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.
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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.