The day after Quint and Rishy Studer attended their first Pensacola Pelicans game in 2002, Quint noticed an article in the Pensacola News Journal noting that the team might be available for sale. At the time, the Pelicans were an unaffiliated independent professional baseball team playing at a local junior college in Pensacola as a member of a start-up six-team league. After inquiring into the franchise, the Studers were offered the opportunity to own the Pelicans and took it.

Over the next few years, they invested heavily in the team and the league, at times covering opposing players' salaries or paying for other teams to keep competition on the field. With the success of the franchise, they were able to move the Pelicans to the stronger Central League and then the American Association, traveling as far as St. Paul, Minnesota to play games.

With the team playing at a local college, the Studers began looking for ways to build the team its own stadium in downtown Pensacola. In 2009, after a long referendum process, they began constructing both a baseball stadium and a public park on 27 acres of heavily-polluted but beautiful waterfront land in downtown.

While the park and stadium were under construction, the opportunity to purchase the Carolina Mudcats, then the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, arose. In 2010, the Studer family officially purchased the Mudcats and moved them to Pensacola, re-naming them the Pensacola Blue Wahoos through a branding contest voted on by local fans.

Blue Wahoos Stadium officially opened in 2012 with the Blue Wahoos playing their first season in affiliated baseball in the Southern League as the Double-A affiliate for the Reds. In their short history since, the team has established itself as one of the most successful businesses in Minor League Baseball, rating first in all of baseball in fan experience and consistently being ranked one of the top places to work in the nation.

In October 2018, the Blue Wahoos announced that they had reached a two-year Player Development Contract to become the Double-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, an agreement that began in 2019.

In 2021, 120 MiLB teams signed Professional Development Licenses and now operate under Major League Baseball. During that time, the Blue Wahoos also become the new Double-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins and remain with the Marlins today.