Opinion: FUSE will be a home run for Gastonia Jim Gallagher FUSE is the culmination of a lot of time and effort put in by multiple people and entities over the past several years. The Grizzlies were such a huge success at Sims Park that they propelled what we now know as “FUSE” (Franklin Urban Sports & Entertainment) into existence. The catchy name is the work of Jason Thompson, the Gastonia director of planning. I was first elected to City Council in 2010, and seeing an average crowd size of 2,000 – 4,000 people gathered at Sims Park for a Grizzlies game was hard to ignore.