Ballpark Changes in the Majors

Ballparks come and ballparks go.  Sometimes you feel like you can't tell the changes without a program!  Well, here's your own "program," compliments of BASEBALLPARKS.COM.  While there are no brand-new parks in the big leagues for 2005, there still are some interesting developments that relate to 2006 and beyond. When you're done reading about the Majors here, check out our summary of the Minor League parks that are new in 2005. There's a slew of them! You can also reminesce about 2004's new Major League parks. If you want to read our history lesson on how the Montreal Expos became the Washington Nationals, click here, and if you want an in-depth look at RFK Stadium, go here.

New parks and changes for 2006 and beyond . . . or maybe never!

THE CARDINALS

While teams in other cities make noises about moving if they don't receive a new park, there is no chance that baseball-mad St. Louis will ever be without their Cardinals!  The team announced that they hope to move into a new 47,900-seat park adjacent to Busch Stadium, which, by the way, will need to be demolished to make way for the new facility.  The Missouri legislature adjourned in May 2002 without approving the financing package the team wanted, and the team started making noises about leaving St. Louis to build a new ballpark elsewhere -- like in East St. Louis, Illinois.  This was a completely ludicrous notion, but the team tried to act serious about it just to gain some leverage.  I don't know if it worked, but an incredible story unfolded just before election day, November 5, 2002.  On that election day, St. Louis voters passed a proposition that any public contribution toward sports stadiums had to be approved by the voters ... but hours earlier, the Cardinals and the city completed a deal to build the new ballpark in St. Louis after all.  Does the new proposition apply to the new stadium deal for the Cards?  Nope.  Says the city's deputy mayor, "In essence, the (new) ballpark is grandfathered in."  To be fair, there will be a significant amount of private money in the stadium (in the article on the team's website, it emphasizes the private financing four times in the headline and opening paragraphs of the story), but the timing of the deal does smell fishy.  Another bump in the road occurred in April of 2003 when the Cards had to fire the firm that they'd hired to help them arrange private financing for the project.  Seems one of the principals at the firm has been named in a federal terrorism investigation.  Anyway, after all of the delays and bumps in the road, the new stadium had been pushed back two years from the original target date, meaning it will now open in April of 2006. Construction is now well underway. HOK, whose international headquarters are just a couple of blocks from the site, developed the design.

Designed by HOK, the Cards' new park will provide most spectators with a view of the famous St. Louis Arch. The construction photo on the right shows that the superstructure is in place, and the supports for seating are well underway. Photo courtesy of Nate Rohr, all rights reserved.

THE CUBS

While it's never a good idea to tinker with perfection, the Cubs are willing to risk it.  They are enlarging and enhancing the bleacher sections in the outfield of Wrigley Field, and adding a new building next door to house parking and retail space.  The team's proposal also requested that they be allowed to play more night games, which the neighbors vehemently oppose.  However, before they could move forward with the construction projects, several entities had to grant permission because, after all, Wrigley is a designated historic landmark.  Since the Cubs had so much trouble gaining approval, the remodeling was pushed back and pushed back. Finally, it looked like the work would be done before the 2005 campaign -- but countless legal and neighborhood challenges made that impossible, too.  One problem is that the city of Chicago refused to grant permission to have the necessary supports built for the expanded bleachers. Note that the proposed changes to the ballpark -- while not earth-shattering -- would change the look of (a) the bleachers, especially from the outside and (b) the nearly perfect brick backstop currently in use.  Another problem is that the city and the team locked horns over the safety of the concrete in the main seating bowl, after a couple of chucks of elderly cement fell on the seating sections in the lower deck in 2004. By the way, there was an interesting battle that brewied between the team and the owners of the buildings across Waveland Avenue and Sheffield, which border the back of the bleachers.  Those owners, naturally, wanted to continue the longstanding practice of allowing folks to watch the games from the roofs of those buildings.  The Cubs felt that this practice was tantamount to stealing their "product," and the accusations and legal posturing seemed endless.  Progress was made on two fronts as the Cubs entered the 2004 season:  they obtained the right to play a few more of their home games at night (22 in 2004, 26 in 2005 and 30 in 2006); and they reached a settlement with the majority of the owners of the buildings across Sheffield and Waveland. Finally in March 2005, the Cubs received all the approvals required to expand the bleachers (adding 1,790 seats and a restaurant) and to construct a new five-story structure (for parking, another restaurant and stores) directly next door. All of this work is expected to be completed by the beginning of the 2006 season.

