Ballpark Digest
The Business of Ballparks and Baseball in Major League Baseball, Minor League Baseball, Indy, Summer Collegiate and College
Nat Bailey Stadium began life as Capilano Stadium, the home of the legendary Vancouver Capilanos of the Western International League. (What’s a Capilano? It was a local brewery.) It’s been the psychic center of baseball in British Columbia since there, serving as the home of the Vancouver Capilanos (“Caps”), the Vancouver Mounties of the Pacific […]
The design of Aces Ballpark is a very distinctive combination of new and classic. The basic structure is brick and dark green steel, but the colors in the seating are a warm sand and brick-red color – appropriate for the West. FAST FACTS Year Opened: 2009 Capacity: 9,100 Cost: $50 million Dimensions: 338L, 410LC, 423RC, […]
The Albuquerque Isotopes will welcome the 4-millionth fan in team history to Isotopes Park tonight. With just 967 fans to go, the Albuquerque Isotopes (Class AAA; Pacific Coast League) will surpass 4-million fans in franchise history tomorrow when the ‘Topes take on the Memphis Redbirds at 6:35 p.m. MT. So far this season, the ‘Topes […]
With a stunning design, strong sense of history and the latest in fan comforts, Huntington Park comes close to being the perfect baseball facility. FAST FACTS Year Opened: 2009 Capacity: 10,000 (7,600 seats, 1,200 specialty seats, 1,200 lawn/SRO spots) Number of Suites: 32, with 42 loge boxes Owner: Franklin County Architect: 360 Architecture Naming Rights: […]
Herschel Greer Stadium is an older ballpark that gets lost in the mix. Its original intent was to create a place to play baseball (interesting concept), and while the Sounds have done what they can to keep up with the Minor League Baseball boom by building patio decks and adding children’s play areas, it’s the […]
Raley Field isn’t really a downtown ballpark, being 15 minutes away and across the river from downtown Sacramento. It’s definitely not a suburban ballpark, located in a disused warehouse/industrial area. Let’s just say it’s an urban ballpark and leave it at that — besides proclaiming Raley Field a great ballpark. FAST FACTS Year Opened: 2000 […]
Writing about Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium is really a two-pronged deal. The ballpark must serve two masters — the College World Series and the Omaha Royals — and as a result it doesn’t serve either particularly well, especially the needs of the O-Royals. FAST FACTS Year Opened: 1948 Capacity: 23,100 (17,700 grandstand, 5,400 general admission) Architect: […]
Age is relative when it comes to baseball stadiums — a point well exemplified by McCoy Stadium, the home of the Pawtucket Red Sox. In theory, McCoy Stadium is one the oldest ballparks in the International League, first opening in 1942. So a visitor unfamiliar with the recent history of McCoy Stadium would expect a […]
Fifth Third Field is an impressive edifice that seemed to have been carved out of stone. The fact that it has helped turned Toledo’s warehouse district into the place to be during the summer is one of the more impressive feats of the young 21st century. FAST FACTS Year Opened: 2002 Capacity: 8,943 fixed seats; […]
ll you really need to know about the Dell Diamond is this: it feels like it’s in the middle of a former pasture. Whether the site was a pasture in the past or not is fairly irrelevant; the more important point is that the home of the Round Rock Express benefits from a bucolic setting. […]
Coca-Cola Park is surely one of the best new minor-league ballparks to come down the pike in recent years, a place where every fan — ranging from the big-buck corporate types in the dugout suites to the families setting up camp on the left-field berm — can have a fulfilling game-day experience. FAST FACTS Year […]
If anyone needs a model for a successful urban minor-league stadium, they need look no farther than AutoZone Park, home of the Memphis Redbirds. AutoZone is renowned in minor-league baseball circles as being one of the best ballparks in use, and nothing during a recent visit dissuades us of that notion. FAST FACTS Year Built: […]
While it lacks some of the frills found at other International League parks, NBT Bank Stadium does the basics pretty well. The entire park has comfortable chair-style seating with ample leg room. No bleachers anywhere. The concourse divides the lower 100 and 200 levels from the suites and general-admission upper level. The concourse also features […]