The Brockton Rox are a professional baseball team based in Brockton, Massachusetts. The Rox compete in the Frontier League (FL) as a member of the North Division in the Atlantic Conference. The team has been in existence since 2024, making them the third-youngest team in the FL, prior to the 2024 Frontier League expansion.
The Rox are one of the newest FL teams, along with the Mississippi Mud Monsters and Down East Bird Dawgs. They joined the league as part of the 2024 Frontier League expansion as the New England Knockouts. Prior to the 2025 season, the team was renamed to the Brockton Rox, following the folding of the original Brockton Rox, a collegiate team that had the same name. The original Brockton Rox shared their home ballpark with the Knockouts during the 2024 season, until it was announced that the Knockouts had been acquired by the former Greenville Drive and Salem Red Sox owner, Bill Janetscheck. With the change in ownership, the team announced a re-brand to the Brockton Rox, marking the demise of the FCBL franchise.[1] The Rox plays its home games at Campanelli Stadium.
History
The Frontier League announced late in the 2023 season that it would be placing a team in Brockton for the 2024 Frontier League season to replace the Empire State Greys, a traveling team founded when the Southern Illinois Miners were disbanded after their owners retired. Brockton's most recent professional baseball team had been the former iteration of the Brockton Rox, who were founded as a member of the former Northern League in 2002, and left the Can-Am League following the 2011 season to become a collegiate league team.
A team naming contest was conducted following the 2023 season, with five names chosen as finalists.[2] Of these, the most popular was New England Chowdahheads, and the team initially selected it as their new moniker, announcing it in November 2023.[3] However, reactions from fans and local business leaders in the area were lukewarm at best; as such, the owners of the team reconsidered.[4] On December 15, they announced that they would be dropping the Chowdahheads name in favor of a name that was reflective of Brockton's history of producing championship caliber prizefighters such as Rocky Marciano and Marvelous Marvin Hagler—the New England Knockouts.[4]
On January 29, 2025, it was announced that the Knockouts franchise had been acquired by former Greenville Drive and Salem Red Sox owner, Bill Janetscheck. With the change in ownership, the team announced a re-brand to the Brockton Rox.[5] The previously noted Brockton Rox, which originated as a professional team, had competed in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League from 2012 through 2024, the final season of which they shared Campanelli Stadium with the Knockouts.
The team currently utilizes two boxing kangaroo mascots, due to Brockton's heritage of boxing: K-O (carried over from the original Brockton Rox), and Champ.
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