Building Zebulon’s Team: Names, Merch, Tickets, And The Aussie Vision

We map out how an all‑Australian roster and identity will anchor a traditional summer baseball team in a fast‑growing corner of North Carolina, from stadium upgrades to merch drops to a fan‑first ticket plan. We share timelines for the name reveal, explore Aussie voices on the mic, and double down on service over hype.

• stadium renovations with turf, grandstands, and bathrooms
• growth around the ballpark and walkable postgame options
• Australian head coach with local assistant hires
• potential Aussie broadcasters and TV carriage to Australia
• name finalized, trademarks in motion, early merch strategy
• uniforms, colors, mascot, and theme‑night partners
• two‑market merch plan for locals and Australian fans
• ticket approach focused on fairness and service
• benchmarking ambition while keeping baseball traditional
• rapid‑fire fan questions and community tone

Make sure you guys pay attention to the socials, which by the way, what are the socials as of right now? … they’re just Zebulon baseball team for now … Instagram and TikTok are our biggest ones, but we’re on all of them at this point
Make sure you hit the subscribe button on all of the socials for the Data Chronicles, YouTube

Transcript

Welcome Back And Big Picture

SPEAKER_01 0:00

He's he has so many uh ideas and especially because of the uniqueness, he's firing stuff all the time. Uh he's just an incredible resource and he knows more about that than I will ever. Okay, let's go.

2026 Vision And Australian Identity

Ballpark Area Growth And Fan Experience

SPEAKER_00 0:21

What's up, everybody, and welcome to part two of my conversation with Caleb of the Zebulun TBD. So at this point, as of today, as of right now, there is no team, but stay tuned because they are gonna be announcing it here pretty soon. Pretty excited about that. But let's get back to the episode. We are gonna be talking about what is gonna take over in 2026 for the team, right? So we got a full Australian team, uh, full management, full players, right? We're what else is gonna be as far as like the hiring process for that? Uh, who's gonna be calling the games, right? We're gonna talk about some of the other amenities that's gonna be going in the ballpark and many, many more. Of course, we talk about famous, not so famous questions. So, guys, without further ado, I'll give you the episode. When I go to ballparks, I always look around what's what's happening around there, right? Like, you know, like you said, American Tobacco, you got all those, like, you know, you got some restaurants, you got some bars, uh, you know, you got the playhouse that's like not too far from there. Um, and so you got a lot going on right there in Durham. And so having a uh at the very least start with a smaller version of that in that area, I think could go wonders because there's not a whole lot, it's just a park, and that's pretty much it there.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Yeah, it's it's a huge, huge importance, and there's a there's a huge uh housing development coming in kind of right behind us. Um, so the goal, if we can get those to kind of touch, and then it becomes one big community there. Uh, and then as the other side starts to grow too, but yeah, you hit her on the head, it's it's gotta be a whole thing, uh, especially because it's a little bit out there right now. No, I don't know how long it'll be, but you've got to have some things for people to do where you know, if they wanna, for example, if they want to come to the stadium and have a few beverages, they can go do something after, um, without you know having to worry about trying to get home right away and things like that.

Coaching Hires And Staff Mix

SPEAKER_00 2:10

Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Um, so all right, so we cover the we cover the team, right? With it's gonna be an Australian team. Um, it's being already everything that's being managed, that's gonna be managed by Australia uh coaches. I I take it.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Yeah, so we're gonna have a head coach from Australia this year. Okay. Um, I believe our assistants are gonna be from America. Okay, just from a logistics standpoint, it made a little more sense uh to get a couple of local local uh guys or gals that are from the area. So I'm working through the interview process right now. So if you're a coach listening to this and you want to coach some summer baseball, shoot me a shoot me an email, we can get we can have a conversation.

Stadium Upgrades And Multi‑Use Turf

Name, Trademarks, And Early Merch

SPEAKER_00 2:48

I love that. Okay, and so so we so we got we covered that. All right, so we got a baseball team, we got the stadium, we it's being renovated, so we got some grandstands, new bathrooms. Uh, there's gonna be some things that are gonna be done prior to the start, right? A new uh turf is gonna be put on, which is obviously it may it it lends itself for it to be a multi-uh use venue, which is you know, which is what you want as a as a ball program. You want to make sure that you get revenue in order for you to go ahead and do other things that you can, you know, later on. Absolutely. Okay, let's talk, let's talk about these names and let's talk about like what is going now behind the scenes as far as as much as you can tell, obviously, right? Yeah, um, merchandising and things like that, because that's a big endeavor. And someone who's a collector of hats, I have well over 675 hats.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

That's awesome, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

And and that's a small scale compared to some of my friends, right? Um, and so merchandising is going to be one of the things that a lot of fans are gonna be looking at, like jerseys and shirts and hats and all of this stuff. Like, you guys are thinking about that, like already, aren't you?

