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Cit Field: I have never seen an outfield loaded with so much "stuff"....decks, stands, signage, boards....short of what's in Arlington. The whole park is entombed; there is no view outward (although I realize that it would end up looking out at some pretty depressing Queens real estate). Shea, for all its faults, was marvelously open in the outfield.The whole Jackie Robinson thing makes no sense. Robinson is an MLB icon; not a Mets icon since he had nothing to do with them. the team plays in Queens, not Brooklyn and it represents New York, not Brooklyn. And as far its roots go, including that orange and blue, those roots are as much Giant and Dodger.
Yankee Stadium: seems to me that you accomplish very little when you try to duplicate your predecessor. There are only two ballparks in MLB that are truly "stadiums" and were conceived as being majestic: Yankee Stadium and Dodger Stadium. Even with a half century under its belt, DS, IMHO, beats YS hands down. It's an original. It's sweeping and natural looking.
It's not that the two NY parks are bad, per se; it's just that they come in the "nothing special" category in my opinion.
I wanted to ask you opinion of Miller Park. I think it is a good park, although those seats way up are really "way up". I do get part of the fun of Miller Park comes from being in that sea of parking lots; there is no better place to tail gate in baseball and those parking lots are a lot more attractive and inviting than they were in the old CS days.
still, i would have liked to see a downtown park in Milw. I think Milw would have benefitted from that downtown location in the same way other cities have seen life infused into their downtown areas. Personally I think the location around the Harley museum would have been great....excellent freeway connections and capable of working a real energy with areas like the 3rd Ward and Walkers Point to the east.
I think a south downtown set up with a linear relationship, west to east, that would have extended from Pottawatomi to the Harley to where I would have placed Miller Park to the Third Ward and on to the Summerfest grounds and the lakefront would have been a blockbuster.
with Miller Park being mentioned I figured this was as good a spot as any for this video ... towards the end you have Giancarlo Stanton taking BP practicing for the derby with some monster shots there ... including one that worked it's way out of the building
with Miller Park being mentioned I figured this was as good a spot as any for this video ... towards the end you have Giancarlo Stanton taking BP practicing for the derby with some monster shots there ... including one that worked it's way out of the building
the only criticism i've heard of the place is that it is a bit cramped. Is that true?
I would characterize the general feel as intimate but certainly not cramped. The stadium was squeezed onto a pretty small footprint and at 8.5 acres it is the 2nd smallest (to Fenway?) in all of baseball, I've never felt cramped inside and the the open concourses leaves plenty of room to move about. It does seat nearly 40K and it reportedly has one of the closest lower seating bowls in the majors and has 20K less upper deck seats than the Metrodome did. Just under half (46%) of those 40,000 seats are considered infield seats. Aisles are wide as well as the rows and sections are generally only 12 to 18 seats wide, but my perspective is somewhat mangled from the Metrodome the previous 30 years. Reportedly, they could not have gone another 20 feet in any direction and fit the ballpark into the available space they had, making any thought of a retractable roof a non-starter.
these pics were taken prior to the opening back in 2010 but it provides some perspective of the open concourse areas behind the stands...
posting this shot again of the RF bleachers to give a perspective on just how little room was left between the stands and and existing parking ramp.
Even so, there's plenty of room to move about outside the stadium and the RF plaza (that Finger Laker alluded to) acts as the main entry and connects to the busiest part of downtown via a wide promenade that will continue to be developed as we move along.
taken also a few months before opening, they're bats that have vines (hops?) growing up them now and are lit up with LED lights that are suppose to strobe back and forth after a Twin dinger though I can't really say I recall that happening...
Got some more of some of the bars, clubs and restaurants that I can post later, I'd like to see some of the pics from other ballparks of the non-field areas including concourses and restaurants as well as areas outside the stadiums.
Kinda corny but I love the Minnie and Paul characters they revived from the old days at the Met in Bloomington.
they may have reached a bit on this "wind veil" thing outside the right field gate but it looks kinda cool when the wind is blowing and it's better than looking at the open parking ramp.
Ghengis....very nice pictures. your comment was funny. when i wrote the question, i actually thought that "cramped" was a negative, but that "intimate" was something good. then you confirmed the "intimate" part.
Yeah - i didn't find it to be cramped .... definitely a small footprint, but they made good use of it
I'm 6'5" and was comfortable in the seats - they face the right direction and while there are a lot of people, it's very open on the concourses and the areas while moving around
some nice views of downtown as well from the upper level
Open concourse seating that you see in some stadiums and arenas is the way to go. It gives things an open feel and you can get up and stretch your legs and not miss the action. I have not made it out the Target Field yet, but have heard great things about the park.
#1 on my list is Wrigley. It doesn't have the conveniences and amenities of the newer parks, but I love to sit there and watch a game when I can get out to Chicago!
Of the newer parks I have been to, I like PNC in Pittsburgh the best. It retains the smaller, more intimate feel of the older parks (like Wrigley, or Fenway), which a lot of the newer parks have failed to do. The view out to the downtown Pittsburgh skyline is terrific too!
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