Wilmington’s Fuzzy Peach Frozen Yogurt will be served up to baseball fans when Charlotte’s new stadium opens this spring.

The company announced Tuesday that it has entered into an agreement to bring a Fuzzy Peach franchise to the soon-to-open BB&T Ballpark, the new home to the Charlotte Knights.

Rocco Quaranto, Fuzzy Peach’s chief marketing officer, said that the stadium has a distinctive design that allows access to some vendors from inside and outside of the park.

“It’s really cool the way they are setting up the ballpark,” Quaranto said. “To access vendors in most stadiums, the ballpark has to be open, but they are going to have indoor-outdoor parcels. You can enter the store from the inside during an event, but people on the street can enter from the outside year-round, even when the park is not open. For the club’s team store next door to us and a couple of other units, it’s the same concept.”

The yogurt shop’s opening, set to coincide with the April 11 ballpark-opening game between the Knights and the Norfolk Tide, will be the first time many Charlotte-area residents have tried Fuzzy Peach Frozen Yogurt. Currently, Fuzzy Peach has two franchises in the greater Charlotte area: one in the college town of Boiling Springs and another at Lake Wylie, S.C.. A third will open in Shelby soon, Quaranto said.

The Knights organization, which will own the franchise, sought the yogurt company out, Quaranto said.

“They, of course, took bids from other national chains, but with us being local to North Carolina, it was a good fit,” he said, adding that the ball club learned about Fuzzy Peach through its franchise advertising. “We met with them, told them our story and what we had to offer. It’s a nice synergy.”

Jason Nista, Fuzzy Peach co-founder agreed, adding that officials were excited about the new partnership.

“The Charlotte Knights and BB&T Ballpark are setting the example for what a professional sports team can mean to a local community and economy,” Nista said in a news release.

Quaranto said the prospect of his company selling at the BB&T Ballpark has special significance for him.

“I’m from Charlotte originally and remember going to Knights games when I was little,” he said.
 
Founded in 2010 in Wilmington by former University of North Carolina Wilmington  classmates and fellow track runners Quaranto, Nista and Wells Struble, Fuzzy Peach has sold 40 franchises in eight states. Currently, 17 franchise locations are open; the rest are in the pipeline, Quaranto said.