Serving Locals And Australian Fans

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Absolutely, yeah. So uh in the process right now, so we've we've got a name. Uh, as of a few days ago, we've got a name, we're getting really close to be able to announce it. Uh, you know, got through the whole trademark and all those things that are really important. Sure. But we really felt that although we're not gonna certainly have a full team store or all of our merch ready uh in the next couple of weeks, we felt it was really important to have some options for people. Um, so that's actually kind of what we're what we're working through right now is what are those first few pieces gonna be. But uh yeah, merch is a huge, I think uniquely for us. Um, like I said, we're we gotta be Zebulun's team here. Uh the people of Zebulin, the people of of you know, Wendell and Roseville and and Wake Forest and all those places, those are coming to our game. So we we do need to really care about those people. Um, but from a merch side, yes, we want those people to buy our stuff, but there's also a whole country out there that's gonna see this as their team. So we've got to make sure we've also got uh you know merch and ability to get it to Australia or any Australian American, like if you are if you're living in America and you like baseball, you're from Australia, there's no reason you shouldn't want our merch. So now it's about how do we how do we get the word out and make sure these people know it's available uh and have some some pieces that are you know we're talking about like the Aussie flag with our logo in front of it, or you know, all those kind of things. So we we've got some things for them as well.

Uniforms, Mascot, And Partners

SPEAKER_00 5:23

That's cool. Have you guys figured out the colors?

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Yeah, yeah. We we've got colors. I think we're uh we're voting between the final uniforms, but we're really close on uniforms as well. We should be able to announce all that kind of all together, uh, with our with our mascot and logo and all those things.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

I'm sure what if you guys are you know, because you got what OT sports here, so um, usually those are the ones that are usually do a lot of the jerseys uh around this area.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Yeah, they they do a lot, and I'm sure they'll be uh a good partner for you guys. A good partner, yeah. We uh the the owner of that, uh his son actually entered for me while I was at uh UNC. So I know that family. They're they're great, and uh yeah, they're uh they're they're a really cool resource for us to have in this area for sure, in terms of the theme nights and all of those things. They've they've kind of got the uh stranglehold on that market.

Broadcast Voices And Aussie Flavor

SPEAKER_00 6:16

Interesting. Let me ask you this. Um, and and I'll get back to merchants, but it just I thought about this. Your play by play, your radio people, are they gonna be local? Are you gonna have an Australian, you know, play-by-play person? I I I can just imagine just that voice calling a game.

Big Ambition With Traditional Baseball

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Yeah, so uh nothing's off the table right now. Um, you know, if I our preference, of course, is to have both be Australian and especially the the PA announcer, right? Just the the kind of the theme that that gives uh in in-house there. Um now, of course, as you can imagine, a part-time play-by-play person and a part-time uh TV broadcaster for 34 games a year, it would be pretty hard to to convince somebody from Australia that they should move here to to work, you know, 34 home games over the course of 10 weeks. Uh when it's not, you know, it's not like that's one of our full-time jobs that we're currently hiring, maybe down turn down the line. But um we we've actually talked to a couple of people from the area that are from Australia about their interest in doing something, so we're really hopeful that way. Uh, and I know we've got some irons in the fire up potentially being able to air on TV in Australia sometimes, so that would change, you know, maybe we can get them to supply us some some some broadcasters and stuff for some games or do it remotely or you know, those kind of things as well.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Yeah, you guys are thinking about everything, you know. This is a full-blown Australian experience.

