7/26/2026

New Britain Bees (Futures League) @ New Britain Stadium (New Britain, CT)

The Buzz in Hard Hittin’ New Britain

I went over the Hartford Yard Goats about a month ago (and was at their stadium literally the day before this), but for those who need a recap: they were originally a Red Sox affiliate in Bristol, CT (in 1973), then moved to New Britain in the 1980s and became the New Britain Rock Cats in the mid-90s when they switched affiliates and got a new stadium. However, in 2016, the team left New Britain (a year after switching affiliates again) to become a traveling team for a year due to construction delays the Yard Goats.

Immediately after the Rock Cats’ departure (and a year BEFORE the stadium in Hartford opened), the Atlantic League moved into the vacancy left in New Britain with a new team: the New Britain Bees. Unfortunately, the team was rather mediocre and fairly unstable - hovering around .500 year after year while going through a bevy of front office staff and seeing sharp falloffs in attendance year after year. I won't get into why things were the way they were, but I will note that independent baseball teams seem to have a tendency to struggle - especially if they have MLB and/or MiLB to contend with (see: the success of the Yard Goats).

Due to the instability, the franchise’s future was in doubt after the 2019 season; however, they announced a move to the Futures League in 2020 (but before you could dream of a "Central Connecticut Rivalry" with the Bristol Blues, THEY made their switch to the NECBL that same year). Since changing leagues, the team has been...a little bit better: they’ve made the playoffs each year since 2022, but have yet to win a championship (coming one game short last year).

As mentioned earlier, the aptly named New Britain Stadium was built in 1996 to replace nearby Beehive Stadium - the original Double-A stadium in New Britain (which is actually still standing today; it's SUPER barebones, so the fact that it hosted Double-A baseball into the 1990s is kinda astonishing).

The concourse here is rather big and "cavernous"; however, similar to other stadiums such as Heritage Financial Park, the concourse is underneath the seating bowl, so most of it is blocked off from field view. Thankfully, the team pipes the radio broadcast throughout so that you don't "miss" much - though given the much lower level and relative lack of fans, I have to admit that the concourse feels a bit eerie. Outside of that...it's INCREDIBLY similar to other Minor League stadiums, so I'm not exactly sure what to say here - but...

Unlike MANY of the Minor League stadiums I've talked about on this blog, there's one thing I want to mention about the field itself: the outfield walls. Unlike other stadiums where the walls are varying heights, the outfield walls here are all the same height - which is much, MUCH taller than your typical outfielder. I don't believe that this is the ONLY stadium with walls like this, but it is notable since it prevents "easy" home runs. Also, there appears to be a pitch clock on one of the outfield walls, but the Futures League (and NECBL for that matter) doesn't use a pitch clock (the Cape League does however).

I've heard that the "main" videoboard in the outfield stopped working a few years ago, and unfortunately, it appears that they just gave up on the thing entirely, as a static logo sits where it used to be (seen in the picture above), and a smaller display below the scoreboard displays some basic information about players.

I’ve been to this stadium two times in the past: Once in 2021 to check out the team store on the way to Boston, and again in June of 2023 to see a game (though I only saw like two innings because I decided to run over to another stadium an hour away). This particular visit was born out of "convenience": the lateness of Banana Ball the night before meant that I had to find a place to spend the night, but thankfully, I did! Since I was still in CT, I figured it'd be a fun thing to do on the Sunday (as opposed to just going straight home)¹. To my (slight) surprise, THIS was a double header like my recent trip to Danbury - and similar to those games, the home team won both games here as well.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to “chance” a lightly stocked concession stand at the stadium, so I got lunch right before arriving. With the game starting at noon, however, I arrived a bit late and ended up missing the three runs the Bees scored to win Game 1 - none of which were earned.

Depending on how you look at things, game 2 was either more or less "eventful" - I did have to leave before it ended due to traffic concerns, but it ended an inning early due to the Futures League's mercy rule (the Bees won 11-1, with the last run coming in the bottom of the sixth inning).

MERCH

As a former minor league stadium, there’s a dedicated, fully enclosed team store - something surprisingly rare in the Futures League (the only other team with this feature: the league's other ex-Double-A stadium²). In fact, this is how I was able to visit in 2021, as there likely wouldn’t have been anything for me to do had this not existed (that and there were interns present to help me).

Anyway, the store here is a bit on the small side IMO - though the Bees not having a ton of alternate identities helps keep it from feeling "crowded" (see: Somerset). I’ve gotten several hats here, as the Bees have two logos (an "NB" logo and a cartoon bee) and two styles of hat (all black and black with yellow bill) that they’ve combined Punnett square style (though not all of them have been used on the field as far as I know). Also, this is the only stadium in the Futures League where I’ve actually been able to purchase (unused) game balls, as they’re the only team I’ve seen sell them (though I also bought some All Star Game used baseballs at the Vermont Lake Monsters team office, as they run a store there).

This time, the store felt kinda sparse. Pretty much everything was on the walls, and it was mostly shirts and hats with a few novelties thrown in. One of those novelties was, once again, the Futures League game ball, which brings me to one final thing I want to mention:

Back when I was living in Massachusetts, Futures League baseballs had no manufacturer brand on them. At some point after 2023, it appears they "switched" to Rawlings (who also make the Cape League and NECBL baseballs), but they still retained a Futures League "tradition": the year being stamped onto the ball (in the area of the commissioner's signature).

Also, for those wondering: I'm not likely to visit the last two summer league teams in CT, as they're both in the southeastern corner of the state (i.e. a three hour drive from home³), and this week marks the final week of the NECBL's regular season (i.e. no more time). I have visited them in the past (sorta...), and do intend on talking about them later this summer (partially as they shared a unique connection when I visited them).

ON DECK

I had thoughts about going to a soccer game immediately after this, but ended up not going for several reasons (though I did stop by to check out their "fan fest")⁴. The next post on here SHOULD be a different soccer game however - one I'm SUPER excited for.