News, Should the Tiger stadium be demolish?

[STLCardsBlues1989]

Why demolish it? Is it that bad?

I mean, if you can put some other team in there why tear it down? And if you have to tear it down, are their plans to build something great on it? Or is it just going to be an empty lot for a long time?

I hate to see historic buildings go if they can be rehabilitated. They're hard to replace. I've never been to Detroit, but, as one poster said, "leveling it all" doesn't seem to be the answer to me. Surely any city has historic buildings that can be saved. Why tear them down for subdivisions that all look the same or for a parking lot? I'd think there's enough slums to tear down instead.

[downthathighway]

...Detroit and Wayne County were 'strong armed' into building a new ballpark to 'compete' with other venues in the country. 'Mr Detroit' Ilich implied the Tigers could leave the city, fielded offers from other cities.
...Now, here's your new ballpark, don't it make the old one look terrible, let's forget about (read neglect) that old place.- Same tactic used when new Ford Field built for football. And Silverdome was built in 1970's !
...For those with longer memories- early 70's, Tigers' owner Fetzer complained of Tiger Stadium maintenance costs, gave stadium to the city. A ticket surcharge was added to defray maintenance costs. It COULD have been maintained to this day but could not have been renovated to add 'skyboxes', private suites, etc.
...The Lion's played there for years, though the stadium was really not the best for football. The city and CAY blew off plans for building a new football stadium in Detroit. Also ignored the Pistons, forcing them to also move, and play at Silverdome until they built their own arena.
...Yet whatever Ilich wants,... As new owner of Red Wings, he got a new arena built for him (it's already 'junk status'?, destined to rot as Tiger Stadium does)

[UpperPeninsulaRon]

Originally Posted by MWeirich22

I visited Detroit Tiger Stadium back in 1990. It was the best stadium that I have ever been to. It should be saved for future baseball fans as a stadium. Demolition is not a solution. Demolition creates waste, destroys history, and leads to global warming. I hope to see it preserved as a stadium! I visited Detroit just to see the stadium. People come back to city's to see landmarks not new developments. In NewYork City, people remember landmarks such as the Empire State Building, not the next Walgreens are apartment development. Hope to see Tiger Stadium preserved!

Michael

First of all, Detroit has never believed in preserving anything with historical significance. Cities that have kept historic buildings and places with historical value as a part of their on-going plan can pull things like this off. Detroit has never believed in that philosophy. Does anyone remember the GOP convention held in Detroit years ago? I remember the city placing brightly painted signage around old buildings to be demolished saying "Site of Historical Preservation". They never intended to preserve them - only wanted the PR value of their sham.

Play baseball again? I don't know if you've heard, but there is a place where the Tigers currently play ball. Should we vacate that property?

And demolition causes global warming! Come on. Give me a break.

I'm glad you visitied Detroit to see Briggs Stadium. I'll bet you are one of a handfull that made that pilgrimage.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

This is from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch message board. Somebody posted his memories:

The last year that the Tigers played in Tiger Stadium, I was fortunate enough to see a four game series with the Mariners, featuring Griffey, ARod, and the rest.

A friend and I drove from Iowa in time to catch the first game of a rain out make up double header. We had media passes and sat in the tiny press box, directly above home plate. There weren't many working media at the first game, as it was the make up game from the rain out the night before.

Shortly after the game started, Ernie Harwell, the HOF announcer for the Tigers walked in and took a seat right next to me. He was doing TV play by play only, and this game wasn't on TV. So he sat with us and gave us a nice history of the stadium, as well as himself. He told us how home plate used to be where left field was located. He told of us of interviewing Babe Ruth. He referred us to a great Greek restaurant in Windsor, run by a friend of his. We went there that night and mentioned his name to the owner, who gave us complimentary wine and dessert, and showed his private little memorabilia room.

Over the course of the weekend, my friend and I got to interview the players in the post game lockerroom. All I could think about was our Cardinals having dressed there in the tiny cramped quarters over thirty five years earlier.

Watched a naked, and incredibly obese Lou Pinella do his post game interview in front of men and women, all while holding and eating a plate of post game dinner.

Tried to interview Griffey, who was a smug jerk the entire time. Jay Buhner was an even bigger dick than Griffey. But ARod was a very kind, thoughtful young man who ansered all of my questions about old ballparks.

Met Kurt Gibson, who was a loud, profance color guy for the Fox Network that Saturday.

Also got to roam the field between games, sit in the teeny tiny dugout. The pitchers bullpen dugout was well below ground, and a true relic of the past glory days of baseball.

Also climbed to the top of the old ballyard to sit in those upper tiered bandshell boxes, which nobody was allowed to use in the final years of the stadium.

The ballpark itself was in pretty great shape, much better than Wrigley. But the surrounding neighborhood was scary dangerous, as was the entire city. At least to this Iowan's eyes.

Sorry for the long post, but my trip to this storied old haunt was so memorable that I had to share some of the stories from that great weekend.

I thought you might find them interesting.

[Dexterguy]

I am believe that it should come down, because the city will never move forward with a restoration process anyway. That would take them another 10 YEARS! Tiger Stadium could have been saved 5-9 years ago, but the city let it basically root all those years. It would be better at this point to tear it down and start new development in Corktown. It will make Corktown look like a better place to live.