Bob Ruffolo got inside the new Yankee Stadium and post pictures of facility. I like the way they kept the look and feel of the old ballpark.

James Crabtree sends along this link to a paper Wrigley Field. Just print, cut, fold and assemble.

The MTA wants to extract tribute from CitiBank.

Jay Jaffe rounds up the problems with relocating Yankees season ticket holders to the new stadium, including the obstructed view foul pole seats.

The obstructed view problem strikes me as one in which technology could really help. As was pointed out in this session on technology at MIT over the weekend, chips can be embedded in balls that can transmit information about the flight path. Maybe a localized GPS system can track the ball, letting the umps know if it was fair or foul. They would not need to rely on replays either. An even simpler idea might be a virtual foul pole, a circle of lasers shooting up to a collector at the top of the stadium. Fans could see through the light, and the collector would be able to tell if the light was interrupted as the ball sailed through. It's time for teams to get more creative with home run detection.

The San Francisco Chronicle wonders if the Oakland Coliseum could go back to being a baseball only stadium. It would depend on the Raiders and 49's sharing a football stadium. That works well for the Jets and Giants. The Athletics could then restore the stadium, much like the Angels did when the Rams left Anaheim, at a much lower cost than building something new.

When I entered Harvard in 1978, the school was faced with a crumbling sports infrastructure. Building new was deemed too costly, so they came up with a plan to remodel. They built a new pool, but kept the foot print of the hockey arena and created a beautiful new facility in that footprint. They built a new indoor track and turned an old building that was used for similar activities into a basketball arena. The tore out the guts of the football stadium, replacing the support beams and concrete slab seats with prefab concrete, keeping the look and feel of the stadium while giving it a new 75 years lease on life. With the money they saved they were able to add new tennis courts and an outdoor track.

More recently, the Red Sox did the same with Fenway park. Their renovations over the last decade make it a much friendlier place to see a game while they've added premium seats.

The owner of the Athletics wants to make a new stadium part of a larger development. Maybe, however, this makes more sense for the baseball team.

A new minor league stadium in Gwinnett County, GA is going to cost residents. The city needs $62 million in additional revenue as they build a $64 million stadium.

Let the team owners build the stadiums!

The Voice of Yankees Universe posts the latest pictures from inside the new stadium. It certainly has the look and feel of the old park.

Update: From the new to the old. Sully Baseball finds the 1977 post World Series interview in the Yankees clubhouse. The best part is a young Dan Shaughnessy sticking his face into the Reggie Jackson interview.

It's a rare occasion in which I catch Rob Neyer in an error, so here it is:

By my count, after the Twins move into their new palace next spring, only the Dodgers and the Red Sox will play in older homes than the A's. But Dodger Stadium and Fenway Park are both baseball-only cash cows, while the A's are sharing with the Raiders, and nobody shows up even when they're winning.

Wrigley Field is nearly as old as Fenway, and Angel Stadium opened the same year as the Coliseum, but the baseball season came first.

Still, I like Rob's idea of moving the A's to Portland, although I'd prefer Maine to Oregon. :-)

The Athletics's plan to build a new stadium in Fremont fizzled:

"At this time we have decided to no longer pursue the Fremont project," said A's spokesman Bob Rose. "We are regrouping and will have discussions internally about our future options."

The team asked the city of Fremont this week to halt the planning process required to build a stadium. A City Council meeting on the stadium scheduled for Tuesday has been canceled.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's dead," said Fremont Vice Mayor Anu Natarajan. "I don't know if this was the right thing for Fremont or not, but I'm very disappointed we didn't let the process unfold."

On top of that, there is no fallback plan. The A's will be staying in the Oakland Coliseum for the foreseeable future.

I suspect the real estate collapse has a lot to do with this. Lew Wolff wanted to build a village around his new stadium, but who was going to buy his houses and rent his stores? Maybe he can use this to his advantage and buy up land to build a stadium cheaply over a few years.

The Mets came up with a better patch to be placed on their hats to commemerate their new stadium.

From Halos Heaven, an ariel view of Angels Stadium, 1966.

ShysterBall notes that Miami and the Marlins tried to hide $1.3 billion in stadium costs, but someone who read the bill managed to vote it down. Another reason to just say no to publicly funded stadiums.

Correction: Fixed link.

The last piece of Shea Stadium falls to the ground.

Here's a photo of the last bit of Shea Stadium left standing.

Cafe Hayek offers a link to a study about economists opinions on subsidizing sports venues. The conclusion of the survey:

We have seen that economists in general, as represented by Whaples's survey (2006), oppose sports subsidies. Economists reach the nearly unanimous conclusion that "tangible" economic benefits generated by professional sports facilities and franchises are very small; clearly far smaller than stadium advocates suggest and smaller than the size of the subsidies. The fact that sports subsidies continue to be granted, despite the overwhelming preponderance of evidence that no tangible economic benefits are generated by these heavily subsidized professional sports facilities, remains a puzzle.

Rent-seeking generates powerful incentives for people like professional
sports team owners and professional athletes to divert public money into their
pockets. Elected officials are especially susceptible to flattery from professional
athletes, and these officials are also keenly aware of the political value of keeping
the local team in town regardless of the underlying cost-benefit calculus. These
explanations, along with simple collective foolishness when it comes to matters of
the heart like sports, have considerable explanatory power. Moreover, the implicit
and explicit anti-trust protection extended to North American professional sports
leagues probably contributes to the ability of team owners to extract subsidies
from local governments. At any rate, we seem to have reached the classic paradox
in which economists reach a conclusion but are unable to make economic wisdom
decisive in public policy decisions.

You may want to download the PDF and email it to a politician in your area who is trying to put your tax money to work building a venue.

ShysterBall wants to see a no vote on the Marlins new stadium.

At a snow covered Citi Field, the new home run apple gets installed.

The Marlins' president believes a new stadium will bring in the fans:

With final voting on the Florida Marlins' long-sought ballpark less than two weeks away, club president David Samson says he expects near-capacity crowds nightly the first year in the team's new home, with annual attendance above 2 million for at least seven seasons.

Such an increase for the attendance-challenged Marlins would allow them to climb into the middle of the major league pack in player payroll, Samson said Monday.

"As soon as our revenues goes up, our payroll will go up," Samson said at a luncheon to promote the upcoming season. "In the new ballpark, our payroll will always match our revenues, but our revenues will be higher."

I'll believe it when I see it. If the Marlins put out an inferior product their first year in the new stadium, I doubt the crowds will grow much. Florida should invest in their team before going into the new stadium to drive attendance, not wait for the attendance to materialize.

The Marlins released drawings of their proposed stadium. It's a bit antiseptic for my taste, but at least it gets away from the brick that seems to dominate the new parks.

The Yankees move into their new digs.

Home Run Derby examines why we don't play baseball in the winter. :-)

The dimensions of Citi Field seem to indicate it will suppress home runs, but Will Leitch talked to the players:

The obvious target seemed to be Derek Lowe, a big-game, big-city pitcher whose deadening ground-ball presence might be especially needed at the new Citi Field, which Mets players who have tried out the stadium say is a "launching pad." (Perhaps the most underreported story of the Mets off-season: That Citi is expected to be a homer-happy park.)

You never know how the shape of the stadium will effect things. However, there's good reason to believe it will not be a launching pad. Shea was never known as a home run haven, and this park is a bit bigger. Since they are built right next to each other, and on the water, both parks are at sea level. The orientation is slightly different, as seen in this photo. Citi also is somewhat more enclosed, so there might be less wind blowing in. My bet is that a few swings in the middle of winter can't describe the park. I'm betting on a tough field for home runs, but we'll see.

Hat tip, BBTF.

New York Yankees Update offers a simplified look at the financing of Yankee Sadium, and comes down on the Yankees side.

A couple of people pointed me to this article today about an investigation into the funding for the new Yankee Stadium. What? Corruption in a billion dollar New York construction project? Who would have thought it possible! Rodney Dangerfield explained it best:

Here's Randy Levine's explanation of the deal:

The New York Yankees, not the taxpayers, are paying for the construction and operation of the new stadium. All of the money to finance the construction of the stadium is from the Yankees. Those who keep repeating that the city is paying are either deliberately misrepresenting the facts or simply do not understand the financial mechanism that is available to build large scale projects.

The mechanism is: An entity controlled by the city issues bonds to build a new stadium. Those bonds are purchased by private investors, not taxpayers. The Yankees have a long-term lease with the city entity that owns the building. That city entity pays no taxes. The Yankees make a payment-in-lieu-of-real-estate taxes (called a PILOT) and this amount - and only this, and nothing from the government or the taxpayers - pays back the private bondholders. Since the city entity, not the Yankees, owns the stadium, this use of PILOTs does not cost the city anything. The city does not lose anything because city entities do not pay property taxes; the city does not collect property taxes now, and without this financing the Yankees would not have built a new stadium, and thus no taxes would have been received.

In addition, the city saves money because in the old building, the city was responsible for tens of millions of dollars in maintenance costs, an amount that grew as the stadium aged. In the new stadium, the Yankees have that obligation. Under the deal between the city and the Yankees, the city is receiving a building it does not have to pay to construct or maintain.

What the Yankees are getting from the city is a sweetheart financing deal. Corruption? No doubt, but what are they going to do, tear down the stadium? Make the bond holders pay taxes on their investments? The worst thing that will happen is some scape-goat goes to jail, and the deal continues as is. If people want this to stop, leave government out of the building process entirely.

WCBS News captures images of the new Yankee Stadium with the lights on. Hat tip, River Ave. Blues.

River Ave. Blues posts pictures from inside the new Yankee Stadium.

Another reason to avoid public financing (or ownership) of stadiums.

The Yankees and Mets are both looking for more money from New York City in terms of bonds. It never ends.

Matt Cerrone posts high resolution photos of Bailout Field at Metsblog.com. I have to say, I miss the brightly colored seats of Shea.

Fremont and the Athletics are considering moving the location of the proposed new stadium to a lot across from future BART station.

A fight between the Yankees and the mayors office led to a free suite but also a loss of revenue.

The lawsuit against the Marlins new park delayed the opening one year. It's now slated to open in 2012. It's also possible that the delay saved money, however. Fuel costs are now lower, and interest rates for qualified borrowers are lower, also. Yes, the Marlins lose a year of revenue, but the stadium may actually be cheaper to build.

Once again, we should have shorted Citi Bank when they bought the naming rights to the Mets Stadium.

The Baseball Zealot links to photos from the Polo Grounds. The collection gives one a nice feel for the park.

Dugout Central posts a selection from the oral history of Yankee Stadium.

The Marlins won their legal battle to build a new stadium, but the delay will cost them time:

But the question becomes: Will the stadium be ready for Opening Day 2011, as planned?

Marlins President David Samson said the legal fight puts the answer in doubt.

''The Braman litigation was absolutely a delay,'' Samson said. ``We're evaluating the significance of that delay right now with our construction managers. I hope we have an announcement here within a week.''

The timing could be critical. The team's current lease with former owner H. Wayne Huizenga at Dolphin Stadium expires at the end of the 2010 season. The Marlins could ask the stadium owners for a partial year or month-to-month lease for 2011.

Braman said in an interview that his legal team will file an immediate appeal, another possible wrinkle in the stadium's plans.

They would not be the first team to move into a stadium mid season.

A helicopter photo shows Citi Field with grass in place.

The two New York stadiums seem to be moving along quite well. I wonder if they'll avoid the last minute fixes we've seem in other places?

Peter Abraham is off to a press conference about the new technology at Yankee Stadium:

The Yankees will be announcing "new fan-facing technologies to be featured at the new Yankee Stadium."

Wow, new faces for fans. I wonder if that hurts?

I hope they mean interfacing technologies. WiFi throughout the stadium, for example, that not only allows you to surf the web but order food, see replays, etc, all from your cellphone.

Peter Abraham posts pictures of the construction crew packing the retired numbers from monumnet park at Yankee Stadium.

Fenway Park undergoes another round of improvements. Here's my favorite:

The wooden grandstand seats that date back to 1934 are being refurbished and widened to league-mandated dimensions of at least 18 inches.

I often sat in the grandstand, and there was no elbow room. It looks like that will change a little.

The Oakland Athletics received good election news on Tuesday, as the Fremont voting favored candidates who support a new stadium:

Incredibly, the results paint a rather favorable picture for the A's and their hopes to get the baseball village built. Several potential obstacles in Fremont have been removed. Incumbent mayor Wasserman, who has been the staunchest public proponent of the project, will stick around to see it through the EIR process at the very least. Wieckowski, also a supporter, will be there as well. They'll be joined by Chan, who is also a project supporter. Neither of the project's biggest critics, former mayor Gus Morrison and Sierra Club chapter leader Vinnie Bacon, placed higher than third in their races.

As the post points out, there are still obstacles, but Lew Wolff won't need to worry about too much opposition from politicians.

The Village Voice is live blogging the Kucinich hearings on issues involved with the bonds floated to build Yankee Stadium. Hat tip, Bronx Banter.

Worries about traffic congestion caused by a stadium for the Athletics in Fremont may derail the plans to build there. Here's one concern that's quite legitimate:

Officials at Nummi, the city's automobile plant near the proposed ballpark site, have also expressed concerns about the potential for game-day gridlock.

"Nummi operates with just-in-time delivery, so we worry when there is a potential for increased traffic congestion in the area," said Kelley McKenzie, the company's chief counsel. "We have expressed our concerns to city officials as well as the Oakland A's."

In other words, the traffic problem would be more than just an inconvenience for commuters. Just-in-time delivery allows businesses to operate more efficiently, lowering costs.

It seems to me, for this to work, there would need to be a very high cost to people driving to the games and some kind of incentive for people to take alternate transportation to the games. Maybe $100 parking at the stadium but free parking and shuttle service at the rail stations?

Update: Added link.

Erik Wemple notes poor predictions by pudits over the positive effects of a new stadium for the Nationals. The failure is evident in the ticket prices:

Proof of the failure of Nationals Park to unite us all lies in the ticket. The Nationals' ticket is a nice-looking specimen, rectangular with a drawing of an idyllic Nationals Park at the top. But that's where its allure ends. In cities where the ball club is a source of civic pride, you wave your tickets around, and people come running. Got extras? How much are you asking?

Here, you wave your tickets around, and people come up with excuses. Sorry, gotta work late.

Nats tickets can be had for $5 a pop at the gate, so it's hard to depress the market much further. In the 2008 season, however, that's precisely what happened, as season ticket holders in many cases struggled just to offload the seats on someone who would make use of them. If the national economy ever suffered such a blow, everyone would be talking about a bailout package. But hey, we already gave the Nats a nearly $700 million stadium.

On the bright side, the Nationals farm system made a huge jump this season, from 30th to 9th in the Baseball America rankings. They're AA team finished with a winning record and their A team won the Carolina League. Winning at low levels often translates to winning at the major league level.

Joe McDonald wonders what the closing ceremony will be like if the Mets lose this afternoon:

Last season, all the Mets had to deal with was a collapse. Once the game was over, they went into the clubhouse not be to seen again until February.

Now, there's more to it. If No. 46 decides to do his best No. 47 imitation today, the organization will have a bitter fan base taking its frustrations out on all the Met greats, who will be on hand for a post-game ceremony.

Think about the misguided anger coming down from the rafters towards Tom Seaver, Willie Mays and Mike Piazza. Imagine the fury, while the greatest moments at Shea are introduced right after a capacity crowd just saw one of its worst.

Or better yet, think about this going on in an empty stadium, because the disillusioned fans walk out after the season ends so meekly.

It's a recipe for disaster during a year where the team tried to erase all the bad will of 2007.

