In June 2018, Potomac Nationals owner Art Silber announced that he had signed a letter of intent to build a new stadium in Fredericksburg, Virginia, that would open in April 2020. The 5,000-seat multi-purpose stadium will include a 300-seat club facility and 13 suites. In November 2018 the Fredericksburg city council unanimously gave final approval for the Silber family to finance, build and maintain the $35 million stadium with the city as an "anchor tenant" making an annual payment to the club of $1.05 million for 30 years. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on February 24, 2019, but construction work did not begin until July or August 2019. On September 25, 2019, general managerNick Hall said, "We're 100 percent planning on opening April 23." MASN reported on January 13, 2020 that Hall had said that construction was on schedule and that he was confident the venue will be ready for the 2020 season. With the 2020 season start postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nationals held a virtual opening day on April 23, 2020. Hall said that the stadium was baseball-ready though construction was not yet complete, even though, with construction deemed as essential business, "The construction progress has gone off without a hitch." Construction was continuing at the start of June 2020. As part of a process to give the team a new name that included Fredericksburg, a "Name the Team" contest that began in April 2019 received more than 2,400 responses on the team name, colors, mascots, and ways to incorporate local history and culture. On October 5, 2019, the team announced that it had changed its name to the Fredericksburg Nationals for the 2020 season and that its marketing nickname for the team – "P-Nats" when the team was the Potomac Nationals – would change to "FredNats." The teams uniforms were revealed on November 16, 2019 along with a Mary Washington logo at an event on Mary Washington's 311th birthday. In March 2020, the team unveiled their new mascot, Gus, described as "fat and fluffy" with purple fur and bright green eyebrows. The start of the 2020 season was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic before ultimately being cancelled on June 30. Thusly, the FredNats may not begin to play until at least 2021.