THE MARLINS

All of the news on a new park for the Marlins had been bad for the past couple of years -- but suddenly good news surged into the lead.  First, a little background.  A proposal in December 2000 for a new ballpark in Miami ultimately fell through,  leaving the future of the Marlins in limbo for the next three years.  "Contracting" the entire franchise was even discussed.  Finally, in October 2003 (on the coattails of the Marlins' stunning win in the World Series), a series of new proposals and counter proposals were made.  One of these called for a $325-million retractable-roof ballpark within the city limits of Miami, possibly as part of a renovated complex at the Orange Bowl, just west of downtown.  As a consequence, a plan to change the name of the team to the Miami Marlins has been floating around.  Any hope that a new ballpark would be built anytime soon seemed to die, though, when the state legislature failed to approving funding.  Finally on April 29, 2004, as a team-imposed deadline loomed, a compromise of sorts was reached, as the team upped its pledge of support from $137 million to $157 million, and the city of Miami and Miami-Dade County arrived at an exact location (southwest corner of the Orange Bowl complex) and the means for financing the majority of the project.  The city would commit $28 million in tourist-development dollars and provide the property, and the county would pledge $120 million from two different tax sources.  That left a sizeable gap in the funding, so in January 2005, the Marlins (after a lenghty lobbying effort in Florida's state capitol) formally requested another $60 million in money from the state, which is a good bet to be approved. If so, the best-case scenario has the new facility opening next to the Orange Bowl in 2007.  In the meantime, though, the Marlins will continue to share the Miami Dolphins' football stadium, which received a new name for 2005. After years of being Pro Player Stadium, the name was changed to Dolphins Stadium. It's a perfectly good football stadium but not one that is conducive to baseball (leading the Dolphins' ownership to state publicly that the Marlins were going to be evicted from the stadium by 2010, meaning they had better find a new place to play). In addition, the neighborhood surrounding the Orange Bowl property is no longer, shall we say, all that desirable. I guess if you're the Marlins, you take what you can get.

THE TWINS

Another contraction target, until the August 2002 contract with the Players Union.  In fact, the only thing that stood in the way of both the Twins and Expos being wiped off the baseball map prior to the 2002 season was the court in Minnesota that ruled that the Twins couldn't break their lease at the Metrodome (which, interestingly, was in its last year).  Since then, the news about a new baseball-only ballpark for the Twin Cities has see-sawed almost by the day.  Would it be in downtown Minneapolis?  Or downtown St. Paul?  Would the state continue to change its mind about helping with the funding?  Interestingly, the team worked with HOK on a stadium design that wasn't site-specific, so that it could be built in either city.  It was amusing that when HOK unveiled the renderings of what the new retractable-roof facility would look like, one drawing showed the skyline of Minneapolis in the background, while another depicted downtown St. Paul.  Either way, this stunning 42,000-seat stadium -- quite reminiscent of Safeco Field in Seattle -- was predicted to cost around $450 million to build. This ballooned to $478 million when everything was delayed by another year.  News reports suggest that the infrastructure costs of preparing the land to build it would be higher in St. Paul than in Minneapolis, and indeed the momentum toward building a new park in the latter picked up when the Metrodome's landlord, the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, agreed to loan Hennepin County as much as $500,000 to negotiate a lease with the Twins for a new stadium, and to conduct an environmental study on a possible site for the new park in downtown Minneapolis. To most observers, it all hinges on the state legislature approving a sales-tax increase to fund the construction. If that happens, the Twins might have a new home by 2009.

Early in the process, HOK released designs for a retractable-roof ballpark that could be built in either St. Paul or Minneapolis.

THE ORIOLES  

A replacement for Camden Yards?  Well, not really -- although Oriole officials are talking about playing its spring exhibitions in "the Camden Yards of Florida," as it was called by one team executive.  The reason for the talk is that the team's spring-training lease in Ft. Lauderdale expired after the 2004 preseason, so since discussions with other Florida cities didn't bear (citrus) fruit, the Orioles are focusing on staying in sunny Ft. Lauderdale ... but with drastically improved facilities, including a new ballpark.  The O's are seeking between $7 and $15 million from the state of Florida, then chipping in their own money to make the plan a reality.  The team would then sign a 15-year lease to continue its springtime stay in Ft. Lauderdale. Interestingly, the state funding for this is tied to the deal for the Marlins new park.