I can't see Mets fans taking it out on the old-timers. I could see the empty stadium happening, however. I also imagine a lot of boos if the Mets lose, and during the ceremony the Brewers stage a comeback and win their game.

As the Mets celebrate the end of Shea Stadium today, here are some of my memories from the few games I attended there. My first was in 1970. The Nathan Hale School Cub Scout troop took a field trip to Shea. The game was against the Braves and I got to see Henry Aaron play, although he didn't get the ball out of the infield. I don't remember much about the game. At the last minute, the Den Mothers asked my father and my best friend's dad to go. It turns out they were the only adult males on the trip. As my father says to this day, he saw the game from the men's room as he and Mr. Shawah shuttled Cubs from their seats to the bathroom. He still gets upset when I bring up that game. :-) (Happy 88th, dad.)

On May 3rd, 1989, I was in NY on business and hooked up with one of my college roommates, Levon Nazarian for a Mets game. Levon remains a big Mets fan to this day. We sat in the upper deck in right, and in the first inning Todd Benzinger came to the plate. He played first base that night and batted fourth, and I started criticizing the Reds for playing such a poor hitter at first base and batting him fourth. In the middle of my rant, Todd hits a home run to give the Reds a 2-0 lead. I still was right. :-)

Then in the middle 1990s, one of our STATS, Inc. scorers who handled press box duties at Shea Stadium kept having trouble with the software. He'd break down in the middle of the game and lose the account. In an effort to solve the problem, I went down to Shea to sit with him and watch him score. At one point, I went to the men's room, and who comes in and takes the urinal next to me but Gary Carter! My brush with greatness.

My last game at Shea came on Sept. 9, 2006. Apart from seeing Maddux fool the defense at the plate, the memorable moment came when my daughter saw the stadium for the first time. She had only visited Fenway, and the scale of Shea, a stories high stadium impressed her.

Reel Sports Fan presents the memories of three fans, two who worked for the Yankees.

Tiffany Berryman pens a love letter to Yankee Stadium.

Certainly, there will be a new Stadium but it won't be THEE Stadium. And though he may be younger and sexier - he could never be you. Strength is built by substance and not with steel. My devotion to you has been questioned and scrutinized and I have made many mistakes. But you have always welcomed me with arms wide open regardless of my flaws. Time distorts reality and memories often fade, still you will live on for all eternity in each breathless "I love you"...

As I wrote this post, Johnny Damon hits a three-run homer into the rightfield stands to put the Yankees up 3-2.

Baseball Musings roving reporter Jim Storer is at Yankee Stadium tonight. He sends this photo of Yogi standing at home plate. Thanks to Ed Vescovi for getting Jim the tickets.

Update: Here's Jeter getting a throphy for passing Gehrig for the most hits at Yankee Stadium.

Update: Damon gives the Yankees a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the third:

Update: Jeter struck out with the bases loaded to end the sixth. The Yankees still lead 5-3:

Bruce Schoenfeld explains what the new Yankee Stadium means for the players, the team and MLB as a whole.

For some reason I missed it when Alex posted, but my fondest memory of Yankees Stadium is up at Bronx Banter. I do have a couple of other memories of the place. My first visit there was also my first visit to any ballpark. It was in September of 1969, a meaningless game between the Yankees and the Red Sox. Mel Stottlemyre pitched. That was my first year watching baseball and Mel was one of my favorite players. Thurman Munson caught. The Yankees called him up in September of that season, and there was already buzz that he would be a star. Stottlemyre was a good hitter, and he tripled and scored in the game.

My other favorite moment came in 1986. Once a year my company would attend a trade show in New York, so I always tried to catch a game while in the city. My good friend Jim Storer came down from Connecticut to join me. It was a rain delayed, poorly played game between the Twins and Yankees that seemed to go on forever. Late in the game, however, a message flashed on the scoreboard that Roger Clemens struck out 20 Mariners. Jim let out a scream. "I could have taken him in the 20th round of my fantasy draft!"

During the 1998 World Series, I did get on the field. We watched batting practice near the cage, sat in the dugout, and explored the bowels of the stadium. Having done the same in more modern parks, it's clear they need a new facility. The tunnels are narrow and cramped, dark and damp. In Cleveland, Atlanta, Colorado and Miami, you can drive a truck around under the stadium. Some fans may not love the move, but I'm guessing the press, broadcasters, players and their families will love the spacious digs.

I'm grateful I was able to see the original configuration and the improved new look. I can't wait to see the new park.

Bob Shepard remains too ill to announce a game at Yankee Stadium this season. His voice would be a nice touch.

Target appears to be cornering the market on Minnesota sports facilities:

The team and Target Corp. announced Monday an agreement in principle on an exclusive 25-year partnership that includes naming rights to the Twins' new stadium, scheduled to open in 2010.

Target and the Twins also will collaborate on the design of Target Plaza, a pedestrian bridge and public gathering space connecting Target Field to downtown Minneapolis.

...

It's the second sports venue named after the retailer. The NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves play in the Target Center in the Minneapolis.

I wonder if the uniforms will use this to dot the I's.

A little Green Monster humor from the Boston Globe.

A judge handed down a decision favorable to the Marlins building a new stadium:

The Florida Marlins cleared a major hurdle in their bid to get a new stadium Tuesday when a judge ruled the proposed tax-supported facility would serve a public purpose, giving her no right to overturn the decision of the elected officials who approved it.

In her 41-page ruling, Circuit Court Judge Jeri Beth Cohen wrote there were no grounds to overturn the judgment of the Miami-Dade County Commission. One issue is left for Cohen to resolve, but the Marlins and county feel it does not affect the stadium plans.

If they build the stadium and no one comes, do taxpayers get a refund?

River Ave. Blues on the Yankees-BOA deal:

It's hard to understate the impact the Yankees have on the sports business world. Even as a fourth-place team, they're commanding more money for this non-naming rights sponsorship deal than any other team could ever dream of getting. In effect, they're receiving the Marlins' payroll annually from Bank of American in exchange for signage and sponsorship. Wrap your mind around that one for a second. Perhaps Chris Smith would like to amend his argument claiming the Yankees are just another team.

So the Yankee have payroll freeing up as Giambi, Abreu and Mussina's contracts end, plus their getting a superstar's salary from Bank of America. I would guess that signing Sabathia, Teixeira and Manny Ramirez would turn the team around in a hurry, especially if the young pitchers mature.

The Red Sox are about to break Cleveland's sellout record. I would suspect they're going to shatter it.

USA Today lists the top five opponents moments at Yankees Stadium. I would put Gossage vs. Brett #1.

The problems of building a Wiffle ball field in Greenwich, CT. The neighbors have legitimate complaints, but I love this quote from one of the teens who built the field:

The regular players, mostly high school boys but including Tara Currivan, 15 (who swings a mean bat and brings lemonade to the field), and Scott Atkinson, 13, seem a little befuddled by the whole thing. "They think we're a cult," said Jeff Currivan, 17. "People think we should be home playing 'Grand Theft Auto.' "

I hope they find a compromise that allows them to continue to play.

Hat tip, Instapundit.

Endless Simmer looks at some of the more traditional ballpark food the New York Times missed.

The Fenway announcer just introduced Tampa Bay as the Devil Rays. I'm sure the visitors will charge him for that.

Whenever I watch an Athletics home game, there seems to be an annoying whistle in the background. Would an A's fan explain what that is?

The Houston Astros fixed a problem with the yellow home run line in the outfield that caused Soto's automatic home run to be inside the park. This is something software engineers go through all the time. You design a user interface, and when people actually exercise it, you find it's not a friendly as you like. This seemed to be a pretty easy fix.

The Red Sox installed solar water heaters to take care of over 1/3 of their hot water needs. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of this at stadiums with the high price of fuel. Baseball Stadiums are perfect places for these systems since they mostly need large amounts of hot water in the summer when there is plenty of sunlight, they have the space at the top of stadiums for the panels and the staff to keep them clean.

Never buy the naming rights to a ball park. It seems like a good idea at the time, but it never works out. Never, ever do it! I can't stress this enough.

The Atheltics new stadium in Fremont will probably take longer than expected to get approval due to a lengthy environmental impact report period.

Jeff Baker wonders why the Nationals aren't attracting fans to the new stadium:

When Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened in 1992, spectators packed the retro baseball palace not for days, but years. Orioles' attendance, routinely below 25,000 at Memorial Stadium, soared above 40,000 at the new park and remained there for nine seasons.

Sixteen years later, baseball teams are painfully learning that the glorious, extended honeymoons with fans may be all but over when it comes to new stadiums. Clubs are still building them, but fans aren't coming - at least not at the rate they did in the heady days of Camden Yards and Cleveland's Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field), which opened in 1994 and had a run of 455 consecutive sellouts. Those stadiums are considered forerunners for a new generation of appealing, fan-friendly parks.

What the author fails to mention is that the Orioles posted winning records in five of their first six years in Camden Yards. The Indians posted the third best record in the majors during their first seven seasons. In other words, if you win, they will come. Detroit built a new stadium and no one came until the Tigers won. Baker gets to this point late in the article:

And then there's the team's record. RFK attendance was aided in 2005 when the Nationals were in first place for several months. Last year, the club went 73-89, and this is another rebuilding year.

The idea that a new stadium was all a team needed to attract fans is rubbish. Unless franchises join a winning team with a new park, there's no reason for fans to come long term. That's why if I'm a politician in Florida, I want to see a commitment to winning before I put tax payer dollars into a new stadium.

Alex Belth unlocks the SI Vault to see what people thought of the new Yankees Stadium in 1976.

Citi Field is clearly visible beyond the outfield fence at Shea. I have to say it looks stunning.

I saw this story yesterday about a hawk living at Fenway Park attacking a student on taking tour:

The hawk was perched on a railing in the upper deck behind home plate while the group from Memorial Boulevard Middle School in Bristol, Conn., toured the stadium. The hawk flew at the girl and swooper with its talons extended, scratching her scalp.

I figured maybe the hawk didn't like ESPN's coverage of the Red Sox and was taking it out on someone who lived nearby. Then I saw this story:

A certain New York Yankee slugger should beware: A student taking a tour of Fenway Park today was attacked by a red-tailed hawk that swooped off its nest, drawing blood from the girl's scalp.

Her name: Alexa Rodriguez. Her age: 13, the same jersey number the Yankee third baseman wears.

"She's fine, a little shaken, but OK," said Vince Jennetta, a teacher who chaperoned Rodriguez's class trip from Memorial Boulevard Middle School in Bristol, Conn.

A new legend for a new century!

Coors extended their agreement with the Rockies for another ten years.

Of all the firsts at Nationals Park last night, only Big League Stew noted the first cell phone waver.

Home Run Derby brings us stadiums modeled in Legos. Legos are made a town over from where I live.

John Royal posts a slide show of the the stadiums he's visited. He hasn't brought over his pre-digital photos yet, but you get a good feel for all the parks.

I like what I've seen so far. I'm so glad they didn't go with brick behind home plate. The granite (?) is a nice change as everyone seems to be using brick these days. I also like the long, straight walls in the outfield. Those should result in some interesting caroms.

The Red Sox and Dodgers will get under way at the Los Angeles Coliseum in about an hour. MLB FanHouse has a picture of the stadium as they set it up for the game. Manny should have great range in that left field.

The Orioles unveiled their new scoreboards Thursday. All the scoreboards around the park, the three big screens in the outfield and the thin strips on the stands are now LED and video capable. The big one in centerfield is HD, but they don't have HD content for it yet. There's video of the video at the link.

The food at Nationals Park gets a good review:

Finally, we walked the concourse, sampling the food. I won't speak for Ian, but my Italian sausage (pictured above) was great, and much better than RFK. Not wanting to overeat, I only had the sausage and a taste of pizza (which tasted better too), but reports from all the other journalists we walked with had good reviews of the other items. For a full view, check out the Menu for Nationals Park. Side note - Stan Kasten seemed to enjoy the French Fries.

Bob Sheppard won't be on hand for the last opening day at Yankee Stadium due to health issues. I hope he manages to make it back for some games this year.

Rich Lederer reminds us of the baseball history of the Los Angeles Coliseum.

Sean McAdam reports on the Tokyo Dome:

The foul territory here is immense, which should make the Oakland A's feel right at home. Their Network Associates Coliseum has more foul ground than any American ballpark.

We'll see how many players foul out during the two games.

Here's review of the environmental technologies used in the new Washington Nationals stadium. They've greatly reduced water and electricity use, as well as cleaning up a polluted area of the city.

Will street vendors be allowed outside the new Washington park?

Twenty-three licensed hot dog vendors and souvenir peddlers were fixtures in front of RFK Stadium, where the Nationals played while awaiting the construction of the new stadium.

But they worry that the Nationals' concerns about competition for revenue is the reason the city Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs has not given them a definitive answer about vending at the new stadium.

"We have not had any resolution of vendors being at the stadium at all," said Brenda Sayles, 60, who sold souvenirs at RFK.

Of course they should be allowed. The competition might do something to keep food prices down in the stadium.

Street vendors, however, can be anti-competition as well. There was a woman who used to sell pretzels from a cart outside the Science Center at Harvard, Pretzels from Heaven. They were good pretzels. She'd also show up at Fenway Park before games, at the Brookline Ave. end of Landsdowne Street. No one cared. Then one day, she put a steamer in her cart and started selling Hebrew National hot dogs for $2, half the price of the other street vendors. They were better and cheaper. Not long after that, the other vendors started complaining about her licensing, and she was gone.

What if you build a stadium and no one can get to it?

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The Red Sox are removing the Coke bottles from left field and will instead have Coke sponsor a seating section:

Fenway will now have a "Coca-Cola Corner" which will boast 412 new seats (total capacity for night games now 38,888) under a scrolling, red-LED lighted Coca-Cola sign "reminiscent of a sign that stood along Storrow Drive for more than 40 years."

It sounds like it will be similar to the rooftop area sponsored by Budweiser.

The Coke sign mentioned about used to be visible from our dining hall in Mather House at Harvard. I was one of the few people who woke up for breakfast, and since I never wore a watch, would sit so I could see the clock on the top of the sign.

My roommate, David Aceto was having breakfast with me one morning when I said, "It's 8:30, time to leave for class." David wanted to know how I knew what time it was, and I told him I read it off the sign. Aceto's eyes weren't as good as mine, but he did not believe I could read the sign from there. Oh for the days of 20-20 vision!

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One of my favorite economics bloggers and a Chicago resident comes down against the state buying Wrigley Field:

I am not persuaded by the argument that Wrigley's renovation requires so much capital that it exceeds the levels of private investment that a private owner can undertake.

Disgusting.

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John Delcos is asking for help:

I am asking help from Westchester, Rockland and Putnam residents to share their memories of Shea Stadium. It could be your first game, a memorable game, meeting a player there, etc.

The first time I went to Shea was on a Cubs Scouts field trip in 1970. My dad was one of the chaperones, and he was very impressed with the park (it was his first time there as well). He was used to having sight lines blocked by supports, but every seat in Shea gave you a view of the field.

Unfortunately, my dad and one other father were the only male chaperones on the trip, so he'll tell you he saw most of the game from inside the restroom. :-)

Update: The LoHud Yankees blog has a similar request for Yankees Stadium.

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I don't quite understand the controversy over selling naming rights to Wrigley Field. It's not like in San Diego they were honoring a local citizen who helped bring baseball to the town. Wrigley Field is a corporate sponsorship that doesn't pay squat to the Cubs. It's like switching Enron to Minute Maid.

If fans don't like the new name, just keep calling it Wrigley Field. Only announcers will get in trouble for calling it anything else.

