In the case of both the city and the film, this explosion of popularity caused the DAP to become a victim of its own success; despite expansion with temporary bleachers, it became too small to handle the increase in crowd size and the Bulls’ Triple-A ambitions.

[1] On July 7, 1926,[1] the Bulls moved to a new field called El Toro Park, built atop the streambed of Ellerbe Creek, which was re-routed, underground, through a tunnel beneath the pitcher's mound.

[11][12][13] The ballpark, originally built with a wooden grandstand, was dedicated by the Commissioner of Baseball, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, on July 26, 1926, who rode a live bull—the team mascot—onto the playing field.

[3] On the evening of June 17, 1939, the wooden Durham Athletic Park was destroyed by a fire that followed a 7–3 win over the Portsmouth Cubs, causing more than $100,000 in damage and nearly killing groundskeeper Walter Williams, who was asleep under the grandstand when the blaze began, shortly after midnight.

[1][9] Less than two weeks after the disastrous fire that completely destroyed the stadium, a new concrete and steel grandstand, seating 1,000 spectators, opened on July 2, 1939, in time for the Bulls to face the Charlotte Hornets,[1][9] as a result, 1939 is the year from which the current DAP is normally dated.

Funding for the completely new stadium was provided by John Sprunt Hill and the design was penned by Durham architect George Watts Carr, who added the park's distinctive conical ticket tower.

[2] The Bulls were re-activated in early 1945, as the Red Sox's Class-C team in the newly established Carolina League, after sitting out for the 1944 season which was a year-long drought of baseball at the DAP, due to the second World War.

[14] The team's popularity received a large boost when the ballpark became the primary setting for the film Bull Durham, which also contributed to the end of the DAP as an important baseball venue.

Increased attendance at the DAP, with frequent capacity crowds, and an interest in attracting a Triple-A franchise prompted the city to build a new ballpark on the other side of the downtown, adjacent to the former American Tobacco campus.

Nearby North Carolina Central University announced plans to expand its athletic department to include baseball and identified the DAP as the venue for its home stadium.

[15][16] In early 2008, the City of Durham pledged an additional $1 million to the renovation, the money coming from interest earned on unspent bond funds.

[19][20] On the evening of May 10, 2010, before a crowd of 3,911,[21] the-now Class AAA Durham Bulls returned to The DAP for a single regular-season game against the Toledo Mud Hens.

With additional lighting on-hand to raise the field to Triple-A standards, the Bulls fell to the Mud Hens 6–4, mirroring the score of the Single-A club's final game in the stadium 16 years prior.