Brockton Rox (Frontier League) @ Campanelli Stadium (Brockton, MA)

A team with a wild history finds itself back in independent league baseball

*This trip occurred on July 5th, 2025.

Also, I'd like to take this time to plug my main blog. I decided to post a little update there today, and am thinking of other things to post on there.

The wild, wild history of the Brockton Rox finds them back in independent baseball - more than 10 years after they “took a brief absence” from it to focus on collegiate summer ball.

Originally founded in 2001 as an independent team in the Can-Am League, the Rox “relegated” to the Futures League in 2012 because of massive debts (this according to something I saw online from someone who has worked with the team). In terms of attendance, they were doing decently well (probably - they were in a summer collegiate league after all) until the pandemic, when their attendances - generally somewhere around 1,500 - dropped to 500 and never truly recovered.

I could talk about the summers of 2022 and 2023 for hours - I went to a bunch of games during those seasons and saw just how dire things were there. Among other things:

• It didn’t help that the team won exactly five playoff games during their decade plus in the Futures League, then fell to the bottom of the standings in 2022 and got stuck there for their last few years.
• Both years featured “gimmicks” with the roster that didn’t exactly pan out. The 2022 team featured no less than FIVE sons of former MLB players and finished in dead last (with most of those sons not even finishing the summer with the team), while the 2023 team tried introducing the Futures League’s first female player but finishing with just over half the wins of the seventh place team (and I’m not sure if SHE finished the season in Brockton).
• The team went through multiple ownership groups in their time in the Futures League - most of whom didn't really try with the team (this according to the same guy I mentioned earlier who worked with the team).
• The owner of the Rox in 2020 bought the Vermont Lake Monsters to “save” them from extinction after the MiLB saga (the Lake Monsters joined the Futures League). It’s my understanding that he sold the Rox at some point - not sure when, but by 2022 they had new ownership.
• Said new ownership supposedly included the owner of a comedy club in Boston who tried to do Savannah Bananas-esque gimmicks during games (if riding a motorcycle on the warning track counts). I saw him at the 2023 season opener, but then midway through the season...HE was gone.
• Brockton has recently become known for having a very...unfortunate reputation. I was living in Massachusetts during the Rox’ last few years in the Futures League and remember hearing stories on the news about how there were calls to bring in the National Guard because teachers at Brockton High School felt unsafe due to how rowdy students were. Coincidentally, Brockton High School’s parking lot happens to be the same parking lot the Rox typically use (which they used to charge for but don’t anymore), so there were probably a lot of worries about fan safety.
• The stadium was in rather rough shape due to a lack of upkeep. For example, the team store was under construction until 2024, so merchandise was simply a small table on the concourse...in 2023. 2022 saw ZERO merchandise sales at any of the games I went to (a period from May to July).

In 2024, ownership bought into a Frontier League slot (a league which featured a lot of the teams the Rox used to play against back in the day). However, for whatever reason, they decided to stay in the Futures League whilst simultaneously having a Frontier League team (this despite the Futures League losing a team due to stadium deficiencies). It was decided that the Rox brand would stay in the Futures League, while the newly formed New England Knockouts (named as such after a “name the team” contest went sideways¹) played in the Frontier League.

This arrangement...didn't work. Neither team was very successful either on or off the field, and from what I've heard, the ownership group ran into legal troubles (it also didn't help that they owned another Frontier League team...in Chicago - a several days' drive west on I-90).

The organization was sold (yet again) that offseason, and the team decided to “leave” the Futures League and reintroduce the Rox branding to the Frontier League in 2025.

So that's the history of the Rox in a nutshell - but what about the present?

My original plan was to visit on July 4th, but the aforementioned Wareham situation made me decide to pivot to their game on the 5th (which means that I also missed free hat day). The game had an emotional start, as the Rox and the visiting Windy City Thunderbolts (whose former ownership group owned the Knockouts) paid tribute to former Major Leaguer and Thunderbolts manager Bobby Jenks, who had passed the day before. I left the game when it was tied 3-3, but I checked later and the Thunderbolts eventually won (which, if we’re being honest, they deserved).

Having said that, let’s talk about Campanelli Stadium itself. There are two concession stands in the concourse - one on either side of the home plate gates. However, the concession stand on the first base side was closed (the third base side being the much larger “main” one), but there was a small taco stand in front of it that was open. While the Rox don’t have any “side games” anywhere in the stadium, they do have a mascot named K-O the Kangaroo roaming the stadium (they supposedly added another mascot this year, but I didn’t see them).

Notably...attendances are still somewhat down; according to the Frontier League’s statistics, they’re the only team in the league that averages less than 1,000 fans a game (or the most honest team about attendance²). This can be attributed to a number of factors, but I feel one of the biggest ones is that locals, by and large, still view Brockton (as a whole) as “unsafe”. There was a pretty decent crowd the night I went, however, so maybe there’s some signs of hope. They were also getting more into the game than I’ve ever seen a Rox crowd do; the most notable example of this being hyping up the potential for free fries if a certain batter struck out (which he did).

So I guess that things in Brockton still aren’t that great right now, but given just how bad the post-pandemic years have been in Brockton, there’s really nowhere to go BUT up...right?

Also, as a final note...don’t get meat from McDonalds (or at least be careful if you’re getting their chicken). Stick to potatoes and maybe McFlurries when the machine is actually working...

MERCH

I’ve mentioned that the Rox had no merch in 2022 and super limited stuff in 2023. Part of that was the fact that the team store area was either being renovated or used for storage both years (as I mentioned earlier). However, the team DID reopen the store in 2024 - however, they didn’t have fitted hats when I went (though I ended up ordering a couple online).

The team store is located OUTSIDE the main gates, so much like the Jackals’ carnival stand, you can actually get in without a ticket! I honestly contemplated trying this to get the Rox hat I’ve been looking for since 2022, but ultimately decided against it as I wanted to check out the “Rox experience”; this ultimately ended up making me cancel plans to visit Portland, ME to check out the Portland Sea Dogs and Portland Hearts of Pine stores (though there were other reasons for me doing that as well).

This year, indications were that for the first time since probably 2021, player hats were available. Unfortunately, while that turned out to be true, there were only small sizes available. Because I legitimately have no idea how long the Rox will last, I did something I rarely do: get a dad hat (as mentioned earlier, I missed a free hat giveaway due to moving this game to the 5th). I contemplated getting a hoodie but ultimately decided against it, though had it been cold inside the stadium (which it’s tended to be in my prior visits), I may have pulled the trigger...

Also, before coming to this game, I decided to make a WILD detour back to Cape Cod one last time to look into Bourne Braves merchandise - like Brewster and Falmouth, I'll talk about it later.