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Tom Bridge took a tour of Nationals Park as they tested the plumbing. He was impressed with the signage:

There's a lot to look at, image-wise, in the choices the Nationals have made for the signage. This concourse sign is a great example. If you look at the detail work beneath the sign itself, you'll see a gentle arched/lined pattern that I tend to associate with suspension bridges, but looks oddly like the Yankee Stadium "Treble Arch" Logo. You can see the exterior sign version shares that motif as well.

I'd love to read the style guide that they devised for the various signage, as well. Most of the main concourse signs are royal blue on a parchment background with a blue pinstripe, which also evokes images of the most famous franchise on the planet. No other baseball brand is so closely associated with the pinstripe motif than the Yankees, and one might suggest that to approach the pinstripe as part of an attempt to rebrand yourself might be the kind of hubris that gets your karma in trouble.

FishStripes rounds up the latest news on the Florida Marlins new stadium, including a promise to raise payroll once they're in the new park.

Update: Also, Fredi Gonzalez changed his mind about the stolen base.

The Mets unveiled the Citi Field logo today. It's simple. It doesn't scream Mets nor stadium, but invokes both.

The George Washington University baseball team gets to christen Nationals Park on March 22nd.

I haven't seen anything else on-line about this, but such a game is certainly doable. GW is scheduled to host St. Joseph on that day in Arlington. The connections are there too. Nationals' owner Ted Lerner is a GW alumnus as well as three other members of the Lerner family (hat tip to JD). The game would serve as a dry run and give those college players the thrill of a lifetime.

It's always good to test out any new product with real people. This will give the Nationals a chance to fix any problems that might arise with bathrooms, concession lines and people just moving through the stadium.

Big League Stew posts an artist's rendering of the proposed new stadium for the Rays. It's really a work of art.

It looks like the Marlins are going to get a new stadium:

The deal calls for the county and city to contribute $360 million mainly in tourist taxes and a $50 million general obligation bond Miami-Dade voters approved in 2004 to renovate the Orange Bowl, but which will instead be moved to the ballpark project.The Marlins are to contribute $155 million.

The Marlins have been trying for years to finance a new ballpark, but numerous deals were derailed when the state Legislature failed to help pay for the project. The new agreement does not count on state dollars and officials have said they have never been closer to building a 37,000-seat retractable roof ballpark.

I love the comment on this article at BBTF:

To keep with recent tradition, the new stadium will be built with 37,000 empty seats.

The Rays return for three more games at Disney World this year. So far, they are undefeated in the Magic Kingdom.

The Mets are reconfiguring their facility in Port St. Lucie to conform to the dimensions of the new Citi Field.

It looks like the Marlins are getting close to a stadium deal. Too late to keep the superstar around, however.

The press took a tour of Nationals Park yesterday:

The stadium's modest size is among its most striking features. The first row of the lower bowl is 16 feet closer to the field than its counterpart at roomy, 46-year-old RFK Stadium, the last major league stadium to open in the District of Columbia. RFK was the home of the Nationals for three seasons while the new, $611 million facility was being constructed.

Everything about the stadium seems smaller than RFK - particularly the power alleys, which are 377 and 370 feet, respectively, from home plate.

It sounds like a nice park for watching a game. I suspect the reduced foul territory will help increase offense.

The Twins new stadium is costing more than originally predicted. The Twins, however, are going to cover the costs.

Material and construction prices have risen faster than anticipated, Bell said.

"It's a lot of different items, not any one thing," Bell said of the ballpark, which is scheduled to open in 2010. "But we're committed to this design, and we don't want to change it. So it means we'll pay a little more."

Good. Given that they are receiving significant public funding, it's the right thing to do.

NakedShorts notes it may be time to short Progressive.

WasWatching notes the raising of the Yankee Stadium sign on the new ballpark and quotes extensively from the New York Post article. This has to be wrong, however:

But the progress on the $930 million stadium is evident: The steelwork appears mostly done, and the dimensions of the ballfield - about the same as the 1923 stadium - are now clear, as are the twin decks of the stands.

The 1923 version of Yankee Stadium had a 460 foot left field power alley. With A-Rod on the team, I don't think they are going for that much of a death valley.

Here's the lastest photographic updates of the construction at the new Yankee Stadium.

The Indians ballpark gets a corporate name.

Rays of Light notes the Rays are not seeking state aid for a new stadium:

In other news yesterday, the Rays announced they won't try to get state aid in order to fund the new waterfront ballpark. (MLB.com)

I'm curious where this typically cash-strapped franchise is going to come up with over $400 million for a stadium, but that's for people smarter than me to figure out.

According to last year's Forbes valuation, the Rays are in pretty good shape financially. If they were to borrow the $400 million for 30 year period at 6% interest, their monthly payment would be $2 million. That would wipe out their profit, but at the end of the day they'd have a nice piece of property. And if it increased attendance, they'd probably earn back that profit in a short amount of time.

Radio ads are running in Miami against government help building a new stadium for the Marlins.

River Ave. Blues notes the Yankees have yet to pay the bribe money they promised to the Bronx on the start of the construction of their new stadium.

River Ave. Blues visits the new Yankee Stadium.

Via FishStripes, there's talk of future tough decisions regarding Hanley Ramirez after 2008 if the Marlins don't get a stadium deal. Note, however, that a stadium deal doesn't mean a team will keep the talent around. Look no further than the Minnesota Twins and Johan Santana. Loria strikes me as the type of owner who gets a deal, and still trades away expensive players anyway.

The rate to park at Yankee Stadium is going up over the next few years. It's still a bargain compared to the lots around Fenway. I've paid as much as fifty dollars in the Back Bay, and now park in the suburbs and take the train in.

The grounds crew at Wrigley Field finished resodding the playing surface.

Major Progress at Nationals Park.

Towards the end of her life, my mother lost her short term memory. One of the things she constantly asked about during baseball games was how the groundskeepers created pictures in the grass. "How do they do that?" she would ask. Here's the answer.

Mapping an outline with stakes and ropes, Mellor draws his plant pictures using 6-foot and 21-inch mowers to create a contrast between the dark and light sides of the blades of grass

.

He has a book coming out so you can do this at home.

The Police destroyed the Wrigley outfield, leaving the area dangerous for fielders:

"There's nothing you can do since they had that - what do you call it? - concert. Since they had the concert, it's been a little rough out there," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said yesterday.

The outfield grass was beaten down when two Police concerts were held in early July at the second-oldest ballpark in the majors.

"I'm surprised more people don't get injured out there. It's as bad as there is," Cincinnati Reds left fielder Adam Dunn said. "It's worse than playing in a parking lot. It looks like they had a monster truck rally. It's terrible. There's potholes. It's bad. It's unsafe."

I'm really surprised the Cubs haven't fixed things. They could at least resod the potholes, unless there are so many of them that they have to dig up the whole field. Keep your eye on this during the playoffs. It might work out to be an advantage for the Cubs:

The Cubs have a $136 million investment in left field, Alfonso Soriano, who has spent time on the disabled list with a quadriceps injury. Soriano said the field is not dangerous, just tricky.

"It's not comfortable," Soriano said yesterday. "There are like a lot of little holes, you know what I mean? Sometimes when they hit a ground ball, you have to be careful."

With the Cubs outfielders used to the dips, they might take better routes to balls than visitors.

There's a squirrel running up and down the screen on the leftfield foul pole at Yankee Stadium. The crowd loves it as they're chanting, "Lets go squirrel." Everyone with a camera phone is getting a picture. If the Yankees extend their 1-0 lead this inning, Steinbrenner may hire the rodent permanently.

Update: Alex Rodriguez hits a home run into the upper deck in leftfield to make the score 2-0. Give that squirrel a nut!

Update: The Yankees are finding the holes as singles by Cano and Betemit plate two more runs. Ichiro made a rare bad throw after the Cano single, thinking of coming home to get Posada, but then deciding to throw to third to nail Matsui and throwing the ball into the ground, allowing both runners to gain their base.

MetsGrrl offers her thoughts on transfering the home run apple to the new ballpark.

Before you all get bent out of shape, and call me a heretic, let me explain. I [heart] the Home Run Apple as tacky, cheesy, the 70s at its best. I spent way more money than I should to acquire a Home Run Apple alarm clock on eBay earlier this year, and consider it the Holy Grail of my Mets collection. But I do not want that worn out piece of crap in Citi Field. Would I be upset if there wasn't a Home Run Apple? You bet your sweet bippy. But we already know there's going to be an apple, so why are we getting bent out of shape? For all you know, they could build a new apple that looked like the old apple and you would never know. Hell, they could have replaced the original apple six times now, and no one would ever know. So what's the point?

I remember seeing a juggling comedian once. He held up an axe, claiming it was the axe George Washington used to chop down the cherry three. He then explained the blade was new and the handle was replaced, but it occupied the same space. I think that MetsGrrl is looking for George Washington's axe.

I'm at Pnc Park. We're sitting on the third base sde with a great vew of downtown. The ballpark is such an improvement over Three Rivers.

Jack Curry finally gets to cover a game at Dodger Stadium:

Thank you, Barry Bonds.

Because Bonds is still chasing Hank Aaron's all-time home run record and because I'm covering it, Bonds has helped me complete an 18-year journey. When I walk into the press box at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday, I will have covered a game in every Major League ballpark.

One of these summers I'm going to need to do a national ball park tour, blogging from every park in the majors.

Steve at WasWatching would like you to contribute your memories of Yankee Stadium.

Capitol Punishment looks at park factors at RFK by vectors.

Needless to say, you won't be surprised to see that the easiest place to hit homers at RFK is down the line, where the factor is about 102. A dead pull hitter, as Soriano demonstrated, is not harmed by RFK. It's -- as Guillen and Vidro and many other showed us -- when you move to the gaps and center where it's a problem. The gaps have a factor of about 79 and dead center is at 51. 20% fewer balls are go out to the gaps, and nearly half as many leave to center field.

Of course, with Washington moving into a new park in a couple of years, this isn't something you can build around.

River Ave. Blues complains about the seating arrangement at the new Yankee Stadium:

So the team will get its new playground, but we fans will get a giant surprise: The best seats in the house won't be there anymore.

The tier level seats in Yankee Stadium are one of the great joys of the current stadium, remodeled in the 1970s. The boxes hang low over the lower decks and offer an intimate view of the field and the game. With the Tier Boxes so low, even the Tier Reserve seats don't see as high up as they do in Shea Stadium or Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

All of that will change in the new stadium, and no one had reported this dismaying fact until Neil DeMause presented it in an article everyone overlooked in the Village Voice in March.

I was aware of this from the beginning. My uncle has seats in the upper deck behind home plate. Every year he asks to move down to the lower deck, and every year the people at Yankee Stadium tells him he has the best seats in the house. Maybe with the new park, he'll finally get to move to the lower level.

There's an excellent discussion in the comments. As for the people who say Yankee Stadium is just fine and they don't need a new park, they've never been in the bowels of the stadium. The halls are thin, it's low tech and it's just not a pleasant place. For broadcasters it's just awful. Do a game from Cleveland, and you drive a truck into an underground garage and plug in. Do a game from Yankee Stadium and you have to run wires over the right field fence. Believe it or not, it's not all about the fans. It's about having state of the art facilities for training players, for serving the media, for delivering food to concession stands, etc. I like the old stadium, too, but I'll probably like the new one just as much. The people who work there, however, are going to like it a whole lot more.

Second Avenue Saga notes that a deal to put a new Metro North train station at Yankee Stadium is going through. I'm originally from southern Connecticut, and taking the train from Fairfield is my favorite way of getting to NYC. With this new station, opening with the new stadium, getting to and from Yankee Stadium will be a breeze.

I was hoping the nut-free zone meant the Padres were keeping out the crazy people.

The Devil Rays win 11-8 tonight, making them 2-0 in Orlando. Maybe they should play there permanently!

The new Twins stadium is about to become a reality.

According to the Red Sox broadcast, tonight's game sets a record for lowest temperature for a game at the Ballpark in Arlington.

Home Run Derby takes a close look at offense at Wrigley in April.

Home Run Derby looks at how the renovations at US Cellular Field boosted home run rates there.

The Texas Rangers ballpark is going back to a real name:

Three years after changing their stadium name to Ameriquest Field, the Rangers severed a 30-year naming rights deal Monday with struggling lender Ameriquest Mortgage Co. and rebranded their home field as Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

The new name is almost identical to The Ballpark in Arlington, the stadium's name before the reported $75 million sponsorship with Ameriquest was announced in 2004.

Another stadium sponsor bites the dust.

Tom Powers discusses the pain caused by the Twins fielders shifting from the Florida grass to the Metrodome turf:

Severe depression notwithstanding, for many of the players the worst part about the move north is switching from the natural grass to the artificial turf. The first week or so on the hard surface sends almost everyone running, or at least limping, to the medicine chest.

"It's not like here," shortstop Jason Bartlett said. "Your legs have got to get used to it. It takes a toll on my legs the first few days."

This is the newer turf installed in 2004, too. It's better than the previous rock-hard surface but still tough on the leg joints. And ground balls continue to shoot through the gaps.

"You play back in the outfield for most guys," shortstop Bartlett noted.

"The first week you feel some of the aches and pains from September that you forgot about during the offseason," Nick Punto said.

Artificial turf is almost eliminated. Once the Twins get their new park, Toronto and Tampa Bay will be the only remaining holdouts.

The Florida legislature passed a bond issue to make up the shortfall in the money the Marlins need to build a new stadium.

The team, Miami and Miami-Dade County have committed to paying $460 million of the $490 million project. The remaining $30 million would come from bonds backed by the $60 million in state money.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush was against the idea, but new Gov. Charlie Crist has said he supports the use of state money because he believes it creates economic development.

Haven't studies shown that last statement isn't true?

Another reason not to have government fund and run ballparks. Corruption.

Walk Like a Sabermetrician compiled park factors for all parks since 1901 into an online spreadsheet. The factors only take into account scoring I believe. Needless to say, it's a great resource.

Nick and Nick point out this article, which makes it seem like the Twins new home is far from a done deal.

Despite the seeming congeniality of the hearing, there are several sticky issues in play. The landowners and Hennepin County are far apart on the actual value of the 8.8 acres of land, and there's no reason to believe the dispute will be resolved soon. County tax records from 2006 assess the two parcels at a combined $9.8 million, a number that has fluctuated over the last five years. The county has a cap on how much it can actually spend on land acquisition, and right now is reportedly willing to spend $13.35 million for the site--a number that the owners believe is low.

Early on, Judge Aldrich wondered how the two sides had arrived at the impasse. "Oh dear," he remarked at one point. "Am I to understand that none of the parties agreed to the price before getting legislative approval [for a ballpark on the site]? There was no price required?" The attorneys all confirmed that the judge was correct.

I found the opening paragraphs of this story about a new Marlins stadium interesting:

Nearly three years have passed since the Florida Marlins' self-imposed deadlines for securing a new ballpark agreement all came and went without the completion of a deal.

So now, they're trying a new tact.

Deadlines, or ultimatums that aren't kept do a lot to destroy the credibility of the person setting the deadline. Once someone calls your bluff, it's tough to get taken seriously. If the Marlins actually made a deal to move when Florida didn't ante up, they might be in a new stadium already. It worked for the Patriots.

The Athletics new ballpark might be underwater!

Everyone figures that nightmarish traffic jams are the worst problem the Oakland A's will face if they move to the bayfront wilds of Fremont. But their biggest challenge may be something they hadn't thought of -- global warming.

