Home Run for Family Fun with the NH Fisher Cats

When it comes to affordable, family- friendly fun, creative entertainment geared toward kids, community engagement and the chance to see future stars, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats always hits a grand slam. 

New Hampshire’s minor league baseball team, which is the Double-A affiliate of the Major League Baseball Toronto Blue Jays, has called Manchester home since 2004. But things are distinctly different since the franchise was bought in 2024 by Diamond Baseball Holdings, which has 49 minor league baseball teams across North America in its portfolio and is a subsidiary of the investment group Silver Lake. 

Delta Dental Stadium provides the ballpark experience without the high cost of a major league ticket.

DBH is providing new opportunities for the club and the community to preserve the national pastime in the Granite State.

“These aren’t your father’s Fisher Cats,” says General Manager Taylor Fisher, while adding that this is his real last name. 

Fisher, a New England native, has been involved in minor league baseball for 14 years. He was brought in after serving as a vice president of the Triple-A Nashville Sounds, a Milwaukee Brewers affiliate.

“It’s different here now when you’re backed by an ownership group that’s backed by a private equity firm. That’s not the norm. Most minor league baseball teams are owned by a single owner, and it’s a single club. Now we are one of 49 teams that have a huge backing, a huge amount of buying power and a high level of stability. This has allowed us to tell a very different story for 2026 and beyond,” he says.

New Hampshire has a colorful recent history with minor league sports teams. The Manchester Monarchs, the AHL and then ECHL franchise of the National Hockey League’s Los Angeles Kings, The Manchester Wolves of the Arena Football League, and the American Basketball Association’s expansion Manchester Mill Rats enjoyed popularity for a time. None survived.

“The Fisher Cats have a very strong fan base. A big part of it is we have been a Blue Jays affiliate since day one,” explains the team’s GM. “What very much separates minor league baseball apart from those other leagues is that those individual teams pay their players and coaches and are responsible for the huge expense of their salaries. That’s not how minor league baseball works. All our players and coaches are paid by the parent club and are Blue Jays employees.”

Delta Dental Stadium provides the ballpark experience without the high cost of a major league ticket.

The front office personnel are on the Fisher Cats payroll and are responsible for running the business and operating the stadium. In the offseason, DBH invested more than $1 million in the physical ballpark to improve the fan experience. After complaints about the food and beverage provided by a third-party concessionaire last year, everything was brought in-house to much better reviews. 

As for the business side, the turnaround with corporate sponsors is remarkable.

“Coming out of the 2025 season 80 percent of our partners were on one-year deals up for renewals. By the end of 2025, they had instead committed to three- or five-year deals. That was something that took an immense amount of work,” says Fisher. “We worked extremely hard coming into this year to show the growth, the changes and the investment. Almost every one of our partners renewed, so now we need to back it up and show why that commitment from our corporate partners is worthwhile and valid.”

So far, so good. 

Lauren Getts, the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce vice president for economic development and strategic communications, says, “From an economic standpoint, their impact on Manchester is significant and far-reaching. On game nights, our downtown comes alive and local businesses see a real boost in foot traffic. A thriving anchor attraction like the Fisher Cats helps make Manchester a destination, drawing visitors from across the region who spend money, explore our city and come back again.”

They also invest in local community in immeasurable ways.

“From hosting nonprofit fundraisers and awareness nights, to making their facility available for community events, the Fisher Cats show up for Manchester over and over. They are a cornerstone of what makes this city a great place to live, work and do business,” notes Getts.

The response from season ticket holders is overwhelming as well.

Every game holds the chance for a memory with a future major-leaguer.

“We were given a goal for 2026 and of the 49 teams in our ownership group, we were number one. We beat our season ticket goal by 170 percent. Season tickets in many locales in many sports are in decline, so to be able to say we just beat our season ticket goal by 170 percent is crazy. We are very proud of that,” Fisher says. 

Ryan Fragala of Londonderry and his family have been fans for 10 years. “This year it (the ballpark experience) is different. Now there is a more of a big-league feel and it’s so much more reasonably priced than Fenway Park. Plus, the kids have more fun here than they do at a Red Sox game. I would absolutely recommend to any other family that they come to games here. It’s a great experience for the whole family,” he says.

It isn’t just the kiddos enjoying a trip to the ballpark.

“During one of our quarterly networking events, I watched over 150 business professionals set down their phones, grab a hot dog and a beer and just enjoy a beautiful evening together — you could literally see the weight lift off everyone’s shoulders,” Getts says. 

“That’s the magic of the Fisher Cats experience. They create an environment where people connect, relax and remember why community matters.” 

For more information about the Fisher Cats and their upcoming schedule of games, visit mlb.com/milb/new-hampshire.

Play Ball! 

In the 2025 World Series, the American League Champion Toronto Blue Jays lost a one-run heartbreaker to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 7. With 40 percent of the Blue Jays roster being former New Hampshire Fisher Cats, the team had plenty of local support.

“We’ve been very fortunate that we’ve had a lot of really good guys play here. It makes the Blue Jays easy to root for,” says GM Taylor Fisher. 

One of the advantages of minor league baseball is the intimacy of the game, where fans
can interact with the players. The Fisher Cats are connected to this community, and especially
to the kiddos. 

“It’s a really big deal when an athlete pays attention to a kid. Our guys are good at that. We have a lot of good guys. They hang out, sign autographs, take pictures, give kids baseballs, all of it. That’s what we care about, making sure that the players understand the significance of that. While they’re here, we want them to have immense success plus go out of their way to interact with the fans and show the kids some love,” says Fisher.

Those kids just might be getting a ball signed by a future Major League All-Star. “This year we’ve already had a couple of players on our team get called up to the Blue Jays. That’s very special,” Fisher says.