The bark has left the ballpark.

After failing to reach a lease agreement with Fayetteville Technical Community College, the Fayetteville SwampDogs' summer collegiate baseball team is ending its 19-year stay in Fayetteville and plans to relocate, according to an announcement issued Friday morning.

The SwampDogs will remain a member of the Coastal Plain League but they will sit out the 2020 season.

FTCC took ownership of J.P. Riddle Stadium, home field of the SwampDogs, when Cumberland County Commissioners voted to hand it over last winter. The Trojans began using the field in the spring of 2019, in conjunction with the inaugural season of its baseball team.

The SwampDogs came to Fayetteville in 2001 after the Cape Fear Crocs left J.P. Riddle Stadium. The Crocs were a Minor League Baseball low Class-A affiliate of the Montreal Expos.

The Crocs' departure left Fayetteville without a pro baseball team for the first time in 13 years. The SwampDogs filled that gap with family entertainment and a roster that saw some future major leaguers alongside home-grown standouts until the Fayetteville Woodpeckers brought the pro game back to town this spring.

"Our goal was to continue being a source of low-cost summer entertainment for the community of which we've become an integral part," SwampDogs General Manager Jeremy Aagard said in a news release. "The financial terms of the lease we were offered by FTCC were inconsistent with that goal."

Off the field, the SwampDogs were supportive of local charities and regularly hosted community fundraisers such as trunk-or-treat and pancake breakfasts along with enrichment activities like summer reading programs.

Giving back to the community was always a goal for team owner Lew Handelsman. "We thank the thousands of fans, host families, and the many business sponsors who warmly welcomed us and helped make the SwampDogs successful."

The SwampDogs' average attendance during the 2019 summer season was 926, down from 1,502 in 2018. The Woodpeckers' first season at sparkling Segra Stadium, recently named a Ballpark of the Decade by Ballpark Digest magazine, undoubtedly had an impact on attendance for SwampDogs games. Those games were played about 4 miles away at Riddle, which opened in 1987.

The SwampDogs qualified for postseason play 11 times, reaching the Petitt Cup Playoffs championship in 2012.

The CPL will see other changes with an expansion team in Colonial Heights, Virginia, that launches in 2020, and Edenton Steamers' shift to the Tidewater Summer League.

The CPL is a wood bat league made up of players who have attended at least one year of college and have one year of eligibility remaining.

Sports editor Monica Holland can be reached at mholland@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3518.