Stadiums Archives

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