The A's want to build their ballpark and mall village on low-lying land west of Interstate 880, less than half a mile from a tidal channel. With ocean levels expected to rise as the globe heats up, the high tides that churn up that channel could turn the A's ballpark into prime waterfront property -- or into soup.

"You are talking about a meter rise of the sea level by the end of the century (around the bay),'' said Will Travis, executive director of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, which helps regulate shoreline construction.

I've read a two-foot rise, not a meter, by the end of the century. But since the life of a ballpark appears to be 40 to 50 years, the A's have plenty of time to move to higher ground. That is, unless the glaciers cover California. I actually like the A's position on this:

The A's seem unfazed by the warming warning, saying they wouldn't be proceeding with planning for a Fremont ballpark if they thought water was a worry.

Besides, said team spokesman Jim Young, "a century is a long way off, and I won't be available for comment in a hundred years when it becomes a problem.''

There's a bit of controversy in Kansas City over who should pay for a new video system:

On a long flight from Seattle to Kansas City, Mariners outfielder Raul Ibañez can study on his iPod every pitch thrown against him last season by the Royals' upcoming starter, Luke Hudson. All of this is thanks to state-of-the-art video and computer systems that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The small-market Royals are scrambling to catch up with other teams. This off-season, the team plans to install a new control room, hardware and software at a cost of $900,000.

The catch: The team expects taxpayers to foot the bill as part of the $250 million overhaul of Kauffman Stadium.

Jackson County officials say they don't begrudge the Royals getting better, but some of them question paying for the system with voter-approved bonds.

County Executive Mike Sanders said he "absolutely" questions public funds going for the project because it does not directly benefit fans. Sanders has asked county attorneys to review whether the lease with the Royals requires paying for the video and computer project with bonds.

It's my view that if the stadium is being overhauled, the bonds should pay for infrastructure (conduits, camera mounts, a room), but the Royals should pay for the actual equipment. After all, if the government is going to pay for it, they're going to need to approve it, and Royals might not get the best system.

Update: Included link.

Frontier just started flying out of Hartford and is offering low fares to Denver. This talk sounds like it might be worth the trip. If they have wireless internet at the pub, I hope someone live blogs the talk.

Baseball Prospectus points out that the optimistic Florida Marlins stadium story might have been a little too optimistic.

FishStripes is optimistic about a stadium deal for the Florida Marlins.

The deal would be a 60-40 split between public funds and the Marlins/MLB. If you read the article, and you should, in order for the deal to take place it doesn't require any money from the state or a new county or citywide tax. It is the first time that a possible funding agreement didn't include mentioning a financial gap or at least it is the first that I can remember.

It's good to see the Marlins kicking in a good chunk of the money, although I'd prefer to see a much higher percentage from the club. And while there is no direct tax on residents, there is an indirect tax:

The ballpark is projected to be funded in a 60-40 percent public-private partnership between the city of Miami-Dade County and the Marlins, DuPuy said, with the public funding coming from hotel-motel, facility and redevelopment district taxes. A sales or income tax that would directly affect Miami-Dade County citizens is not contemplated nor is state money at the moment.

So it's the visitors to Miami who are footing the bill. And of course, there's no way that more expensive hotel rooms might cause tourists to travel elsewhere.

Jon Weisman is not optimistic about the Dodgers solving the parking flow problem at Chavez Ravine:

As for the traffic flow, I hope it improves, though I have found over the past couple of years that the more proactive the organization has been, the worse the flow has gotten - principally in terms of limiting routes out of the numbered parking lots toward the freeways.

That's because the Dodgers are trying to impose a physical solution to a temporal problem. The best way to fix traffic flow is to spread out the arrival of cars more evenly. Why not try an economic solution? Any cars arriving before 5 PM park for a dollar. Between five and six, two dollars. Between six and 6:30, five dollars. After 6:30, $10. (I'm just using these numbers as an example. I have no idea what the cost trade offs are in LA. I just remember visiting Dodger Stadium in the late 80's and being amazed at how cheap it was to park.)

They could also charge indirectly for leaving the ball park quickly. Set up lots that are allowed to leave before other lots. The fans can pay a premium to get out quickly.

I've talked about doing the same kind of thing with concessions at the end of this post.

I don't like missing the action. I'd pay extra to be able to get a hot dog and back to my seat between innings without missing a pitch. Real time price information on an electronic display in the food court, including wait times, would be great. Let the markets work!

The Star-Tribune details the planning going on to move people in and out of the Twins new stadium:

The new Ballpark Implementation Committee, which was created to oversee infrastructure issues at the stadium, has met twice, but officials from Hines Interests, the Texas company that has plans to develop much of the area around the ballpark, have not attended.

"No one's in charge," said Chuck Leer, a developer who headed a team that recommended a series of design guidelines for the stadium and surrounding area.

"The irony about this is everybody says this can't be another Metrodome. Some of the things are better at the Metrodome."

Jay's Giants Blog prints a great story about the extreme of weather baseball fans once endured at Candelstick Park.

As far as warm weather fans being soft, I attended a game at BankOne (now Chase) a few years ago. It was in late May, so by the time the game started, the outside temperature was 85 degrees Farenheit. The Diamondbacks opened the roof to let in a gentle breeze, prompting some women in the crowd to don sweaters. I guess it was a dry cold.

The Orioles are seeking a restraining order to stop the purchase of a new video screen for Camden Yards:

The Maryland Stadium Authority agreed yesterday to move forward with the purchase of a new Mitsubishi video screen for Camden Yards despite objections from the Orioles.

Orioles officials say the DiamondVision screen is too small and technologically inadequate and plan to file a temporary restraining order in Baltimore Circuit Court today to block the $1.5 million purchase. The restraining order would give the Orioles time to move the dispute to arbitration as is called for in the team's lease for the stadium.

The team is looking a bit greedy here:

McKinney defended the screen, noting that its picture resolution would be the best in baseball. The Mitsubishi screen would be similar to, though smaller than, the video display at Atlanta's Turner Field. It would feature a higher-resolution picture than the screens at M&T Bank Stadium, McKinney said. The screen would be equipped to receive a high-definition picture, he added.

He emphasized that the screen, which will be about the size of the existing 23-by-31-foot JumboTron, could easily be expanded. But the Orioles and the authority also disagree over how the bill for any extra screen space should be divided. The Orioles say the authority should pay for it because the club's park lease promises facilities that are in the top 25 percent in Major League Baseball.

The authority believes it's required only to replace the JumboTron and any size enhancements should be paid for out of a $10 million fund allotted to the team for ballpark improvements.

McKinney emphasized that three Orioles officials sat on the committee that unanimously selected the Mitsubishi screen. The panel traveled to Miami, Atlanta and Montreal to examine options. But the team objected to the purchase at the last possible moment, McKinney said. He said the club wants a bigger screen and wants the authority to pay for it.

"It's a shame we couldn't have had these discussions when the process first started," he said.

Maybe the Orioles should put this much effort into putting a good team on the field. Then maybe someone will want to watch what's on the big screen.

The Devil Rays are thinking about playing a series in Orlando this season:

Efforts to move the May 15-17 games against Texas from St. Petersburg to Orlando are in the early stages. Still to be dealt with are approvals from Major League Baseball, the players union, the city of St. Petersburg, and the umpires, but the deal could be completed in the next couple of weeks.

I assume they would use the facility at Disney World, which is a minor league ballpark. There's 9500 seats there, so Tampa Bay isn't going to help attendance by playing three games there (but they won't hurt it much, either). The goal is to build a new fan base, however, so maybe it's worth a try. I suppose it's better to play to a packed 10,000 people than to an empty dome with the same 10,000.

Yesterday I asked why the Marlins don't finance their own stadium. FishStripes explains:

The main reason is they can't afford it. According to Forbes, on April 6, 2006, the entire Marlins franchise was worth $226 million and had an operating income of $-11.9 million. Granted that has changed since the reduction in payroll wasn't in full swing until late November of 2005, so the balance sheet may look more favorable after the 2006 season. But still, I think it would be hard to secure financing to build a $425-$450 million dollar stadium when all the collateral the team could put up is $226 million. I'm no banker, but I would be surprised if the Marlins could secure that loan. The only way they could is if MLB wants to be banker.

Well, I don't think that's exactly right. The franchise itself has value, and any land the franchise buys then has value. Real estate tends to do very well in the long term. Also, the bank should take into account that if the Marlins get their own stadium where they receive the parking and concessions revenue, as well as all ticket revenue, the franchise would be worth a lot more. I don't think it takes all that much to get the Marlins franchise value to $500 million if they build a new stadium. My guess is that with all the extra revenue generated, they could pay the loan, which is all that really matters.

FishStripes discusses the paradox of the Marlins. A team with terrible attendance earns very high TV ratings. From TCPalm:

He is as much the face of the Florida Marlins as anyone in a uniform. Next to Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera, he's probably the team's most recognizable figure.

---

He's a broadcaster.

"Don't get me wrong: It's flattering to have so many people know who you are," Tommy Hutton was saying late Monday afternoon

Baseball resisted radio and TV broadcasts of games for a long time, believing it would cut down on attendance. What they failed to realize is that TV and radio helped create a whole new set of fans. In Florida, people would rather watch than travel. (Given the number of commercials during the Devil Rays games, I assume they have a big audience, too.) The fan base is there. If a retractable roof stadium is the answer to the problem, why don't the Marlins just build one themselves? With their low team salary, revenue sharing, and a good TV contract the Marlins should be able to secure a loan to build a stadium. Then instead of looking for funding, they just get to pick the best site.

And until then, maybe they should slash ticket prices. You would think that there's some price point at which people are willing to sit through rain delays. And if enough of those people buy $5 beers and $4 hot dogs, you probably make up the difference. See what happens if you sell box seats for $5 a pop. Again, with the low payroll of the team, they likely can get away with that.

The Oakland Athletics and Cisco formally announced plans to build a new stadium in Fremont.

"Today marks the beginning of a new era in A's baseball in the Bay Area," said Wolff. "Cisco Field will become a destination attraction that will be enjoyed by baseball fans throughout the Bay Area and beyond for generations to come. The location of the ballpark will able us to significantly expand our market place while giving our fans a unique experience at what promises to be one of the most exciting venues in the country. We thank Cisco Systems for the will and ability to make this new standard in fan and sponsor experience a reality. We have a number of rivers to cross, but once the value of what Cisco and the A's are committed to accomplish is clear to the citizens of Fremont and Alameda County, we are confident our plans will add to the economic, social and community base of the region we serve."

You can explore the ballpark here.

The Mets found a name for their new stadium:

Goodbye, Shea Stadium; hello, CitiField. The Mets and Citigroup Inc. have agreed on a 20-year sponsorship deal for the team's new ballpark that is worth more than an average of $20 million annually and includes stadium naming rights, a baseball official said Saturday. The source spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal will not be announced until Monday at the formal groundbreaking.

This will be a record for U.S stadium naming rights, topping the approximately $10 million annually the NFL's Houston Texans receive from Reliant Energy to call their home Reliant Stadium.

I always feel bad at times like these. William Shea brought National League baseball back to New York, and I hope the Mets name some park of the new facility after him.

Barry Witt offers more information on the new A's ballpark, to be sponsored by Cisco.

The deal is contingent on Fremont approving a large-scale development plan for the ballpark, homes and shops on the 143-acre parcel west of Interstate 880 in an area known as Pacific Commons. Cisco holds a 34-year lease on the property, which it obtained in 2000 when it thought it would expand its business operations there. The company has an option to buy the property in the next three years from the original developer.

Wolff, who declined to speak to reporters Wednesday as he was escorted to his car by Fremont City Manager Fred Diaz, told council members the development would have similarities to San Jose's Santana Row. That development features condominiums and a hotel stacked above street-level retail stores.

The major difference will be the addition of a high-tech ballpark with 32,000 to 35,000 seats that is filled with Cisco-produced infrastructure.

"He said this is going to be the most modern, most advanced technological facility in the country," said Fremont Councilman Bob Wieckowski, one of four council members who met with Wolff. The term of the council's fifth member, Dominic Dutra, ends in December, and Wolff did not meet with Bill Harrison, who was elected to the seat Tuesday night.

Cisco Chief Executive John Chambers has used a ballpark setting in recent weeks to demonstrate his company's new intelligent networking systems, showing how baseball fans could use a wireless device to buy ticket upgrades, order concessions, watch instant replay, get player statistics and even pay to have their pictures shown on the stadium jumbo screen. Cisco officials declined to discuss the ballpark Wednesday.

Sounds like a bloggers dream! Whenever I read about Woff and the stadium, I'm always impressed at how well he covers all the bases. Although he wants the city to help build the facility, he's setting it up more as a partnership than a blackmail scheme to the point where Fremont might actually benefit financially.

I hope, however, that they build the ballpark so it can be easily expanded. While it's fine to build a small park (it works for the Red Sox), if the A's become wildly popular, it would be nice to be able to easily add 5000 seats. If you plan for that when you build, the addition can be appended quickly.

How do you get 40,000 people in and out of a ballpark efficiently? Washington is trying to plan for that.

The District is in the last stages of developing a handbook for moving tens of thousands of people in and out of the Washington Nationals new ballpark on game days.

The handbook "will define exactly how everything is going to be done on game days," one planner said, including traffic and pedestrian movement, police presence, ambulance staging and fan parking. It will put in place specific mechanisms for movement, from when to restrict on-street parking to which roads to close for pedestrians.

Given the enormous traffic problems in Washington, this is no small task.

Balls, Sticks and Stuff looks at the number of home runs reduced by the new dimensions at Citizens Bank Park.

AOL City Guide looks at some of the things that make major league ballparks unique.

Not only did the Yankees lose big yesterday, the beer was warm.

Armed with a thermometer and a fistful of twenties, the Daily News found that beer at yesterday's afternoon game was as warm as 60 degrees - closer to room temperature than freezing.

You don't have this problem at Fenway, where vendors don't sell beer in the stands. You are forced to go to a concession stand to buy your brew.

Matt Cerrone at MetsBlog.com complains about the slow service at Shea consession stands. I posted a solution to this last week.

Fish or Cut Bait has inside information on a new Marlins stadium. (Hat tip, Fishstripes)

Jeff Francis pitched a masterpiece against the Cardinals last night, a complete game two-hit shutout. He struck out eight, and walked none in facing two batters over the minimum. He threw 129 pitches, which I suspect is one of the higher pitch counts for anyone this year to lower his ERA to 3.69.

That's the ninth shutout at Coors this season. Only Comerica with ten saw more. Safeco and Jacobs hosted nine each. Coors doesn't really fit the mold of those other stadiums. Citizens Bank Park, Kauffman Stadium and the Rogers Center bring up the rear with 2 each.

Four more home runs flew out of PETCO Park in the Padres 10-6 win over the Phillies last night:

With the teams combining for four homers - and 11 other extra-base hits - Petco Park's reputation as a pitcher's park continued to take a beating. The spacious downtown ballpark has surrendered 24 homers in the last five games, including a Petco-record 16 in a three-game weekend series against Atlanta. The Braves hit 11 while sweeping the Padres.

Overall, 120 homers have been hit here through 52 games this season, on pace to shatter the mark of 132 set in 2004, the year Petco opened. Last season, 118 homers were hit at Petco.

After listening to their sluggers gripe for the better part of two seasons about the outfield dimensions, the Padres brought in the fence in right-center in the offseason, from 411 feet to 402. It's also 402 feet in the left-center gap.

Theories on the increasing number of homers range from the recent high temperatures to several condo towers being built around the park that might be affecting wind flow. Whatever the case, the Padres have been outhomered 209-161 since Petco opened.

San Diego's home run index this year is 112 in 2006 after being 66 over the past two season. (A value of 100 is neutral. Values above 100 are home run friendly, below, the park hurts home runs.)

