As they try to build off of a successful year, the Memphis Redbirds (Class AAA; Pacific Coast League) are considering upgrades to AutoZone Park.
Potential renovations to AutoZone Park are something of a convergence of recent developments for the franchise. Peter Freund purchased the majority stake in the team before this season, which saw the Redbirds achieve several attendance milestones. The team welcomed AutoZone Park’s 10 millionth fan in August, and at the season’s end reported a nearly 17% increase in total attendance from 2015.
Before the 2015 season, AutoZone Park received a series of upgrades that resulted in it ballpark winning our 2015 Best Ballpark Renovation Award in the over $6 million category. Freund is now seeking to continue overhauling to AutoZone Park.
Though there are still many specifics to be resolved, Freund believes that the previous renovations present some inspiration for the upgrades he seeks to complete. More from the Memphis Business Journal:
When AutoZone Park was remodeled before the 2015 season, the most popular changes proved to be the addition of four-top tables on the club level behind home plate and the remodel of the interior club level. With that in mind, Freund sees more opportunities elsewhere in the ballpark. That could also include mean removing more seats from the ballpark to move the bullpens from centerfield to either side of the outfield berms
“The issue might be the Redbirds can’t sell 10,000 seats, but we’ve proven we can sell 10,000 seats,” Freund said. “The truth is, how do people want to watch games today? They might want to watch it while they’re playing pool or on a drink rail, watching pitchers warm up in the bullpen. That’s just things we’re looking at.
In addition to the drink rails, the 2015 renovations included renovated suites, improved video displays, and several other upgrades. You can read more about those here.