|
Baseball Park Trends
by Kate Bongiovanni, Journalism Student at
Northwestern University
The grid of bright fluorescent lights used for night games stood quiet and
still. The blue old-fashioned stadium seats were empty, waiting for the fans to
arrive. The groundskeeper padded across the soft green carpet, watching the mist
sprinkle across the outfield grass.
The turnstiles were polished until they gleamed silver. The concession
stands were opened, and the countertops wiped clean until a reflection appeared
on the surface. Workers raised umbrellas and popped hot dogs and sausages onto
the grill, their familiar scent penetrating the breezeway.
The pitter-patter of feet echoed through the stadium while people shuffled
to their seats. From the breezeways, they cast glances toward the infield where
the dirt lay flat and groomed, waiting for someone to step in it with his sharp
spikes. The sound of baseballs smacking against soft leather radiated throughout
the stadium.
As the fans take their seats, they can look out across the field and see a
Rocky Mountain sunset, the Houston skyline or the San Francisco bay.
New baseball stadiums with a nostalgic feel are popping up in major league
cities, replacing stadiums that need extensive renovation and the all-purpose
"doughnut-shaped" stadiums from the 1960s and 1970s. These parks are
for baseball only and feature open-air breezeways, unobstructed seating and
modern amenities.
Comiskey Park, home of the Chicago White Sox, made the Sox one of the
first teams to move into a new stadium and shut the doors to baseball’s oldest
ballpark. It opened in 1991, a mere 81 years after the original Comiskey Park
opened its doors. Now, nine years later, 10 new ballparks have been built and
plans are in progress for eight more.
"The trend in all of this is to build nice parks with nice amenities
which look old," said Joe Mock, webmaster of BASEBALLPARKS.com.
But Mock said that the renaissance in ballpark design began with Oriole
Park at Camden Yards, which opened in 1992. It looked like an old-fashioned
ballpark with its brick exterior and the Camden Yards warehouse next door became
a signature item.
Mock said that each ballpark has a signature object that defines it. At
Coors Field in Denver, it’s the Rocky Mountain sunset; in Texas, the Ballpark
in Arlington created its own visual backdrop in its setup; Kauffman Stadium in
Kansas City, Mo., features fountains in center field; Enron Field in Houston
looks at the skyline and sports a steam locomotive that chugs along. Each new
park has something that separates it from other parks. However, Mock said that
Comiskey lacks a signature item and old-fashioned look.
"Comiskey is the most antiseptic sports facility ever
conceived," Mock said. "They were looking for the cheapest way in
design and location. There are all kinds of things they could have done to make
it a better baseball experience."
Mock suggested moving the stadium downtown rather than having it on
Chicago’s south side. Most parks are being built closer to downtown than they
were in the past. He thought the park should open to the north so fans could see
the Chicago skyline. Also, many parks face to the north to keep the sun out of
the batters’s eyes.
However, Mock agreed that a new stadium needed to be built.
"Old Comiskey needed to be redone badly," Mock said. "They
squeezed everything they could out of that structure."
Mike Barrett of Grosse Pointe, Mich. remembered going to old Comiskey Park
in 1974 and seeing the paint peel off the front of the building.
"It was old and needed to be torn down," Barrett said. "It
wasn’t taken care of--it needed to be painted and the railings were all
shaky."
Old Comiskey was deteriorating and it lacked modern features such as
luxury boxes, access for those with disabilities, adequate bathrooms and wide
walkways.
"Old Comiskey Park had reached a point in its existence where a
deteriorating infrastructure made the facility difficult and costly to
maintain," said Scott Reifert, director of public relations for the White
Sox.
For ten years, the White Sox complained about wanting a new park built,
Mock said. In the 1980s, the team threatened to leave Chicago twice if a new
stadium wasn’t built. A new park was built in St. Petersburg, Fla., where the
Tampa Bay Devil Rays currently play, to lure the White Sox.
But a new stadium was finally built for the team in Chicago with modern
features. Reifert said new Comiskey offers quality seating with no posts, wide
aisles, seats focused on infield action, ample parking, a concourse where fans
can see the action from anywhere in the park and modern suites. If this isn’t
enough, Comiskey continues to improve.
"Every year, White Sox officials have toured new ballparks, stadiums
and entertainment venues looking for new and fresh ideas to improve the quality
of our fan experience at the ballpark," Reifert said.
The park has added FUNdamentals where kids can participate in baseball
clinics and drills run by White Sox Training Center staff before home games, The
Bullpen Sports Bar and the Pregame Patio area, Reifert said.
"We continue to maintain a ‘wish list’ of ideas, big and small,
for projects that will improve a fan’s experience at the ballpark,"
Reifert said. "One idea we are investigating involves using a naming rights
partnership to allow for major renovations to update and upgrade what is now a
10-year-old facility."
To the skeptical fans, these improvements are key and will be welcomed.
"I didn’t think it (Comiskey) really had anything special going for
it," said Rob Kennerson, webmaster of roadtrip99.com, who visited every
major league ballpark last summer. "Most of the other new parks look and
feel new and different than the parks built during the ‘70s for example, but
Comiskey really didn’t."
But to other fans, new Comiskey is an asset to the team and a far cry from
its predecessor.
"Comiskey had a good atmosphere," said Nick Cohen, a baseball
fan from Bloomfield Hills, Mich., traveling on a six-park road trip. "It
was very impressive looking without being too overimposing."
Comiskey Park may not show the Chicago skyline, offer an amusement park
like Comerica Park or have Enron Field’s giant Conoco gas pump that counts
home runs. It may not have brick work like Safeco Field in Seattle and it may
not be surrounded by downtown skyscrapers, but it still captures the game of
baseball.
Cohen said, "I think that it’s missing some of the splendor of the
newer parks, but it’s still a very good place to watch a baseball game."
Return to Baseball Essays page
| 