How would have thought Coors field would rank 25th in the majors in home runs per game?

The new Nationals ownership is going to clean up RFK Stadium as it's first job:

"Everything we've done is kind of a response to a condition that existed before," said incoming team president Stan Kasten, who has seen many of the problems firsthand while walking the concourses as an anonymous fan in recent weeks.

"We felt the need to beef up the food offerings, we felt the need to have even more attractive pricing, we felt the need to get even cleaner, to have more entertainment, both video and audio, and spruce up the area around. We're just trying to make everything better."

It's a good first step. The fans will see a visible change in the surroundings. They'll get the idea the ownership cares about the fans. Once that's done, however, the group needs to show it cares about putting a winner on the field, too.

Brian at Tiger Blog explains why he's upset about the new plans for Tiger Stadium.

Tiger Stadium gets demolished this fall. However, they are going to preserve the playing field and dugouts for little league. It seems like a good compromise for the community.

I want the baseball version of one of these!

The Minnesota legislature approved funding for a new stadium for the Twins, another blow to taxpayers who will foot most of the bill. Carl Pohlad will contribute $130 million. It's not quite the sweetheart deal the Nationals received, but it's close.

In may be worth it to get baseball out of the Metrodome. It's the most sterile facility I've ever visited. Olympic Stadium in Montreal was a pasture by comparison. The new stadium will be open air with natural grass. I'm not sure why. Maybe the cost of a retractable roof was beyond the means of the law makers. You'd think Pohlad would want to kick in the rest for a roof just so he doesn't lose fans to rain outs.

The ground breaking ceremony for the new Washington ballpark takes place at 10 AM EDT. Ted Lerner will turn over the soil with the mayor.

Lerner said he's dreamed of being a baseball owner since he used to watch the old Washington Senators at Griffith Stadium.

"I was born and raised in Washington, D.C. My wife and children were all born here. We are deeply routed to the community. I am also a lifelong baseball fan who saw Dizzy Dean pitch, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth. I remember as a child the thrill of occasionally finding my way into Senator's games at Griffith Stadium."

He's showing his age there. I wonder how many people are still alive who saw Ruth play? My dad is 85. He didn't see Ruth, but he did go to Lou Gehrig day. People are living longer, so there are still should be plenty of fans around. The youngest is probably 75 at this point, however.

There appeared to be a fire at the new Busch Stadium. It was in left field in the second or third level of bleachers, where a box caught on fire. I believe that part of the stadium is still under construction.

The new Washington D.C. stadium is going to be a bit more costly than anticipated:

Three Wall Street bond rating agencies gave the D.C. baseball stadium project low investment-grade ratings yesterday, saying the $535 million in revenue bonds have narrow coverage from a business tax that will pay for most of the project.

That means higher cost in interest, or in this case, insurance payments.

D.C. officials said they will purchase insurance that will allow the bonds to be sold at an AAA-plus rating.

Ed Zipper sends some pictures from his trip to see the Yankees play the Twins at the Metrodome. Here's the street named after Kirby Puckett:

Here's the dedication to Kirby in centerfield:

And here's the Twins denying constitutional rights. :-)

Click on an image for a full size picture.

The Padres and Rockies are in extra innings at Coors with the score tied 2-2. It's another low scoring game at the mile high ballpark. Coming into today, there's been an average of 10.0 runs per game at Coors, 15th in the majors. In a year with high offense, that's pretty amazing.

Update: The ballpark finished first or second in most runs allowed per game each year of this century.

Via MetsBlog.com Dr. Blogstein suggests that the Mets name their new ballpark Jackie Robinson Field. The problem is the Mets want to sell a corporate sponsorship:

Various reports quote the price for naming rights of the new Mets home to be in the ballpark (pun intended) of $10M per season. Let's figure we get two-million Mets fans to agree to chip in $1 each/year. Then, hopefully with the publicity and buzz that our mission creates, we could get some wealthy benefactors to donate the rest.

Or, the Mets could just name the park after the legend. New York is one of the few baseball cities where the stadium naming rights won't make a huge difference to the bottom line. Or maybe a sponsor can pay the money and call it JRF. I think it's a great name for the park, and I encourage fans to push this idea.

The Cardinals win their first game in their new home, 6-4 over the Milwaukee Brewers. Mark Mulder not only pitched a fine game, he contributed a double and a homer! It's his third multi-hit game, but his first two extra-base hits.

Mark Mulder starts the game off with a ball, but gets Brady Clark to line out to Aaron Miles to finish the first plate appearance at the new park.

Update: Mulder gets the side easily in the first, throwing just seven pitches to retire the three batters.

Update: Juan Encarnacion becomes the first base runner in the new Busch Stadium as he's hit by a pitch.

Update: Pujols hits the first homer for the Cardinals at the new park, making the score 2-1. Very appropriate.
Update: The first hit goes to Carlos Lee, a single and the first homer goes to Bill Hall as the first two batters in the second combine to give Milwaukee a 2-0 lead.

Ben Kabak takes apart the Yankees Stadium deal, and sees the Yankees are getting a real sweetheart deal.

Upon closer examination, however, the words in print do not match up with the reality of the situation. First, the Yankees will pay for the stadium through $930 million in bonds $866 million of which will be tax free.. The Yankees will repay this debt to the city with payments in lieu of taxes. As Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez, one of the very few to pick up on this story, put it yesterday, "The Yankees will pay off their construction costs with money they would normally have given the city in real estate taxes."

Of course, Ben wants to keep the current stadium, so he's going to see the negatives. He forgets that for a purchase price of $24 million and reconstruction costs of $48 million, the City of New York bought the current stadium and land in the early 1970s. I'm guessing that piece of real estate is worth a lot more today. So while New York may not be getting real estate taxes while the Yankees pay off the bonds, they certainly did well in their investment in the property 30 years ago. And I assume, at some point, they'll start collecting taxes on the stadium.

Tom Elia fumes at the name of the new Wrigley bleachers.

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Bill Madden editorializes in the NY Daily News in favor of new stadiums for the Mets and Yankees:

But as badly as they need new ballparks, the Yankees and Mets are not asking the taxpayers to pay for them. Because they have said they will foot the building costs of new stadiums themselves - unlike all the aforementioned teams - the Yankees and Mets seemingly removed the crux of the opponents' case for denying them. Nevertheless, the opponents have not been quieted or satisfied, even if the city itself has satisfied all the "equal or better" provisions of replacing the 22 acres of parkland on which the new Yankee Stadium will be built with 26 acres of parkland on the present Stadium site as well as the adjoining parking lots along Ruppert Place.

From what I've read, the Yankees and the Mets are going a long way to satisfy the politics of the situation. They're getting a great deal in terms of the bond issue, but they appear to be giving a lot back also. Opponents of stadiums can be very tough, however, so we'll see how quickly this deal is completed.

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Was Watching posts a view from the sky of the new Yankee Stadium in relation to the current House the Ruth Built. He wonders if the shift in rotation is going to change the sun field.

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The Yankees are offering the Bronx a lot of money to allow them to build a stadium:

With the Bombers seeking City Council approval for a new stadium, the team is pledging to donate some $800,000 to Bronx parks and charities every year of their 40-year lease, according to a draft copy of the agreement obtained by the Daily News yesterday.

In addition to the cash, the Yanks would give away $100,000 in equipment and 15,000 tickets every year to needy Bronx groups.

The team would also work to assure that at least half the construction jobs on the planned $800 million stadium go toward minority-, women- and Bronx-owned firms.

At least the Yankees are transparent about the giveaways. It reminds me of a scene in Back to School where Rodney Dangerfield explains to a class how a construction project really works and all the people you need to bribe to get it done.

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The Daily News has a picture of the new stadium the Mets plan to build. It's definitely a throwback, as it pays homage to Ebbets Field. If anyone has a better picture, let me know.

Meanwhile, Kaz Matsui is out for three weeks.

Willie Randolph estimated Matsui would be held out of baseball activities for three weeks because of a sprained ligament in his right knee. That suggests Matsui will start the season on the disabled list, opening the door for Anderson Hernandez to head north with the Mets, though the manager maintained there would be an open competition with Jeff Keppinger, Chris Woodward and Jose Valentin.

In the minors since age 18, Hernandez didn't show any offenesive talent until he joined the Mets organization last season. He'll be 23 in 2006, so maybe the Mets are getting lucky and he's maturing at the right time.

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Brian at Tiger Blog remembers his last visit to Tiger Stadium and proves once again that it's a small world.

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The Washington Times just published a drawing of the proposed ballpark for the Washington Nationals.

The ballpark, scheduled to open in 2008, features a contemporary design that includes large amounts of steel and glass and bucks the trend of recent "retro" style stadiums built in other cites.

Good. There are so many retro parks right now that glass and steel is the new retro. Ball parks should be unique. They shouldn't be retro just because it works somewhere else.

Update: Matty notes a better link at the Washington Post.

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The Yankees and Mets take another step toward new ballparks:

A city economic development agency granted the New York Yankees and New York Mets baseball teams approval to finance new stadiums with $1.56 billion in tax- exempt and taxable bonds.

The New York City Industrial Development Agency voted unanimously today to grant the Yankees $866 million in tax- exempt and $64 million in taxable bonds to build a 53,000-seat ballpark in the Bronx next to the existing Yankee Stadium. The Mets, who would build a 44,100-seat ballpark in Queens next to their current home, Shea Stadium, were granted $527.6 million in tax-exempt and $104 million in taxable debt.

If approvals keep coming, both teams could open new parks in 2009. That would be a fun year to be a baseball fan in New York.

Does anyone know why the Yankees need more money than the Mets? Are they building a bigger park, or is construction more costly in The Bronx?

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The D.C. Council granted final approval to the stadium deal in Washington last night:

The D.C. Council last night approved a legislative package that effectively sealed the deal for the city to fund a baseball stadium that will be home to the Washington Nationals.

Included in the package was a contract with the companies that will build the stadium on the Anacostia River waterfront.

It's unfortunate that the length of time to complete this deal set back the Washington franchise a few years. What looked liked a promising team last year now appears to be in disarray. The new owners job is going to be much tougher than it would have been last October.

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Ben Kabak at Talking Baseball is very unhappy with the stadium deal in Washington.

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The Mayor of Washington signed off on the lease with Major League Baseball. It looks like Washington has its stadium:

"The signed lease is the green light we needed to turn this dream into a reality," said Williams, touting the economic benefits of a converting an industrial area into a ballpark and entertainment district. "With a revitalized southeast, we will reap tens of millions of dollars in new tax revenue in the coming years.

The signatures of Williams and members of the District of Columbia Sports and Entertainment Commission clear the way for the city to sell $535 million in construction bonds, Williams spokesman Vince Morris said.

Now it's time for a real owner.

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Major League Baseball agreed to the lease deal proposed by the D.C. Council, provisionally:

DuPuy said the lease will go into effect if the Council agrees to several provisions, including an agreement that the city not enact any legislation that violates the terms of the lease. Other provisions deal with the issuing of bonds that pay for construction and how those bonds will be funded.

The Council will study the provisions over the next 48 hours.

"I don't see anything that could be a deal-breaker," Councilman Jack Evans said. "The devil is in the details, but all of that sounds like something we can move forward on."

I guess it took baseball a while to realize they had a sweetheart deal. I also have to guess that sagging support from fans may start driving the interested owners away, so MLB had to do something before losing a lot of value in the franchise. With luck, they'll install an owner who cares about winning soon.

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Derrick Goold details how the designers of the new Busch Stadium strove to keep the park neutral.

How new Busch will play is only an educated and informed theory until a pitch is thrown there, even as the final bricks are placed. Several of the newer fields in baseball have not played as perceived on paper. Some veer dramatically from their intended designs - becoming homer havens or pitcher parks. A few have struck the desired balance. Since the new stadium's initial conception, the guiding request from owners, from the baseball people and from the fans has been to have a neutral field. No near walls, no gimmicks, no cutesy nooks or contrived crannies.

It should be a ballpark, not a fun park.

"We haven't seen the finished product yet, but my understanding is that the way this was built was not to have those types of characteristics that would affect the play of the game, that would adversely impact the play," Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty said. "There shouldn't be any short fences, or anything like that that would tend to make it a hitters' park or anything that would make it too big and become a pitchers' park.

"I think it will play true, and that's what we want."

There is one thing in the article, however, that makes me believe it might favor the offense:

The traits of new Busch that will have the bigger impact on play are more subtle. Santee stresses the lights - their quality and their location - will give fielders a far clearer view of the field and the ball than ever at Old Busch. As the seats have been moved in for a more intimate feel for the fans, the foul territory has been sacrificed. That might peeve pitchers, but Eckstein is thrilled. He fouls off so many pitches that the smaller the foul territory the longer the at-bats.

And the higher probability of a hit.

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The Yankees received approval today from the city commission, the next step in building a new stadium.

The Brewers are trying to take back Miller Park:

Hall and manager Ned Yost served as spokesmen Monday for the team's effort to "Take Back Miller Park," encouraging Brewers fans to buy tickets to games at Miller Park against the Cubs and Cardinals. Those games traditionally draw crowds heavy on opposing fans.

"You hate to feel like you're at a disadvantage in your own ballpark," Hall said. "It's always fun to send those Cubs fans for a long drive sad, but at the same time, we'd like to see our own fans."

The Brewers averaged 34,268 fans for 10 home games against the Cubs last season and 27,461 for nine games against the Cardinals.

"It's time that we let everyone know that Miller Park is not the second home for any other team," Yost said.

If the Brewers win, this will take care of itself.

Maybe I should move the offices of Baseball Musings here. :-)

The deadline for Major League Baseball to accept the Washington D.C. lease agreement is March 7.

If Major League Baseball and the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission don't agree to the terms by March 7, the stadium lease agreement between the city and team would be canceled, according to the legislation.

What I didn't realize is that Washington still needs to acquire the land. The business men who own the property lost in court yesterday. They challenged the assessment of the property, which came in just under the amount that would have killed the deal.

The court ruled only the mayor or D.C. Council could challenge the assessment. Chief Judge Eric T. Washington wrote "it is improbable that the Council intended to grant landowners the power to interfere with the economic development plans of the city."

Of course. Who would expect that owning property would give you property rights? Or that residents would be allowed to challenge the government? It sounds like another Kelo decision.

CBSSportsLine.com rounds up reactions to the new deal proposed by the D.C. Council for building the Nationals a new home.

Via the Arizona Republic, Paul Doyle writes on the rebuilding of Fenway Park:

In the twilight of his stewardship, former Red Sox owner John Harrington insisted Fenway Park was beyond repair.

Harrington, head of the Yawkey Trust, was trying to convince the world the team needed a new stadium. After years of patchwork repairs, Fenway was called unsalvageable as Harrington lobbied for a new home.

Yet, as John Henry's group enters its fifth year at the helm, the baseball relic is undergoing a continuous makeover. Since purchasing the team in 2002, Henry's group has steadily tinkered and upgraded Fenway Park with eye on a significant renovation.

You can see a picture of the gutted .406 club here.

The Cubs are renovating the bleachers at Wrigley. They Yankees extended the life of their stadium in the 1970's with a major overhaul. Why don't more teams remodel rather than rebuild?

Just before I matriculated at Harvard, the University was facing a crisis in the athletic department. Their infrastructure was aging. The original plan was to build new arenas, but the cost was too great. Someone hit on the idea of remodeling rather than rebuilding. In my four years there, the football, hockey and basketball venues were replaced by redoing existing buildings. The money saved allowed the construction of a new pool and indoor track.