NEW YORK METS AND NEW YORK YANKEES

"You can't underestimate the effect on civic pride and the economy of the city," said outgoing Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani, regarding a plan to build new stadiums for both the Mets and Yankees.  As he was about to leave office at the end of December 2001, Giuliani announced a plan to build a pair of retractable-roof stadiums, each costing about $800 million.  The new 45,000-seat park for the Mets, which could be completed as early as 2006, would be built in what is now a parking lot for Shea Stadium, the team's current home.  A new Yankee Stadium, meanwhile, would have 47,000 seats and be located in city-owned Macomb's Dam Park, which is across the street from the current ballpark.  It would be completed in 2007.  Under this plan, both teams would have to sign 35-year leases for their new stadiums, and each would have to pay $23 million a year to cover the debt service on the construction bonds the city would issue.  The plan announced by Giuliani was not binding on New York's new mayor, Michael Bloomberg, who had the authority to throw out the whole project if he chooses to.  Indeed, just seven days into his tenure as mayor, Bloomberg announced that the city would not be making significant expenditures on the new stadiums in 2002.  And on January 30th, several city council members introduced a resolution condemning Giuliani for jumping the gun in announcing the stadium deals.  By May, with momentum for the new stadiums having ground to a halt, an engineering study of Shea Stadium reported that the facility is in need of millions of dollars worth of repairs. 

The Yankees announced in June of 2005 that the "new" Yankee Stadium would indeed be built next door to the current structure (and be modeled after the original "House That Ruth Built" structure from the 1920s, with HOK being the lead archietects). Cost of the project: $800 million. Completion is expected by 2009. The Mets, meanwhile, had been banking that New York City would be named to host the 2012 Olympics so that a new Olympic stadium could be converted into a home for the Mets, just like in Atlanta. However, the IOC gave the games to Paris for 2012, which is a setback for the Mets.

THE ANGELS

Their regular-season home underwent a name change in 2004 (changing from Edison International Field to Angel Stadium of Anaheim), and for a while, the Angels were talking about another change:  moving to a new home for spring training.  The word out of Tempe, AZ had been getting louder and louder that the Angels weren't happy with the spring facilities there.  The city of Goodyear, west of Phoenix, wanted to be the next springtime home of the Halos, so much so that they held an election so the residents there could approave funding for a new baseball complex and stadium. Interestingly, Angels owner Arte Moreno owns land in Goodyear -- land that might be perfect for a baseball complex. Anyway, on Sept. 8, 2004, the residents of Goodyear voted to approve funding for a complex. The only problem is that the city of Tempe decided they didn't want the Angels to leave after all, and agreed to spend $8 million (which would be added to $12 million from the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority) to build additional fields and make significant upgrades to the current spring stadium in the complex. If the Angels ink a deal to stay in Tempe, don't be surprised to see the White Sox start negotiating to move out of Tucson and into the new complex in Goodyear.

THE ATHLETICS

When all of the contraction talk was heating up, there was some sentiment to eliminate the Athletics, since some felt that the Bay Area could only support one Major League team.  Well, the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum Authority is serious enough about building a new ballpark for the Athletics that they commissioned a major study by architectural heavyweights HOK-Sport to recommend sites.  A report delivered to the Authority in late 2001 presented findings on seven possible sites, three of which were later ruled out by the Oakland Alameda Joint Powers Authority.  All of this was in hopes that a new baseball-only facility for Oakland would be ready by 2006, but that was ridiculously optimistic. The momentum of that push, though, has emboldened the new managing partner of the A's, Lewis Wolff, to propose a massive mixed-use development surrounding a new ballpark for his A's. The location is just north of the site of their current home, McAfee Coliseum. This comes after a number of proposals for new parks in other parts of the Bay Area, several of which were clearly not feasible because they fell within the Giants' territorial rights. Making this 90-acre "ballpark village" a reality will face many hurdles. "The challenges are huge," Wolff said at the meeting where his plans were announced on August 12, 2005. As for the ballpark, Wolff is suggesting a very intimate size, one that would seat 35,000 at the most. The cost will most likely top $400 million, but Wolff indicated that the team would be willing to pick up the majority of it, just as the (now debt-ridden) Giants did with SBC Park across the Bay. Interestingly, HOK is now out of the equation, and 360 Architecture and Gensler Architects are working with the team on the "village" and stadium plans.

On the left is the ambitious 90-acre "ballpark village" project envisioned by the A's. The stadium is in the lower right. The highway is I-880, and the parking lot in the bottom right-hand corner is (surprise!) next to the A's current home, McAfee Coliseum. On the right is an early version of what the intimate, 35,000-seat park might look like. (Images from 360 Architecture/Gensler)

A summary of the almost-never-ending saga of the Montreal Expos . . .

