The Bloomberg Administration was so eager for a Yankee luxury box it traded away 250 parking spots and three billboards.A perk of financing a new ballpark for city officials is the long-term use of a luxury box. It’s a given. But what happens when the city doesn’t actually fund the new ballpark? In the case […]
Archive | Major-League Baseball
Dunedin Stadium / Dunedin Blue Jays / Toronto Blue Jays
Tucked away in the corner of a Tampa/St. Pete suburb, Dunedin Stadium (formerly known as Knology Park) is a facility designed for spring-training needs, not to serve the audience of a Class A Florida State League team. As a result, there’s not a lot of excitement surrounding a Dunedin Blue Jays game: the team is […]
SunLife Stadium / Florida Marlins
SunLife Stadium is a great place to catch a football game, but so far unsuccessful in sustaining any kind of fan base for baseball. This will be the final season there for the Florida Marlins. FAST FACTS Year Opened: 1987 Capacity: 47,622 Architect: Populous Dimensions: 330L, 385LC, 434LC, 404C, 385RC, 345R Playing Surface: Grass Website: […]
Dodger Stadium / Los Angeles Dodgers
When you talk about venerable major-league ballparks, a short list must contain Dodger Stadium. Built in 1962 by the O’Malley family and designed by Emil Praeger on the hillside of Chavez Ravine, Dodger Stadium for many years was the gold standard in ballparks, the facility by which all other ballparks were compared. FACT FACTS Year […]
Champion Stadium / Atlanta Braves
The spring-training home of the Atlanta Braves, Champion Stadium (formerly known as Disney Field, Disney’s Wide World of Sports, Cracker Jack Stadium and The Ballpark at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex) is architecturally one of the flashier venues for spring training.It’s also one of the largest: with 9,500 seats (80 percent between the first […]
Coors Field / Colorado Rockies
Spend some time in Denver’s LoDo District and you’ll soon realize how homogenous the area is: the former warehouse area surrounding the train station is on a human scale (most buildings are three or four stories high), with darker brickwork the dominant architectural element. So the challenge facing the designers of Coors Field, the home […]
Comerica Park / Detroit Tigers
Comerica Park is never going to be as beloved or as celebrated as Tiger Stadium. It is a ballpark Donald Trump might like because there seems to be an endless font of ways for people to spend money. Owner Mike Ilitch looked at his club’s past and decided it had merit as a first course […]
Busch Stadium / St. Louis Cardinals
We really wanted to like Busch Stadium. It is, without a doubt, an improvement over the previous Busch Stadium. But despite a solid location and some nice amenities, too much value engineering and too little charm make it a nice, but not great, ballpark. FACT FACTS Year Opened: 2006 Capacity: 46,861 (includes suites and standing […]
Bright House Field / Philadelphia Phillies / Clearwater Threshers
When you replace a classic Florida State League ballpark, your new home had better be damned impressive. Ballparks fans shed a tear when the Phillies decided to replace Jack Russell Stadium with a new ballpark, but the replacement — Bright House Networks Field — is such a great facility, you’ll find yourself rarely yearning for […]
Chase Field / Arizona Diamondbacks
There is simply no escaping an air-conditioned existence if you spend any time in Phoenix in the summer: the desert atmosphere so welcome for spring training in March becomes rather tiresome by the beginning of June, when it’s just too damn hot to be outside. At the end of the day, air conditioning is perhaps […]
Angel Stadium / Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
There was a lot made about the Disneyfication of Angel Stadium in 1998, when then-Angels owner Disney Corp. hired Populous and cutting-edge architect Robert A.M. Stern to remodel the aging facility. Though hailed as a success — the former mixed-use facility was finally reconfigured to a baseball-only venue — one thing is crystal-clear now that […]
Drip, drip, drip: criticism of Mets, Citibank deal continues
Complaints continue to roll in about Citibank receiving U.S. bailout and then reaffirming its commitment to spend $400 million on Mets naming-rights deal.Complaints continue to roll in about Citibank receiving U.S. bailout and then reaffirming its commitment to spend $400 million on Mets naming-rights deal. Now, it’s not to the point where either corporation is […]
Marlins ballpark delayed until 2012
The Florida Marlins say legal challenges forced them to delay the opening of their new ballpark. Legal challenges to funding of a new Florida Marlins ballpark has forced the team to delay its opening for a year, to 2012. The decision came after team officials met with Hunt/Moss regarding construction timelines. That’s not a surprise: […]