So why don't more teams do this? The Red Sox should be a model for all franchises and the cities who get extorted for new parks. It takes some imagination, but I have no doubt that RFK could be turned into a better stadium with some tinkering. That would certainly solve the cost problem facing Washington right now.

Kudos to the Red Sox management for seeing what could be done with the park. More teams should try that route.

Bleed Cubbie Blue is having a tough time figuring out the new seating capacity of Wrigley Field.

An hour after they rejected the lease negotiated by the mayor and MLB, the D.C. Council reconvened and passed their own version of the lease.

After initially voting down the lease 8-5 Tuesday night, council members returned to session an hour later at the urging of Mayor Anthony A. Williams. They attached legislation capping the city's total cost at just less than $611 million and voted 9-4 to approve.

Major League Baseball will comment later today on the deal.

"We'll see what it looks like and how it impacts our contract with them, and we'll comment on it tomorrow," said DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer. "I cannot comment until I see it and see what impact, if any, it has on the contract they approved a year ago December. They have amended it repeatedly tonight, so I am not really sure what it says."

It's quite possible that MLB will take the city to arbitration over the new terms. I don't see why, however. The city is going to absorb quite a bit of the cost overruns. Whoever buys the team is getting a sweetheart of a deal. My guess is that there are potential buyers among the candidates who are willing to help out with the stadium. Sell the team to one of those, and let a flourishing franchise take care of the rest.

Andrew Clem is all over this story as the D.C. Council votes down the stadium lease. It seems Virginia is now trying to lure the team there.

Update: The Council reworked and approved the lease.

The Twins won their court battle over their stadium lease today:

The Minnesota Twins don't have to play in the Metrodome beyond the 2006 season, a judge ruled Monday in a decision that could increase pressure on lawmakers to approve financing for a new ballpark.

Hennepin County District Judge Charles Porter sided with the baseball team in a lawsuit against its public landlord. The ruling gives franchise owner Carl Pohlad more power to move his team, although no city is publicly courting the Twins.

Porter ruled that the Twins' lease expired in 2003.

So the Twins are free to sign a series of one-year leases, and if they should ever build a new ballpark, they can leave the Metrodome as soon as the new park is ready.

The "Park Where the Giants Play" acquired it's third name yesterday. The SBC merger with AT&T will result in the San Francisco franchise playing in AT&T Park. The good news:

AT&T Park is scheduled to host the All-Star game in 2007. The Giants said the park will offer wireless AT&T Internet service and that signage likely would be changed by midsummer.

Now one can blog from the park!

The Brewers are moving part of the right field fence in 8 feet to create an in-game picnic area.

The area is tucked into the right-field corner at Miller Park, between the foul pole and the power alley. It can accommodate up to 75 fans for each game and a private bar is included with food and drink provided at an all-inclusive price, from $39 to $65 per person, depending on the date.

Bar stools and tables positioned directly behind the fence offer a view from over the right fielder's shoulder, and fans will also be able to peer through a window into the visitor's bullpen. The manual American League scoreboard that used to adorn the right-field wall has been removed.

The Brewers expect the new arrangement to add 1 or 2 home runs a season.

The Cardinals are being accused of not making a full disclosure to their insurance company:

Greenwich said the Cardinals claimed in its policy application that no prior environmental audits or studies had been conducted for Busch Stadium or its bus lot site.

In fact, the company said, environmental audits and studies had been completed in 1995 and 1996 which disclosed the presence of environmental conditions that would have been relevant to the policy.

The insurance company is looking to recoup $20 million in environmental cleanup.

Without local funding, Fishstripes doesn't think the idea of a stadium in Hialeah will fly for the Marlins. He does, however, like the idea of building it next to the racetrack:

Having to incorporate the old with the new would make for a very appealing look. Unfortunately I can't see it happening.

I wonder if the Oakland Athletics considered this when closing the upper deck of the Coliseum:

Paul Miller, 51, of Berkeley, is a season-ticket holder with seats in the lower level, section 123.

"Bad idea," he said. "Sometimes my kids use the tickets. But they don't sit in my seats. They go to the upper deck. My son says he can see the game better up there."

Maybe they should close the back rows of all the decks instead. Of course, it's also possible they'll use the upper deck tarps as a money maker:

Behind the plate, the tarps will have this message, in gold lettering: HOME OF THE OAKLAND ATHLETICS. The years of the four Oakland World Series titles will be listed above the right-field corner, and the five championship years of the old Philadelphia A's will be seen above the left-field corner.

The four retired player numbers -- Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers, Reggie Jackson and Dennis Eckersley -- also will be shown.

Crowley said it's possible the tarps will carry advertising. He hopes fans will relish in the new environment once they experience it. For now, fans are skeptical.

My bet is that advertising is more than a possibility.

The Mayor of Washington, D.C. and MLB reached a new agreement yesterday, but it's not clear if it's enough. Details on cost overruns are yet to come. That seems to be the big sticking point with the D.C. Council.

The St. Louis Cardinals will test out the new Busch Stadium with an exhibition game between their AAA and AA affiliates:

Cardinals president Mark Lamping said in a statement the game "will serve as a dress rehearsal for everyone - the stadium operations staff, concessionaires, vendors, ushers, grounds crew, broadcasters, umpires, news media and even our fans."

Ticket prices for the exhibition will range from $5 to $20 and will go on sale to the public Feb. 25. Season-ticket holders will be advised through the mail on how to purchase tickets.

If you don't have opening day tickets, here's your chance to be one of the first fans in the stadium.

It looks like the rolling roof is in the plans for improvements to the Truman Sports Complex.

A roof at the Truman Sports Complex has been revived thanks to an 11th-hour curveball from some Jackson County legislators.

They now hope to ask voters on April 4 to impose a use tax on out-of-state companies doing business in Jackson County, which then would pay for either a rolling roof over Kauffman and Arrowhead stadiums or a retractable roof over Arrowhead. The NFL has said Arrowhead would host a Super Bowl if Arrowhead gets a roof, and the Chiefs had pushed to get a roof added to the April ballot.

The roof ballot item would be in addition to a three-eighth cent sales tax to raise at least $425 million to pay for most of the overhaul of the stadiums. If voters approve the tax, the current leases due to expire Jan. 31, 2015, would be extended to Jan. 31, 2031.

Of course, taxing out-of-state companies might cause them to take their business elsewhere.

Yesterday there was a rumor about the Marlins possibly moving to Hialeah City. The two parties are indeed talking, but everything is very preliminary.

They've selected a mediator to try to seal the stadium deal between MLB and the Washington, D.C. government. Mayor Williams must be overjoyed with the pick:

Former Detroit mayor Dennis Archer, a longtime political ally of D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams's, was selected yesterday to mediate a dispute between the District government and Major League Baseball over the stalled agreement to build a new stadium.

Archer, 64, was in town yesterday for an initial meeting between Williams and representatives from the Washington Nationals and the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission. Officials from the American Arbitration Association, which is handling the mediation process, also were involved.

Archer sports an impressive resume:

Archer, who served eight years as an associate justice on the Michigan Supreme Court, has a long, distinguished résumé. He is chairman of Dickinson Wright, a Detroit-based law firm.

Archer and Williams used to talk by telephone every month, and Williams has said he based his initial blueprint for governing the District on Archer's work in Detroit. Archer, who was Detroit's mayor from 1994 through 2001, is a former president of the National League of Cities, a role Williams filled last year.

He's only a mediator, however. He'll use whatever skills it takes to move the sides to an agreement, but if MLB believes it's case will sway an arbitrator, they may not budge. Again, I wonder how much the owners will push Selig to get a deal so they can get their money back. And if the whole thing falls apart, what's next? A move to another city?

I understand MLB wants a deal in place that makes the Washington franchise as viable as possible. Unfortunately, they want the city to make sure that happens. Why not agree that the new owner will cover cost overruns for the stadium, and take $100 million off the purchase price? The clubs still get a good return on their investment, and the new owner has an economic reason to work against toward keeping the stadium on budget. Seems everyone wins in that scenario.

Cubs executives spoke publicly yesterday about the blecher renovations at Wrigley Field:

McGuire said 253 stadium seats with backs on them will be built in the far right-field bleachers and sold on a reserved basis as "bleacher box seats." McGuire said the seats are targeted toward "aging Baby Boomers who want the bleacher experience but can't handle the bench seats, or maybe some of the language they might hear." Like the premium "dugout box seats" behind home plate and the "bullpen boxes" between the visitors' dugout and bullpen, the new "bleacher boxes" will be sold separately from the individual seats, which go on sale Feb. 24. No date was given, but Maloney said it's expected to be sometime in March. No price was given, but they're expected to cost significantly more than a regular bleacher ticket.

I guess the fans buying these seats will be known as the "bleacher swells."

The Washington D.C. Council gave the mayor terms that will get a yes vote on the stadium deal. The main goal of the council is to push cost overruns onto the new owners or Major League Baseball:

Council members Vincent C. Gray (D-Ward 7) and Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large), who have opposed the lease deal, said they would consider supporting it if the city's project costs were capped.

"This won't pass unless the price is capped," Brown said. "The chairman and mayor know exactly where I am and what will bring me aboard."

There are nine bidders, I believe, for the team. Why not ask which ones are willing to cover cost overruns? The sign the compromise, sell the team, and get on with the business of building a competitive franchise. Whoever buys the team, even covering cost overruns, is getting a pretty sweet deal on the stadium.

The Twins are in court over whether or not they have a long term deal to stay in the Metrodome.

The Twins contend they have no long-term agreement to play in the 24-year-old Metrodome and have operated there on a year-to-year basis since the 2004 season.

Corey Ayling, the lawyer for the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, said the team has acted as if it were a long-term tenant and essentially has operated under a 1998 agreement that ran through 2003.

"Conduct and actions speak a lot louder than words," Ayling told the judge. "They have accepted all these checks and they behaved exactly as if this agreement had been signed."

I'm not sure I understand Ayling's argument. Acting like a long term tenant when you're really just a tenant at will seems to me to be a nice gesture. But since there's no details about the agreement, it's very difficult to judge what's going on. Can any Twins fans shed light on the argument?

Phillies Nation brings you a picture of the new left field wall at Citizen's Bank Ballpark. That blog will be keeping track to see if home runs really do get reduced with the new configuration.

More pictures of the Wrigley reconstruction are available at Bleed Cubbie Blue.

The Bird Watch posts photos of the new ballpark in St. Louis.

Bleed Cubbie Blue posts new pictures of the Wrigley Field bleacher reconstruction.

The Oakland Athletics are covering the third deck of the Coliseum, reducing the capacity of the stadium of around 34,000.

Taking the third deck out of play will make planning much easier. In addition, making tickets more scarce will encourage fans to purchase seats earlier and could increase the season-ticket-holder base, which is currently less than 10,000, one of the smallest in baseball.

More important, perhaps, is that the new baseball capacity will be 34,179 -- which is just about the size the A's would like to have if and when they get a new stadium. So, essentially, a smaller Coliseum will be a test run for a new ballpark.

This is a case where less appears to be more (Unix joke).

It wasn't a good day for the Nationals. The D.C. Council delayed the vote on the stadium, angering MLB:

If the lease is not approved by the end of the month, "the City will be in default on its contractual commitments and we will then have no choice but to prepare for arbitration," Major League Baseball President Robert A. DuPuy said in a letter to Cropp. "In arbitration, all prior concessions by MLB would be revisited."

I didn't realize that MLB made any concessions other than moving money around so it looked like they were making concessions.

On top of that, Soriano still doesn't want to change positions.

"I don't want to change," Soriano said Monday night at a dinner held for major league players by Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez. "If I haven't done it before, I won't do it now."

Soriano said he had a greater comfort level in the AL, and he plans to become a free agent after next season and sign with an AL team.

Maybe they should sell a soul to the devil.

The Mayor of Washington, D.C. does not have the votes to pass the lease agreement:

Mayor Anthony A. Williams asked the District of Columbia Council on Monday to delay consideration of a lease agreement for his proposed Nationals baseball stadium on the Anacostia River waterfront.

In a signal Williams might not have the votes needed to gain approval, officials said Monday evening that he had asked Council Chair Linda W. Cropp to withdraw the lease from Tuesday's agenda to make "small, technical changes" to the 30-year agreement with Major League Baseball.

Cropp is in favor of this issue, so my guess is that the mayor gets his wish. Of course, all this does is delay the sale of the team further.

John Perricone reminds St. Louis Cardinals fans that a privately funded stadium does not necessarily lead to more money spent on salaries.

Dennis Coates at Reason Online comes out square against the DC Stadium deal.

The Washington Post has the latest head count on how the D.C. Council plans to vote on the stadium lease.

In addition to Cropp, Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5) and Sharon Ambrose (D-Ward 6) are likely to support the lease, council sources said.

David A. Catania (I-At Large), Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4) and Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) are likely to oppose the lease, the sources said.

Schwartz, Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large) and Vincent C. Gray (D-Ward 7) are considered keys to the outcome. Cropp has called some of them to lobby for support for the lease, council members said.

Carol Schwartz is also undecided and is being actively courted to vote for the lease. Two of the undecideds must vote in favor of the lease for a majority.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are sprucing up The Trop.

The Rays are trying to apply a "five senses test" to the fan experience, he said, by improving the lighting systems throughout, upgrading the sound system, changing the concessions' food varieties, cleaning the facility and even offering a "touch tank" with live rays in seawater.

"The Trop has always been comfortable, but we want it to sparkle," Silverman said.

And cleaning the park is not easy.

Since the seating areas can't be pressure washed, every seat in the house is being cleaned by hand and the surrounding common areas scrubbed down as well.

I haven't been to the stadium. Do people who regularly see ballgames there think the renovations will make a difference in attracting fans?

In regards to this post, CB at Royals Authority sends this picture of the original design for the roof at the Truman Sports complex. He writes:

I saw the link you posted on the rolling roof. I've got the plans for the original stadium complex in KC that were drawn up in 1968. Like the article says, there were cost overruns and the plan was to eventually construct the roof.

Anyway, I'm just passing along some worthless trivia. Here's how they envisioned the roof:

The Truman Sports Complex is looking at reviving the idea of a sliding roof for the two stadiums, something that was shelved when the complex was built do to cost overruns. Randy Covitz uses this as a starting point to look at the history of domes and retractable roofs.

Bleed Cubbie Blue has details on the reconstruction of the Wrigley Field bleachers, including the addition of a "knothole." The opening will allow fans to view the game from the street.

There's a useful chart attached to this article comparing the costs of building a new D.C. stadium next to RFK vs. along the Anacostia River. What I find impressive is that it costs $61 million dollars to design and consult on the park. I'm in the wrong profession!

The Washington Nationals moved a step closer to building a new stadium yesterday as Major League Baseball and the D.C. government finished negotiations on a lease deal. The document still needs to be approved by the city council.

The mayor won concessions from MLB:

Under terms of the lease deal, baseball would give the city $20 million for stadium construction and a letter of credit that would cover Washington Nationals rent payments in case of a terrorist attack or players' strike.

Twenty million is a drop in the bucket. In exchange for that consession, MLB gets a share of the non-game day parking fees. In fact, the owners of the franchise get a very sweet deal:

The team would collect all stadium revenue other than non-game-day parking and advertising collected by the city during the 18 days the city could use the stadium for other events. And the Nationals would control all advertising on and inside the stadium and would receive all income from naming rights if a corporate sponsor paid to put its name on the ballpark.

If the stadium did not open by March 2008, the District would be required to pay penalties that could reach millions of dollars, depending on how much revenue the team lost during the delay.

