still open.
That itinerary is not aspirational. It is a template a Zebulon family can actually execute eight or ten Saturdays this summer without leaving a five-mile radius.
The Australian angle, in one paragraph
The roster construction is worth understanding because it changes what you are watching. The Coastal Plain League said the team name connects the town's local textile history and a personality built on toughness with the fierce temperament of Tasmania's native devils from Australia, and the Devil Dogz roster will feature Australian players in a unique partnership with OzBall Australia. The final team roster for opening night included players from New Zealand and the U.S. in addition to Australia, differing from the originally advertised all-Australian team. The practical result is a summer-collegiate club with an unusual international feel, playing in a wooden-bat league mostly composed of ACC and SEC prospects. It is a different level of baseball from what the Mudcats offered, but it is closer to the crowd, and the storyline is more distinct than a typical summer-league team.
What the change signals for the wider east side
Two data points sit next to each other and are worth holding together. Zebulon has tripled in size since the Mudcats moved to town, and yet it still has less than 10,000 people. Meanwhile, a broadcaster with the track record of building the American Tobacco Campus and the Durham Bulls Athletic Park just signed a decade-long lease on the largest single venue in town. Wake County commission chair Susan Evans noted that CBC redeveloped Rocky Mount Mills and created the Durham Bulls Athletic Park and the American Tobacco Campus, all flourishing facilities that offer top-tier restaurants and entertainment.
Whether that translates here on the same scale is not knowable yet. What is knowable is that the operator now programming Nomaco Park has, elsewhere, turned dormant buildings into daily destinations. For a town whose main street is already tightening up around Arendell and Gannon, that is a bigger deal than a jersey change.
The short version
The Mudcats leaving Zebulon read as a loss. The reality on the ground has been closer to a swap: less baseball on the calendar, more everything else. If you already live here, the useful move this summer is to treat Nomaco Park as a neighborhood asset rather than a nostalgia site, get familiar with the Devil Dogz schedule, and pair a home game with a Saturday you were probably already going to spend on Arendell Avenue.
If you are curious how the Nomaco Park reinvention and the broader growth pattern are shaping property values in eastern Wake, that is a longer conversation and one I enjoy having. I am Tammy Alexander, broker and owner of Alexander Realty, LLC, and I work with buyers and sellers across Zebulon, Wendell, and the surrounding towns. Reach out to me anytime and I will give you a straight read on your block.