Hat Vendors And Creative Direction

SPEAKER_01 7:47

It's certainly my personality, and I'm really fortunate that it's my bosses too, that we are not putting limits on this. Like we want this to be bigger than any minor league sports team. You know, we're we're not certainly not sitting back and thinking, oh, you know, we're we're a college Webat team, and that's got its place. Uh, you know, the Savannah Bananas were a college Wabat team, they're now one of the biggest things in any sport, you know, football, whatever. Um, you know, now we're not trying to necessarily completely you know go by their footprint. It's gonna be different. We're not gonna touch the baseball, it's gonna be traditional. Um, my boss likes to call Australian rules baseball. Uh, here's a little secret there's no difference between Australian rules and American rules baseball, same thing, but uh it's it's gonna be you know traditional, legitimate baseball. Um but yeah, we're we're putting no, we we're certainly not um putting any sort of handcuffs on ourselves. We want to make this as big as we possibly can.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

That's amazing. So obviously, okay, so at the very least, let me ask you this which hat companies are you working with right now to provide that those uh that uh merchandise hat companies, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

So it's a great question. I actually don't know the answer yet. Um, so our our uh our we will use I can say it this way. Um the league has an agreement for some on field hats. Uh so we we will certainly use them. I don't know how much of a lot of comment on that yet. Yeah, um, and I think we're supposed to be getting some other hats for sale, uh, some proofs tomorrow. So he mentioned, you know, Brian. Um yes, he's he's sending me things to approve, and I'm I'm just letting that guy run with it. Like he's he has so many uh ideas, and especially because of the uniqueness he's firing stuff all the time. Uh he's just an incredible resource, and he knows more about that than I will ever. So I'm letting him just kind of uh change right now.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

Yeah, that that's a busy man right there, okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

He does it all, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Because he got he got Durham, he's working also with the Holly Springs Salamanders, he's also working and now with you, right? And at one point, um, the Grass Gnomes, you guys, he was working on that one as well, right? Yeah, yeah. So it was geez, no man can he's like Superman, plus his kids and hockey and all that. Like, I mean, this dude is doing everything.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

Yeah, he was telling me about their hockey schedule the other day. It's uh it's it's wild, right? Yeah, he's he's gotta be the busiest person I know.

Tickets Coming Soon And Fan‑First Model

SPEAKER_00 10:17

He does it all. I you know, so um that's awesome, dude. I like that a lot. That's pretty cool. Uh okay, uh, we're almost here. Uh is there anything that I haven't asked you, anything that you want to talk about that you want to mention? Uh, you know, because I'm first of all, I'm excited um for the opportunity for you guys to bring some different, you know. Obviously, it's gonna be the same traditional Australian baseball. Yeah, I'm gonna start saying that from now on.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

Yeah, we gotta get a sign in the ballpark that says Aussie rules baseball on it somewhere, and you'll let people figure out that it's the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Oh, wait, it's the same. Um, but yeah, anything you wanna that we haven't mentioned or we talked about yet?

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Yeah, I mean, I we uh I don't have exact details I can share this yet, but I'll hit it a little bit. So um we're getting really close to being able to announce uh ticket on sale here in the next few weeks. Uh and I will say that's that's gonna be one that people want to keep an eye out for. Uh, we are uh I said earlier that I hate the uh reasoning of well, it's always been done this way, so we're gonna do it. I think there's no better evidence in in our thought process than the way we're gonna handle uh tickets. Uh so it it's gonna be pretty cool and it's very, very fan focused. Um, we've been telling everybody here like what I think is gonna make the biggest difference, and certainly not trying to talk down on the Mudcats, but I think um where we're gonna really be able to make our name is our customer service and the way we're gonna treat our fan. Uh and I I hope and I truly believe that when we put out our information on tickets, it's gonna be really clear that that's the that's the goal here.

Differentiating On Service Over Stars

SPEAKER_00 11:54

I'll you don't have to, I will do it for you, okay? And you know, it was very difficult uh for the Mudcats, and so I'll I'll say that. Um it's it's an account name. Um obviously they decided to go with a different name over there. Um, but I think there was a miss opportunity in that area for for baseball to really be embraced in the in that in that stadium and that ballpark.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

Yeah, I mean they have some great people that work for them that have been super helpful to us. And I think a big part of it is the area is is really growing in the last few years, honestly. Kind of since they decided to move, it's really and I think when they chose to be out here, I'm sure they had ideas that it was going to, and they were just a little too early to the party there. Uh, and we have been are fortunate that we are perfectly on time.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

Taking full advantage of it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

So that's amazing. We and uh, you know, we've their minor league baseball, it's different, and I know they're a lot of their marketing and their strategy has to do with the players. Uh you know, yeah, the baseball is gonna be good for us, but that can't be our strategy. Our strategy has to be how do we make this the best possible experience for the fans?