The Nationals would pay an average of $5.5 million in rent during the 30-year lease and donate 8,000 tickets to city charities each season. In a statement, the city said it would control development rights on land outside the stadium and within the 21-acre footprint of the project. The lease agreement states that the Nationals and the city will "jointly evaluate . . . to attract economically viable commercial activity" south and east of the stadium.

The team can't move for 30 years, so the city is going to get about $165 million from the team. The ticket incentive is backwards, too. The Nationals have no reason to push beyond 2.5 million attendees, since they don't make as much money on tickets sold after that number is reached. Take the $1 out of the first 500,000 in attendance each year, then it would be worth it for the Nationals to push attendance higher.

I also believe the tax on utilities to finance the stadium will not go over well. Given the high price of oil, gas and electricity right now, tacking on more for a stadium isn't going to sit well with consumers. This project strikes me as a poor investment for the city. We'll see if the council feels the same way.

The council has scheduled a public hearing on the lease for 10 a.m. Tuesday. Those wishing to speak must register by 5 p.m. Monday.

Here's your chance to be heard on the issue. 10 A.M. Tuesday is an inconvenient time to schedule a public hearing. It makes me think they're trying to keep the public away.

Dan Le Batard gives the emtional arguments for tax dollars building the Marlins a new stadium, and the practical reasons why they shouldn't. It seems like a no-win situation for Miami:

Yeah, the head reiterates, the audacity of this art collector, asking one of America's poorest areas to build his flawed business model a weather-proof home just so he can hog the profits. Sell some more paintings, Mr. Artsy. Build your own playpen.

But the heart reminds the head that a historic South Florida sports figure tried that once.

And all that did was force Joe Robbie's entire family to fight over what little was left of his money.

I believe the practical argument is correct here. Unfortunately, until all cities think like this, teams like the Marlins will look for greener pastures.

I keep seeing this story, usually with the headline, "D.C. nears tentative lease deal." Is a tentative deal anything like a semi-boneless roast? Is it like that line from Annie Hall:

At the moment it's just a Notion, but with a bit of backing I think I could turn it into a Concept, and then an Idea.

Please get back to us when you have an actual deal.

Here's the latest on the wheelings and dealing involving the Twins search for a new stadium. It looks to me as if they're trying to bend a lot of rules to get this done. The symbolism of locating near the city garbage burner seems appropriate.

The negotiations to put the Nationals permanently in Washington in a new stadium keep running into trouble. The latest is that D.C. wants rent money guaranteed, even if baseball can't be played at the new stadium for a variety of reasons. MLB is threatening not to sell the team until this lease issue is resolved.

It's an interesting standoff. Selig says he won't sell until a lease is in place, but he still hasn't interviewed three of the eight groups bidding on the team. So even if the lease were resolved tomorrow, it's still going to be at least a month before the deal is done (unless, of course, Bud's known all along exactly who's getting the team). On the city side, the longer they hold out, the longer it is before the other 29 teams get their payday for selling the club.

Here's an interesting article on how Anaheim is trying to develop a downtown around its ballpark, instead of the other way around.

The Oakland Athletics are interested in building a small baseball stadium, partly to increase season ticket sales:

The A's managing general partner is looking for a park so intimate it would make SBC Park or even Fenway Park look almost spacious. It would have about 35,000 seats, Wolff said last week, and that would make it the smallest big-league park.

"Right now our capacity (at McAfee Coliseum, 43,662) is too big, and it makes it too hard to sell season tickets,'' Wolff said. "That's why we have the highest walk-up traffic in major league baseball.''

Even some of the luxury suites would be cozy. Half of them -- 40 of the 80 -- would be 4-to-6-seat mini-suites, club officials say. That would make them more affordable, a necessity for a club that can't begin to attract the level of corporate support the Giants enjoy.

It's not a bad idea. And it seems you could build the park in such a way that if it proves to be too small, it could be expanded.

In a comment to this post, a reader points out this article in the Washington Post concerning the dimensions of RFK Stadium:

Club officials asked the reporters to stop before other measurements could be taken, but the team agreed to bring in a surveyor who took measurements yesterday morning. The results confirmed what the players had suspected -- the marks in the areas midway between the foul poles and center field were incorrect. According to club officials, the actual distance -- measured with a laser -- to the mark that said "380" in left-center field was 394.74 feet; the actual distance to the "380" mark in right-center was 395 feet.

"It's been something that's been in people's minds," said Andy Dunn, the Nationals' vice president of ballpark operations. "The dimensions were on pads that make up the outfield fence, but the pads with the 380-feet marks were in the wrong locations."

So it seems like an honest mistake. There's a location on the fence where those pads are supposed to be placed, and someone mixed up the locations. More interesting, however, is Bowden's take on the stadium configuration:

Nationals President Tony Tavares has attended every home game, and has watched what Guillen and his teammates are seeing. In fact, Tavares and Bowden had a conversation during RFK's renovation over the winter, when the Nationals were preparing to move from Montreal.

"I told Jim I could tweak it, slightly, to be a pitcher's park or a hitter's park," Tavares said.

"And I told him," Bowden said, "that to bring the fences in with our team I didn't think made any sense, because I thought we're going to have to win with pitching and defense. We also had hitters who didn't have to hit home runs to produce runs."

More importantly, Bowden isn't going to hold the park against his hitters:

"And if we're doing a contract with Jose, and I'm still here, I'll say, 'Jose, those count as home runs,' " Tavares said. "He can add them to his totals, and we'll negotiate from there. I know this isn't a hitter's ballpark."

The Nationals are capable of winning low-scoring, close games. Bowden made the right decision.

Todd Zolecki discusses Citizen's Bank Park and what (if anything) can be done about the home runs there. Believe it or not, the team and architects thought it was a fair park:

"The park is not playing out as we expected, because we felt we designed a neutral facility," Phillies president David Montgomery said. "And right now, it's certainly gearing toward a hitters' ballpark. But do you think we tried to design a ballpark that wouldn't be fair? Is the fact that [the 369-foot sign in the power alleys] is further to the right here than [the 371-foot sign] at the Vet an issue? Yes. Was it something we discussed and did intentionally? Absolutely not."

The big problem seems to be that the walls are straight instead of concave. That means the power alleys don't get deep as quickly:

A team source said a Phillies player met an architect involved in the design of the project at a charity event and asked the architect how the ballpark's dimensions were conceived. The architect reportedly told him that the Phillies had been cautioned about the dimensions, but that the team was OK with them.

Montgomery denied he had been cautioned by an architect about the dimensions.

"That's absolutely not true," he said. "That couldn't be more incorrect. We set dimensions. We told everybody. We set them similar to Veterans Stadium. We went out and paid people to tell us what the wind would do. We tried very hard. Could it be true that in one spot we said, 'Leave it there. Leave [the wall] at eight feet'? Of course. The absolute truth is that we thought we were copying Veterans Stadium dimensions."

But the outfield fences at Citizens Bank Park aren't concave like the Vet's. The fences move from the left-field foul pole to center and from the right-field foul pole to center at 90-degree angles. That means the D in the Bud Light sign in left field is just 345 feet from home plate. The Majestic sign in right field is just 349 feet from home plate.

Players, pitchers and coaches contend that the Bud Light and Majestic signs are the park's power alleys - or at least close to them. The Phillies contend that the power alley in left is the 369-foot sign.

The worry is that teams in high run ballparks don't win. So the Phillies may remove seats and lose revenue to make the outfield fences deeper. Of course, that may lead to a Coors problem, where balls start dropping in front of the outfielders.

Rachael Ray is doing a special on ballpark food on Food Network. It's on right now.

Andrew Clem added a great new feature to his site, Clem's Baseball, the place to get stadium information. He now has a page that allows you to compare two parks side by side. Give it a try with the Detroit Parks on this All-Star evening.

A Chicago White Sox fan visits Dolphin Stadium and suffers culture shock.

Correction: He was a White Sox, not a Cubs fan.

The New York Times has a slide show of drawings of the new park. It looks to me as if they've combined the the best features of the original and the remodeled park. The nice thing is that it is perfectly recognizable as Yankee Stadium. A beautiful job.

With the Mets announcing a new stadium plan earlier, the Yankees will announce a new stadium plan tomorrow.

There's a good article in the New York Times on trying to build a team in Coors Field. What the article makes clear is that no one has a clue how to do it. Dan O'Dowd states the big problem:

O'Dowd added that the altitude wore down players physically so that they must be rested more, but that the fatigue on starting pitchers forced relievers to work more.

Maybe in Denver you should be allowed to carry a 30-man roster. Leo Mazzone talks about what happens to pitchers:

Leo Mazzone, the Braves' pitching coach, said Hampton was in a state similar to shell shock when he left Colorado after two seasons and joined the Braves.

"He was trying to make the ball do way more than what it could do," Mazzone said. "That's what happens when you go to that place, and it's the reason why a lot of guys struggle. They overexaggerate everything to try to make it work. I don't really think it ever will."

The more I think about the Coors problem, the more I believe the Rockies can only win by being a super offensive team. They can't be content with hitters who look great at home but stink on the road. They need to find four of five superstars who will just pound the ball and push the team toward 8 runs a game at home. Then just hope the pitching can hang on. They need an infield of A-Rod, Tejada, Kent and Helton.

FishStripes wonders why the Marlins would turn down a deal to have a casino finance a Florida stadium, but then talk about moving to Las Vegas.

Steve Lombardi is wondering if the new Yankee Stadium should have a retractable roof.

What's going on at Coors? The Rockies beat the Giants 3-2 last night, and this afternoon Colorado is up 3-1 in the 8th. There have been five home runs, but they've all been solo shots. Where are all the base runners? Have these two offense become so poor that they can't even hit at high altitude?

Update: 3-1 is the final score. Kudos to the Rockies bullpen in this game. Acevedo, Witasick and Fuentes pitched 2 2/3 inning of three hit ball, walking none and throwing 29 of 38 pitches for strikes.

I'm the designated hitter this week at Baseball Analysts. My column on how RFK is a real retro stadium is posted there.

The Bird Watch visited Shea Stadium to see the Cardinals play and didn't think the old stadium was so bad.

Two stadium travelers liked RFK:

RFK Stadium could hardly be further removed from the brick-encrusted, sushi-serving, retro-crazed baseball venues currently in vogue. Pete Farrell thinks that's a good thing.

"After you've seen [retro stadiums] for the 83rd time, when you walk in there with the musty concourse and the paint peeling, it's like 'Ahhhhh, this feels right,' " Farrell said.

I'll echo that. It's not a perfect baseball stadium, but there's nothing wrong with it as a major league facility. It's easy to reach by both car and train. There are no obstructed seats. There were plenty of consessions, even though there wasn't enough food sold in the stands (I just saw beer vendors in the seats.

Washington may want to take a lesson from the Red Sox. Forced to stay in their aging park, the Red Sox ownership has remodeled and done a marvelous job of it. Why not do the same with RFK? It has to be a lot cheaper than building a new park, and as the Red Sox have shown, you can remodel and still play ball. Now that football is no longer played there, DC United can be moved to the Redskins Stadium, and the lower deck seats can be rearranged to give fans better sight lines. The field can have a state of the art drainage system installed, and I'm sure you can stick luxury boxes in somewhere. They just need a creative architect.

There may be other reasons to build a new field, such as better training facilities for the players. But it's not a bad park, and with a little work could be a very good one.

The Marlins had a legislative committee approve a $60 million tax break to help them build a new stadium. It's a kick-back on new revenue the stadium will supposedly generate. It's not clear from the article what happens if the new revenue doesn't come in.

Baseball Musings is holding a pledge drive during March. Click here for details.

Andrew Clem has put together a terrific resource at Clem's Baseball and It's "Green Cathedrals". In addition to the blog, Clem has incredible diagrams of the stadiums. Check out Miller Park. You can actually open and close the dome! Stop by and say hi.

Baseball Musings is holding a pledge drive during March. Click here for details.

An interesting article comparing Petco Park and Citizens Bank Park. It seems the Padres thought about building a pitcher's park on purpose:

Still, the Padres think their task will be easier. "The research we've done, the teams that perennially win are teams that have good pitching," Towers said.

The question then becomes whether it's more difficult to develop pitching in a park that gives away home runs like a guy handing out leaflets on a New York City street corner.

"Ask [Rockies general manager] Dan O'Dowd." Towers said. "I watch what's happened in Colorado, because they're in our division. It's difficult. They've tried it every which way. They tried going with the Blake Street Bombers. That was probably the best years they had. It's hard to attract free-agent pitching. And young pitching, it just kills their confidence.

There's a difference between developing good pitching and having good pitching due to park effects. However, Bill James did research years ago showing that teams playing in pitcher's parks won championships more often. Why? The answer lies in the relationship of runs to winning. If you outscore your opponents by 100 runs in a low run environment, you'll have a better record than if you have the same difference in a high run environment. It's smart of the Padres to notice these details.

Baseball Musings is holding a pledge drive during March. Click here for details.

David Singer send a link to this NY Times article about the death of artifical grass in the National League:

Players with troublesome legs, like left fielder Cliff Floyd of the Mets, usually learn to check for upcoming games on artificial turf, since such games can mean one of two things: nine innings of discomfort, or a day off.

To his delight, when Floyd scanned the Mets' schedule this year, he saw something that couldn't have made him happier: For the first time in four decades, the National League is free of plastic grass. As a result, 10 National League teams, including the Mets, will play all 162 regular-season games on the real stuff. A baseball fact of life that began when the Astrodome in Houston introduced artificial turf to the major leagues in 1966 is now officially over for one-third of major league baseball.

It's excellent news. At one time, half of the ballparks in the National League used artifical surfaces (Montreal, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Houston). I believe my late father-in-law had something to do with this. Neither my wife nor I remember the story perfectly, but he was working for Monsanto in the 1960s and happened to meet with someone involved in the building or maintenance of the dome. This person was telling him how difficult it was to grow grass there. Monsanto had introduced this green carpet for blacktop school yards, and I believe my father-in-law mentioned it to his associate, and the rest is history. I've written my brother-in-law to see if he remembers the story better, and I'll update when I hear from him.

Here's a history of the invention from About.com.

Update: My brother-in-law writes:

I know my father was directly involved with both the development and marketing of Astroturf, but beyond that I don't know much else, sad to say.

As you know, "Astroturf" entered the language as a generic term for all artificial playing surfaces. It used to rile Dad tremendously when cheaper, inferior quality imitiations of Astroturf were installed in other stadiums and were commonly called "astroturf". He hated to see the product get a black eye in public relations when football and baseball players would injure themselves, or the ball would bounce funny, and blame the "astroturf" surface. "It's that lousy Polyturf causing that trouble, damn it, not Astroturf!" Not sure who made Polyturf -- possibly arch-rival DuPont (the name was almost swear-word in our house during Dad's Monsanto days....)

Baseball Musings is holding a pledge drive during March. Click here for details.

Palmball links to a St. Petersburg Times graphic concerning the best location for a stadium for the Devil Rays.

Baseball Musings is holding a pledge drive during March. Click here for details.

Dodger Thoughts points out that the original LA team is going to be making a lot of money from the new seats at the stadium. The renovation cost $20 million, and the seats will pull in around $23 million. That's a lot of money for Depodesta to spend. It's one more superstar they can afford to carry.

Baseball Musings is holding a pledge drive during March. Click here for details.

In a new poll, Florida voters are overwhelmingly against spending tax dollars for new sports facilities.

Respondents opposed using tax money to help pay for sports venues in general by a 76-22 percent margin and each of those three projects by an even wider margin, according to a poll conducted by Quinnipiac University.

