Columbia Fireflies’ growth goes beyond ballpark with first title on the horizon
When Fireflies president Brad Shank first visited Columbia in 2014 to consider joining the front office of a new professional baseball team in the city, his wife, Kelly, had just one question:
“Are you crazy?”
Shank arrived in Columbia from Fort Wayne, Indiana with the vision to bring pro baseball back to the city for the first time since the Capital City Bombers left for Greenville in 2004.
And on April 16, 2016, that vision became a reality, when the Fireflies played their first home game.
In the nearly 10 years following, the Fireflies and Segra Park became the center of a revitalized BullStreet district, culminating in the team’s first appearance this past week in the Carolina League championship series.
The Fireflies came to Columbia by way of Savannah, Georgia after an almost 20-year stint as the Sand Gnats. Columbia remained the A-ball affiliate of the New York Mets in the transition.
Some of Shank’s best memories in Columbia came as a member the Mets’ farm system. When former Heisman winner and NFL quarterback Tim Tebow tried his luck as a pro baseball player with the Fireflies in 2017, media attention flocked to what was then known as Spirit Communications Park. He played 64 games in Columbia, batting .220 with three home runs — including a homer in his first at-bat.
“It was just kind of a fairy tale type of thing, with all the excitement that we had around him being here,” Shank said. “That’s one of those things that only happens probably once in a career.”
Also among Shank’s all-time memories include a total eclipse mid-game and now-major leaguer Mark Vientos hitting an inside-the-park home run in the team’s first Copa de la Diversión game. Making the Carolina League championship in the 2025 season is “up there” among his favorite moments.
“I would say top five moments, as far as what I can remember at the ballpark,” he said.
But the Fireflies’ existence hasn’t been all happy memories, and it hasn’t all been with the Mets. Shank and his front office were challenged with returning from the COVID-19 pandemic while playing under a brand-new affiliation and in a new league. MLB’s reorganization of the minor league system forced Columbia to move from the South Atlantic League to the Carolina League, and from the Mets to the Kansas City Royals.
“To be completely honest, it was starting over. We went nearly 600 days without a Fireflies game,” Shank said. “That on top of, yeah, new relationship. We had worked with the Mets for those first four seasons, now we’re switching to the Royals.”
The Royals’ approach to the farm system helped smooth out an otherwise rocky return, Shank said.
“They’re not a big market club. So they put a ton of emphasis on their relationships with their minor league affiliates,” he said. “Their culture is they want their guys to experience the playoffs and win in the minor leagues, because they feel like that’s really important for them, because that’s what they want them to do at the big league level.”
The Fireflies finally had their first chance to win at the highest level this year after clinching a divisional series berth in the first half of the season. They went on to sweep the series against the Myrtle Beach Pelicans for a shot at the league title against the Hillcats.
After falling in Game 1 one of the series Monday in Lynchburg, Virginia, the Fireflies tied the series up Tuesday night with help of a 7-run sixth inning. The Lynchburg Hillcats took Game 3 and the series with an 8-2 win Wednesday at Segra Park.
Ron and Carla Laird have been season ticket holders for the Fireflies since the inaugural season in 2016 and were at the championship series this past week. They held season tickets for the Bombers from 1993 to 2004. And in the time between, they spent their summer afternoons and evenings at Columbia Blowfish games before the Coastal Plain League team moved to Lexington County in 2014.
“In 2005, we didn’t have anything,” Ron Laird said. “A couple years later they talked about doing this again ... I was so ready for baseball, especially in a nice new park like this.”
The Lairds have been to minor league ballparks across the country, but said Segra Park is the best home stadium of the bunch.
Alongside the growth on the diamond, there’s been equal change to the BullStreet district around the park. The area along Bull Street was once the home of the South Carolina state hospital, a mental asylum. It’s now a 181-acre development led by Hughes Development, zoned for 3.3 million commercial square feet and 3,558 residential units.
“When the team got here, the only thing here was the ballpark. I mean, except for the all the old buildings that needed repair,” Carla Laird said. “In the past two years, with all the apartments building up around it ... It’s gonna be a lot more like Greenville.”
While initially growing the team within the development was a challenge, Shank said the progress of the development has contributed to the growth of the Fireflies.
“I think we’re starting to see what we thought would happen all along, where some of those challenges are now becoming advantageous to us as people are moving on to the site, working on site, restaurants, retail, different things like that coming in,” he said.
Segra Park, with a capacity of 9,077, is well-equipped for more growth — and more championship series.
“I always tell people, we really built this ballpark, size wise, for the year 2030 or 2035 when this whole development is kind of finished out around us,” Shank said.
This story was originally published September 10, 2025 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Columbia Fireflies’ growth goes beyond ballpark with first title on the horizon."