SPEAKER_00 12:58

That we can. Um, okay, so you in a couple of weeks you're gonna be announcing, you know, for the the ticket sales and things like that. Um, at the time of this recording, which is you know, February 4th. Um when is the name going to be announced for the team?

Name Reveal Timeline And Launch Plan

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Yeah, same time, lads. Tickets will uh likely come a couple of days ahead of time, just so we can kind of do them two separate. Uh, because I do I do think uh kind of our our ticket announcement is gonna be that big and it's that uh kind of impactful. So we wanna interesting, we want to give them both their their due attention. Um, but we're we're really close. Yeah, we're like I said, finalizing some merch. We're gonna make sure websites and things like that. We have all our ducks in the row so that we are ready once we have a name to uh to to essentially go full bore. Um, so finalizing those few things uh and working on press conference and things like that, and that'll be here in the next couple of weeks as well.

Rapid‑Fire Fun: Movies, Food, And More

SPEAKER_00 13:52

We cannot wait to see that. That'll be awesome to be experience, you know, the full-blown release of the name and everything. So that'll be cool to see. Again, anything else before I go into my famous, not so famous questions. I think you know, we've covered a lot, you know. You covered it, man. You're a professional, you know what you do. Yeah, we tried to. All right, so my friend, are you ready for this? Now, this is gonna be the tough ones here, okay? So just okay, I want you to know that. Okay. Uh, all right. So what is and then I'm we'll start easy, okay? We'll start easy for you, okay? Um, if this team was were a movie, what title would it be? Oh, geez, okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Oh, that's a good one. I can't steal all their movies, I guess. It's gotta be it's gotta be trademark approved here.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

You're sure, yeah. We gotta be careful with that now.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Yeah, right, right. Uh, if this was a movie, what would the title be?

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Ten years from now, they're about to bank this movie because it became one of the most successful collegiate with bat teens, and you know, all of that, and you know, they're about to release a movie.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

Can I can I can I steal from uh uh from a college and say do whatever you want the greatest show on turf CPL edition? How about that?

SPEAKER_00 15:02

Oh, okay, all right. I like it. Okay, okay. Um let me see here. I can't get I see that one because you're obviously you have not done that we talked about that one already. Um if this team if this team were a sandwich, what kind of sandwich would it be and why?

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Okay, all right. You know, I I said we tried this and it's kind of a pop out, but I actually think it it fits perfect. But the chicken schnitty is what it's called, okay. I love the name, but yeah, it's a great name. It's an Australian sandwich. Okay, but what it really is is it's a fried chicken sandwich with lettuce and tomato on it, right? Like that is a southern dish. So it's this idea, right? Like, this is this Australian thing that's be that's also actually kind of this thing that's perfectly for our community, too.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

So it fits both both communities, right? I like that. Okay, hey, uh Kel, what's more stressful? Building a baseball team or assembling an IKEA furniture.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

IKEA, yeah, yeah. With my wife reading the instructions behind me, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's that's that's got it for sure. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

I it's such a pain in the rear. Okay, so that not this team, all right. A different team, a different, you know, you're you're building another team. If you had to rename a team after an animal, what are you calling the team?

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Not this team, just any team. Okay, any team. Okay, so I'll I'll use this. This was actually kind of one of my favorites. Uh, okay. It didn't get much uh much run, so we didn't even make it a finalist, but the koalas. I think you could do a pretty uh very marketable match for the koala, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

There's an Australian uh uh rugby team.

SPEAKER_01 16:51

Yeah, I think you're right. Yeah, that was that was uh it was pretty nominated. Uh it just wasn't uh we had it had to fit within, like it, you know, it wasn't gonna take out the thun, the um, you know, like the iron horses are one of the more zen names got the the kangaroo and those kind of things got more votes, so it didn't quite obviously that everybody thinks of Australia as a yeah, it was uh it was I think that was my favorite though.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Okay, um, all right, be honest with me. How many times have you tried to do an Australian accent?

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Oh, every day, pretty much, yeah. Yeah, so yeah, I've started when um yeah, Kevin and Matt, who are the guys who run Osball, they're fantastic. They like I said, they they've got the baseball side, but they also just are super smart and creative individuals. They're sending me, you know, our time 1-2 a.m. uh Facebook messages with hey, have you thought about this and all that stuff? So I talk about this, we talk to them all the time, but I try to call them mate as much as possible, just uh just the best with get into the culture. Yeah, they've actually they they start giving me props like it doesn't sound so awkward now when you say it.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

So yeah, we uh all right, night game or day game?