We've had to change our write-up on where the Montreal Expos will end up playing many, many times.  The bottom line is that on December 29, 2004, the mayor of Washington signed a measure ensuring that the Expos would be playing in Washington, D.C.'s RFK Stadium in 2005, and that a new stadium would be completed for them by 2008. This followed a roller-coaster three-month period where the deal to move the team to D.C. was on again, off again, and back on again. On September 29, 2005, Major League Baseball had informed the city of Washington, D.C. that the Expos would indeed move to that city for the 2005 season, only to have MLB announce that move was off on December 22 after the D.C. Council placed requirements for private financing on the construction of the new facility. Within a week, the Council reversed itself, and the deal was back on.

This is the home of the Expos, now called the Washington Nationals, for three seasons while a new park is constructed.

The team is now called the Washington Nationals, and they are now playing the first of three seasons in a spruced-up RFK Stadium before moving into the new facility. The new park, which is being designed by a team headed by HOK and D.C.-based Devrouax & Purnell, will almost certainly be built near the intersection of South Capitol Street and Potomac Avenue. The Capitol will be visible from a number of the seats. Here's a map of the site (the park will be at the northeast corner of this intersection):

Map of Potomac Ave. SW At South Capitol St. SW
Washington, DC 20003

The Washington Post produced an excellent graphic of this area of town and what developers hope will sprout up around the new park.

For those of you wanting a historical perspective, here's a recap of the events that led up to the initial decision to move the team to D.C.:  under the Expos' former owner Claude Brochu, fans became disenchanted with a team that was constantly cutting payroll by sending its stars to other teams.  The lack of attendance pushed the team to the brink of moving to another city in 1998 and again in 1999 (Charlotte was a front-runner), when average attendance sagged to a horrific 9,547 a game.  However, a new ownership group was formed late in 1999.  This group consisted of 14 Canadian investors and one American -- and that American was New Yorker Jeffrey Loria, who happened to hold a higher percentage (24%) of the team's stock than any other single investor, making Loria the lead investor or "general owner."  Optimism swelled during the offseason between 1999 and 2000 that the new infusion of capital would result in higher payrolls and a public-private partnership to build a new ballpark.  Designs for an open-air park to open in downtown Montreal in 2002 were unveiled, and it appeared that the Expos were finally able to pronounce that they would stay in Quebec for the long haul.  However, severe disagreements among the owners over the team's payroll and whether the new stadium should have a $70-million retractable roof doomed any hope of a new ballpark.  Attendance continued to plummet at Olympic Stadium, dropping a staggering 30% from 2000 to 2001, meaning the Expos' average paid crowd was lower than eleven minor league teams!  Something had to give, and prior to the 2002 season, Major League Baseball bought and started to operate the Expos while Jeff Loria was allowed to purchase the Florida Marlins -- another struggling franchise, but at least it's warmer in South Florida than Quebec!  Also, the agreement between MLB and the players' union in August 2002 stated that no teams can be contracted during the duration of the contract, so the Expos franchise continued to operate. 

While the MLB-operated team played in Olympic Stadium in 2002 (when crowds exceeding 10,000 were met with great excitement!), the 2003 and 2004 seasons were split between Montreal and San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Major League Baseball, by the way, missed every self-imposed deadline on making a decision on where the Expos would make their permanent home.  Various ownership groups in Portland, OR, Las Vegas, NV (complete with an HOK-designed stadium on the drawing board), Washington, DC and in the Washington suburbs in Northern Virginia were all interested in landing this franchise -- but none were able to guarantee the huge sums of public money needed to build a shiny, new baseball palace for the vagabond franchise.  Major League Baseball even started recruiting cities, trying to build interest in bringing the Expos to places such as San Antonio and the Norfolk/Hampton Roads area of Virginia (it was thought that the latter might be able to tap into Commonwealth of Virginia money already earmarked for a ballpark that was proposed for Northern Virginia).  Even Monterrey, Mexico, a city of almost 4 million, had been in the running.  As the Expos franchise headed into the 2004 season, there was still no decision on a long-term home for the franchise, but slowly but surely, it seemed inevitable that the Nation's Capital (either in D.C. or in Northern Virginia near Dulles Airport) would end up with the team in the long run -- although by no means would even this move be without great controversy.  That's because the owner of the Baltimore Orioles, Peter Angelos, made a great deal of noise about the economic impact a team in the Washington area would have on his franchise. And attorney Angelos knows how to sue the pants off of entities like MLB.

All in all, this whole thing has been a total, undeniable mess for Big League baseball -- and in September, 2004, even after announcing that the team was heading to D.C., there remained obstacles within the D.C. Council and with Peter Angelos. But following the D.C. Council's move in December to require private financing for the new stadium, and its reversal the following week, Washington again has a big league team, and its home park (temporarily) will be RFK Stadium.

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