I'm glad voters are catching on to this. The results even surprised the governor:

Gov. Jeb Bush said the poll results could play into lawmakers' thinking when they consider bills seeking money for the projects. Lawmakers need to decide whether it's appropriate to help individual business interests when the state has other needs, he said.

``I'm not surprised that there are more people against subsidies of sports franchises than are for it. I'm surprised at the magnitude,'' Bush said.

I hope this becomes a national trend.

ESPN is reporting that there has been a tiny bit of progress on a new home for the Marlins. I like the idea that the city can seize the team if the ownership can't handle cost overruns. Financing, in that case, would not be a total loss for the government.

Rogers Communications, the owners of the Blue Jays, have purchased Skydome and are renaming it the Rogers Center. There will be a number of renovations, including new turf and a new scoreboard.

More importantly, Rogers is upping the three-year budget to $210 million US dollars. That's what I like to see; owners willing to invest in winning. Ricciardi should have enough money now to build a decent team.

Jean-Pierre Allard has the story on the renovations taking place at RFK stadium. It appears the Nationals are going all out to build a first-class playing surface.

The price of Skydome keeps falling.

The Toronto Blue Jays agreed to buy SkyDome, the team's ballpark, for about $21.2 million.

The 50,000-seat stadium, which opened in 1989, cost about $375 million to construct and was mostly funded by taxpayers. The Blue Jays, who are owned by Rogers Communications, will acquire the ballpark from Sportsco International LP, a Chicago-based group of investors who bought SkyDome out of bankruptcy court in 1999 for about $74 million.

"We're getting it for a very fair price," said Blue Jays president Paul Godfrey, a former city politician who was instrumental in getting the building funded by taxpayers.

Just another reason not to use taxpayer money to build stadiums.

Update: Skip at The Sports Economist believes the $375 million figure is incorrect, and gives a thorough explanation why.

There are lots of renovations underway at Fenway. The field is being dug up and replaced with state of the art drainage and heating.

"It's going to be a drier, safer and better-looking field next year as a result of these changes," said Red Sox president/CEO Larry Lucchino. "The approximate cost is between $1.5 million and $2 million. To put that in perspective, if we save ourselves one rainout next season, the field improvements will have more than paid for itself."

In addition to the new grass and sand-based drainage system, the field will also have a heating system, allowing the grounds crew to prep the grass earlier in the spring and keep it later into the fall.

"If it's not pouring rain, we should be able to play, or play soon thereafter," said Mellor. "It's a modern field now. This is something that will put us back into the modern playing age."

The Sox are going to put in improvements over the winter for the players, fans and press. Sometimes, you don't need a new stadium; you just need to improve what you have.

Here's an interesting story from Kansas City about sales taxes and Kaufman Stadium. It's a good discussion as to the merits of improving a facility vs. rebuilding.

Rami Genauer visited all 30 major league parks and rates them here. He has a different take than most other reviews of this type I've seen.

There are stories out about the Yankees looking to build a new stadium across the street from the current home of the Bronx Bombers. Interestingly, the first thing that hit me about these stories was that the Yankees were going to absorb all the construction cost, with the city of New York kicking in for infrastructure improvements. Neil deMause at Baseball Prospectus explains why.

The Yankees would foot the bill for the stadium itself, though, a remarkable turnaround from earlier plans to have the city kick in at least half of the cost. How will they do it? The explanation is buried in a tiny clause hidden deep within MLB's Basic Agreement. According to Article XXIV, Section a(5) of the 2002 collective bargaining agreement, teams must make revenue-sharing payments on all baseball revenue, but can deduct "the 'Stadium Operations Expenses' of each Club, as reported on an annual basis in the Club's FIQ [Financial Information Questionnaire]."

That's all it says. But according to baseball sources, teams have been quietly allowed to count stadium construction debt as "stadium operations expenses," thus claiming it as a deduction against revenue sharing.

A few moments with a calculator--and a copy of Andrew Zimbalist's May the Best Team Win, which lays out the details of the new revenue-sharing plan starting on page 99--reveals the impact of this clause on George Steinbrenner's stadium plans. The Yankees currently pay a marginal revenue-sharing rate of about 39% of local revenue. (Low-revenue teams, interestingly, pay an even higher marginal rate, which may help explain why teams like the Twins are seemingly so disinterested in such aspects of the business as, oh, selling tickets.) Taking a deduction for $40 million a year in stadium bond payments would thus earn the Yankees a $15.6 million-a-year write-off on their annual revenue-sharing obligations. Over time, about $300 million of the House That George Built would be paid for by the other 29 teams.

(Emphasis added.) I disagree with that last statement. George Steinbrenner would be building the stadium with his own money. The other 29 teams are currently building themselves up with Yankees money, and this would simply give them less of it. It's a brilliant move on the part of the Yankees.

Neil does notice the big positive to all this:

If you approach this as a taxpayer, it's great news. While as a fan I'm horrified at the prospect of one of only three remaining pre-war ballparks meeting the wrecker's ball just so that George Steinbrenner can build a 162-man starting rotation, as a New Yorker it's at least nice to know I wouldn't have to pay tax money for the privilege.

I'm glad the Yankees continue to violate the spirit of the CBA. They won't reign in their spending, which benefits other clubs. They find new ways to hide money, exposing problems with the CBA. And they keep winning. Maybe baseball should embrace the Yankees model, instead of trying to tone it down. After all, it's a roaring success.

I'm glad Doug Pappas is around. I've been too busy to keep track of Bud lately, but Doug is on the case.

Update: Tom Pollard writes:

Jerry Izenberg weighed in with a jaundiced view on this very topic in today's Star-Ledger. In case you find it worth commenting on,

http://www.nj.com/columns/ledger/izenberg/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1081839370108210.xml

Great blog, by the way; it's done a lot to get me interested in baseball, which I never thought would be possible. Thanks!

Baseball Musings: Creating baseball fans one reader at a time! Thanks Tom!

The announcers are saying that the Metrodome just installed a new, spongier surface. Maybe we won't see those huge outfield bounces anymore.

Jared Loos, the structural engineer for Citizens Bank Park, is profiled in this article.

Jared J. Loos thought nothing in his career as an engineer could top helping design a $300 million racetrack halfway around the world in Singapore.

But for someone raised in Shillington who used to listen to Philadelphia Phillies baseball games on the radio, nothing could be much bigger than being the lead structural engineer on his latest project: Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies' new home.

"That property in Singapore was great, but nobody (here) is going to see it," said Loos, a 1989 Gov. Mifflin High School graduate.

Edward Cossette waxes poetic on the destruction of the vet.

If you had any doubts, the Phillies have indeed played their last game at Veterans Stadium. The park was imploded today, leaving a cloud of dust and a pile of rubble. My guess is that everyone except Larry Bowa was happy to see it go.

The Aztec Invitational, a college tournament was held over the weekend at PETCO Park. David Hammel talks to the participants to try to determine if the new stadium will favor the pitchers or the hitters.

I like the idea of this bill. The Wisconsin Senate is trying to get a cut of the Brewers sale price as reimbursement for financing Miller Park. I think this is a great idea and I hope more governments try to implement this.

Geoff at DuckSnorts got to tour PETCO Field and has posted a review with pictures.

The Phillies are not only getting a new stadium for the regular season, they have a brand new facillity for spring training as well. According to this article, it's a real beauty.
Bright House Networks Field features a spacious locker room and state-of-the-art training facilities, access for autograph hounds and stargazers, corporate suites, easy highway access, and more than twice the parking spaces of the old stadium.

I wish I had seen this piece last month when it was posted, but it goes well the previous posts on the Expos and Twins. Matt Welch writes about how teams get the government to build them stadiums, then leave for greener pastures. He thinks municipalities should start selling off the stadiums they own:

Keating made the obvious but infrequently stated point in a March 2000 article for USA Today magazine: "Another major downside to government-built and -owned ballparks is that clubs are transformed from owners to renters. It is always easier for a renter to move to get a better deal. So, government officials who advocate taxpayer-funded sports facilities to attract or keep a team virtually ensure that teams will continue issuing threats and moving."

Here’s a different approach: Tax-funded entities should immediately begin selling off all their sports venues. Why on earth should two-thirds of Major League Baseball parks be fully or partly owned by governments? San Francisco’s glorious Pac Bell Park was the first privately financed stadium to be built since 1962; not coincidentally, it generates the most revenue in baseball. Private owners are far more likely to upgrade facilities, seek creative revenue-generating schemes, and stay put in their host cities.

A fire sale of stadiums and arenas would bring some much-needed revenue for cash-strapped cities and counties, even in the long term (in the form of future sales and property taxes, which frequently go uncollected on municipally owned properties). The city of Los Angeles, for example, projects a $180 million deficit in the next fiscal year, yet it continues to co-own and operate the nearly vacant Memorial Coliseum and Sports Arena while failing to fill the two-foot potholes in the street in front of my house.

Sounds like a good idea to me. People in LA paid a million dollars for a tiny house that they knock down so they can build what they want. Imagine what the real estate under some of these stadiums is worth?

Cities really have to start limiting their investments in these properties to infrastructure improvements, so people can get in and out easily. But for the property and the building, let the teams own those.

It looks like the Minnesota governor's stadium screening committee has selected two possible sites for a new park for the Twins, one in Minneapolis, one in St. Paul.

The Hennepin County/Minneapolis site is in downtown Minneapolis’ Warehouse District, northwest of Target Center.

Proposed financing for a ballpark in that location calls for $263 million from Hennepin County, $120 million from the Twins or other private investor, $100 million from the state, and $7 million from the city of Minneapolis.

That's a lot of public money going into the stadium. And it looks like the public may not get a chance to vote on this:

The screening committee also recommended that municipalities not leave the decisions up to voters by using a referendum to decide the stadium financing issue. Johnson agreed with that decision.

“I am not a big fan of referendums,” Johnson said. “I believe in representational government. If the people don’t like the decisions that their elected officials make, they can elect someone else.”

If I were an opponent of Hennepin County Board Chairman Randy Johnson, I'd definitely bring that quote up in the next election.

I saw this note at Baseball Crank:

* The Giants have agreed to change the name of Pac Bell Park to the even-more-antiseptic-sounding SBC Park. Much as these corporate stadium names bug me, it wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t keep changing all the time. Like your local bank, it’s getting altogether too difficult to keep some of these parks straight due to their frequent name changes. Grumble, grumble. (Check out this site, if you’re motivated to do more than grumble.)

It used to be easy to remember ball park names. Now, they are named after some business I haven't heard of, or they change every other year. Let's cut the corporate crap and go back to naming these parks after people and places. When I think about where the Padres play, I'd much rather remember Jack Murphy than a cell phone or a pet store.

The group that runs the Broward County Fair is looking for a permanent home, and thinks the Marlins can be part of it:

Long searching for a permanent home, the Broward County Fair has made a pitch to move into the aging Fort Lauderdale Stadium, where it could stage its 11-day event and also play host to everything from Major and Minor League baseball teams to festivals, concerts, cultural events and youth programs.

In a proposal that aims to provide revenue for cash-strapped Fort Lauderdale, the fair said it can upgrade the stadium and wants to continue working with the Baltimore Orioles, whose spring training lease there ends in April.

Sounds to me like they want the Orioles for Spring Training, and the Marlins for the regular season. That would certainly increase the revenue stream.

And cricket fans, there may be something in it for you:

Major League Cricket President and CEO Bernard Cameron said his organization is supporting the fair's bid and hopes it can include cricket matches and a cricket academy.

"We would gladly be their first tenant, whether it be operating with a lease or sublease," Cameron said.

The Bridgeport Bluefish have professional lacrosse at their stadium. Different fish, different secondary sport.

Don King wants to build a baseball stadium on his property:

Boxing promoter Don King wants the Florida Marlins to build a ballpark on 54 acres of property he owns in Palm Beach County.

King owns a jai-alai fronton in Mangonia Park that he said would be an ideal site for the World Series champions' proposed park, spokesman Robert Weneck said. If the ballpark has a roof, King would stage boxing matches in the arena during the offseason.

That would help the Marlins pay the estimated cost of $325 million for the stadium, King said.

"It's a marriage made in heaven for Floridians," King said Monday during a telephone interview from Atlantic City, N.J. He said he has not spoken yet to the Marlins and said no financial terms had been set for the offer.

First of all, I'd love to see Don King wearing a Marlins cap, or any cap for that matter. :-) One big problem, however, is that this area is 60 miles north of the present stadium, and being inconvient is a big complaint about Pro Player. Putting a new stadium a hour north of that isn't going to improve things.

The other day, Rob Neyer wrote a column in which he touted the virtues of Fenway Park over Yankee Stadium. It looks like he came in for a lot of criticism for that column, because today he defends himself against charges of bias against the Yankees.

When I read the original column, I had a quibble that I thought of bringing up but didn't. Since everyone else is piling on, I might as well, too. :-) Rob makes the following observation:

So that's three problems. Another is that Yankee Stadium must be the most class-conscious ballpark in the major leagues. It's not uncommon, around the majors, for ushers to ask for proof that you do actually belong in the expensive seats. But at Yankee Stadium, the ushers actually block off the box seats with chains. Show your ticket, the chain is withdrawn, and you're allowed to mingle with the fat cats. Otherwise, keep walking mister.

Fenway Park is everything that Yankee Stadium is not.

Well, that's not precisely true. Both are mind-bogglingly expensive. But otherwise, Fenway might best be described as The House That Ruth Didn't Build. And for that, baseball fans should be grateful.

Just as Yankee Stadium is decidedly class-conscious, Fenway Park is not. You won't find any chains separating the obscenely expensive seats from the silly expensive seats, and most of the time you won't even find an usher. In fact, you're expected to grab any seat that's not occupied, even if it happens to be six feet from the home team's on-deck circle.

The part about Fenway not being class conscious is a very recent change. I was amazed when I sat in the bleachers there a week ago that the fence had come down between the bleacher area and the rest of the ballpark. I don't know when it happened, but I know that fence was there in 1999 when I was at the All-Star game. And I also had no problem having an usher grab my ticket and wipe my seat off in section 35. Fenway is much more fan friendly since Henry bought the team, but that's only two years. It was every bit as class conscious as Yankee Stadium before that.

Harvey Frommer has the story on the first game at Yankee Stadium, 80 years ago today.

A rare pitching duel at Coors today. I was eyeballing the winning scores of the Rockies at Coors, and I only noticed 2 other games where the Rockies won when scoring no more than 2 runs. Shawn Cachon pitched 7 brilliant innings, retiring the first 16 batters, striking out 8 and walking no one.

Kim, in his first start, threw 93 pitches in five innings. He's going to have to learn to be more efficient if he's going to be successful as a starter.

Jimmy Golen of the AP got to sit in the new Monster seats at Fenway, and discusses other improvements to the park.

If you are in the vicinity of Amherst, Massachusetts, stop by the University of Massachusetts Amherst Fine Arts Center for an exhibit of panoramic views of Baseball Stadiums from 1982 (scroll down) by Jim Dow. It's an interesting exhibit. Many if not most of the stadiums from that era are gone. Plus, you get to see them as you never would on television. Worth the trip if you are nearby.

Lots of detail in this Washington Post article about moving the Expos. I especially love this exchange, which tells you how far apart the sides are:

Deputy Mayor Eric Price held up a chart of MLB's last 11 stadium mega-deals, and suggested to the committee that the proper mix had settled at about two-thirds public funding to one-third private -- a deal that would cost the District more than $250 million but also would cost MLB more than $100 million.

The reply came with a smile from the committee chairman, Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, but it was not taken as a joke.

"Two-thirds/one-third is fine," Reinsdorf said, according to two people present. "But three thirds/no thirds is more of what we had in mind."