SPEAKER_01 17:59

Night game, especially North Carolina, yeah. Or uh we're gonna want it hot. You know, especially with the the way our uh stadium is set up, there's not a whole lot of of shade, you know. Yeah at our game times because the sun will be setting, it'll be blocked by by the stands, it'll actually be pretty nice, but uh a noon game would be pretty tough there.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

It's hot as all ghetto.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

And that sun is beating on it because there's no shade there.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

Yes, we'll play we'll play at uh 6 30 uh on all days except Sunday, we'll play a five.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

I gotcha. Just to make sure that I like it. Okay. Uh favorite baseball movie, and you can't say Field of Dreams. Well, unless it is Field of Dreams.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

Uh, so my that that would be a good one because that's kind of yeah. Um my personal favorite's Moneyball. Um okay. However, I'll also say uh Sandlot has become maybe my favorite over the last few years. It is my son's favorite movie, and I I would attribute it as much to anything as why uh he's so into baseball, and that's a cool thing that we get to share. So um, yeah, we've uh there's still as a as a soon to be four-year-old, there's a couple parts, uh, you know, namely the the pool scene that we still gotta skip for him, but uh he he loves that movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

Uh walk-off win or no hitter.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

I'd say personally uh a no-hitter. I think uh from a yeah, I think no hitter regardless. There is something special from a fan atmosphere about the walk-off win and the roar of the crowd and that kind of builds and stuff, but uh a no-hitter is just too unique. We've got a defensive ballpark too, so let's let's go for the no-hitter. It's a big park.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

All right, here we go. I'm gonna these I'm gonna end with five really tough questions. Are you ready? Yeah. Or celebrity crush. Carrie Underwood. Oh, okay, all right. Um favorite ice cream flavor. Uh cookie dough. Oh, good choice. Yeah, that's a good one. If you got if you got a boat, what will be the name of the boat?

SPEAKER_01 20:07

Uh so I do have a boat. Oh, now we're talking.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

We're hanging out together.

Socials, CTAs, And Closing

SPEAKER_01 20:12

Yeah, yeah. Well, it's not North Carolina's problem. So like I said, I'm I'm from Maine. My in-laws have a like a uh hunting cabin on a lake, okay. It came with a boat that was there when they bought it that was uh sinking. So uh my brother-in-law and myself has started a very long plan, um, is still not done to rehab this boat. Uh, and we're gonna paint it light blue and name it the SS Bud Light. That'll be gonna be the name of the boat.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

Uh all right. Last movie you watched.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

I watched Home Alone 2 uh with my son tonight before this interview.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

Really? Yeah, that's awesome. All right, and here's a very tough question. The toughest one is it wrong for a vegetarian to eat an animal cracker?

SPEAKER_01 21:08

Vegetarian, no vegan, yes. I think that's a fine line there. Yeah, I like it. I like it. Caleb, thank you so much for doing this.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

You have been awesome. Appreciate that. Yeah, thanks for the time. It's a great chat. Make sure you guys that uh pay attention to the socials, which by the way, uh, what are the socials as of right now? Where what where can they find you guys?

SPEAKER_01 21:28

Yeah, so right now they're all Zebulin baseball team. Um obviously those will change as soon as we have the team name. So it'll be Zeb Zebulin team name, uh, once once they're once they're here, but they're just Zebulin baseball team for now.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

Okay. No, so it's gonna be the Zebulun baseball team for now.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

Uh, you guys are on on Instagram, TikTok, uh, Twitter, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, uh yeah, I think uh Instagram and TikTok are our biggest ones, but we're on all of them at this point.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

Gotcha. Um, and then yep, just pay attention, guys. The the ticket sales are gonna be coming up soon here. Uh the new team name is gonna be released pretty soon. So uh very excited for that. Merch is gonna be, I'm sure, is gonna be uh straight fire if Ryan is gonna be taking care of that. So again, thank you so much for taking care of it. And then guys, make sure you hit the subscribe button on all of the socials for the data chronicles, YouTube. Um, yeah, we're uh pretty much anywhere, right? Exactly. TikTok, uh, Instagram, and Facebook. And we'll see you guys on the next one.