As they continue to explore options for a new ballpark, officials from the Pawtucket Red Sox (Class AAA; International League) are offering details on the facility’s potential design.
Preliminary renderings released by the team reflect some aspects of the ballpark’s design. One of the most notable aspects are homages to Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. The PawSox would like to replicate some of the features of the home of their parent club, including the Green Monster, and believe that could be accomplished at either of the two sites the team is considering.
Within the Red Sox organization, there are ballparks that heavily inspired by Fenway Park–including JetBlue Park, the team’s spring training facilty, and Fluor Field, home of the Greenville Drive (Low A; Sally League). As it pertains to their new ballpark, the PawSox believe that a Fenway-inspired facility could constructed at either the location of an Apex department store on Main Street, or the Tidewater site.
Both locations are reportedly under consideration by the team, though no final site has been selected for the venue. The renderings released by the team to The Providence Journal offer a glimpse of how the facility could look at either location, with the image below featuring the ballpark at the Tidewater site.
The PawSox are stressing, however, that decisions about the site and funding still have to be made, and the team wants to collaborate in the process with the City of Pawtucket and State of Rhode Island. More from The Providence Journal:
[Senior vice president and general manager Dan] Rea said the new ballpark’s design is possible at either of two locations under consideration: the Apex department store and the Tidewater site along Taft Street.
But no final decisions have been made about the site, who would pay for construction and which entity would pay what percentage of construction costs, said Rea, PawSox vice chairman Mike Tamburro and Pawtucket Director of Administration Tony Pires in a joint interview.
They all stressed that any choice must be vetted by the city, state and team. The three parties have committed to work together in determining what’s next after a study of McCoy Stadium, released in January, showed it would cost $68 million to renovate the 75-year-old stadium to today’s standards, or $78 million to build new on that site.
They also stressed that the PawSox intend to help pay for construction of what Chairman Larry Lucchino said Monday would be a publicly owned stadium.
“I think that ownership is prepared to make a significant contribution,” Tamburro said.
The PawSox are heavily focusing on Pawtucket in the search for a new ballpark–with the Apex and Tidewater locations identified as contenders, though the team is not ruling out other possibilities.
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