Keeping Stadium Neighborhoods Alive in the Off-Season

There’s only one thing more depressing come October than the end of baseball season: the sight of an empty ballpark. All those vacant seats, the hot-dog concessions closed, the field empty, and the gates padlocked until the following spring. It’s a bitter scene for baseball lovers.

But it’s an economic conundrum for cities, too.

 Progressive Field in Cleveland may have come up with the best solution yet to the empty ballpark. Last year for the first time, the team converted the field into a vast winter playground. The Indians laid an ice track around the field for skaters and built a snow-tubing hill from the bleachers onto the outfield. “Snow Days” drew to downtown Cleveland last winter about 50,000 people who otherwise would have been bundled up at home. And because Progressive Field sits nestled in the city’s downtown (when it was constructed in the early 1990s, planners intentionally spurned surface parking lots), the event fed into the surrounding entertainment district and restaurants.

  Here's the article.

Marlins Ballpark Update

The new ballpark in Miami is starting to come together. It looks really small, at 37,000 people, but I think it will look good in the end...

...other than the home run celebration thing...

Yeah, every home run hit by the Marlins, this thing will go off a-la apple at Citi Field. Here's a youtube video. Yuck. Hopefully Mike Stanton does his thing on the road.

BC Place for the Whitecaps

One little update on the last post, the Whitecaps tarped off the upper deck. I had to find this out after I called bullshit the picture below.

http://www.whitecapsfc.com/news/2011/10/vancouvers-bell-pitch-downtown-featured-fifa-12 The Whitecaps are saying that the new BC Place will be on Fifa 12. I saw it, and figured they had a generic stadium and called it BC Place because the upperdeck and windows weren't there. Turns out it's legit, and you can now play there on Fifa 12, the only MLS stadium in the game.

The New BC Place Stadium

This is actually pretty funny. I was looking at some stadiums on worldstadiums.com, and was looking at Vancouver. I knew they were renovating BC Place stadium, and so I looked it up. Turns out, the first game played there with the new renovations took place Friday. The BC Lions hosted Edmonton and won 33-24. Then the Vancouver Whitecaps hosted the Portland Timbers today, but lost 1-0.

The renovations took place from April 2010 to September 2011. All together, over $150 million took place in major renovations. These included seating replacements, washroom and concessions renovations, and replacement of the ETFE roof with a new retractable roof. The work was done in two phases. The first phase involved upgrades to seating, washrooms, concessions, and luxury suites, as well as the reinforcement of the existing ring beam at the top of the building and was completed in October 2009. Work on the retractable roof began in May 2010, shortly after the completion of the 2010 Winter Paralympics and the final deflation of the air-supported roof. 1,140 tv screens were added, and the second largest hanging video board is located hanging above the field(only Dallas has a bigger one.)

Originally built in 1983, it was one of those crappy generic domes like the SIlverdome, RCA dome, and Metrodome. In one of the videos below, the host said when he played, the air just seemed to sit and it felt like you were running through mud. The stadium was always known to be very loud, but it wasn't that state of the art. The Winter Olympic ceremonies took place there, which is probably the biggest moment. Unless you think 7 Grey Cups might contend. The dome actually collapsed Metrodome style in 2007, not because of snow however.

Empire Field is a temporary stadium that housed the Lions and 'Caps for the last two and a half seasons. They built it in... 3 months. Which is very speedy. Especially for a stadium with 27,500 seats. Sure, it probably wasn't that amazing, but it's impressive. The stadium will be torn down now that BC Place is all new and shiny. So from now on, the Lions and Whitecaps will play games at the new stadium, and it really looks great. The 2011 Grey Cup will be hosted there, and that should be very nice.

 Here are some videos on the renovations from the BC Lions' website.
Second level, concessions- http://bclions.com/video/index/id/21033
Fourth level, seating, presentation, and roof- http://bclions.com/video/index/id/20997
The field, and scoreboard- http://bclions.com/video/index/id/20971
Gates, and locker room- http://bclions.com/video/index/id/20949

Stadium Report Card: Everbank Field

Our friend Nick went to the Jags-Titans game and did a report card for Everbank Field for y'all.

Team: Jacksonville Jaguars
Location: Jacksonville, FL
League: National Football League(AFC South)
Built: 1997
Capacity: 76, 867
My event: Regular Season Game, vs Tennessee Titans

1. Outdoor Design

The exterior has a nice façade made of glass and features a statue of a jaguar named “Touchdown” sitting in front of it. The Everbank Field logo is on the top of the façade as well as plastered around the top of the stadium. Nothing else really stuck out though.
6/10

2. Indoor Design

The interior looks really good especially with the Bud Light Party Zone added to it when the stadium hosted the superbowl. You can tell you are at a Jaguars game with the look and feel of the interior. Teal blue seats, the “Pride of the Jaguars” Ring of Honor featuring Jaguar great Tony Bosselli honored in it. There are lots of activities for people of all ages. Just wish the field walls had a unique design to them instead of black with the helmet logo.
7/10

3. Prices
Very inexpensive for an NFL game. The Jaguars have probably one of the least expensive ticket prices. $75 a ticket for section 100 seats, in my mind that’s real good. Food prices were average for a sporting event. 7/10

4. Food
They had your typical stadium food of burgers, chicken, nachos, and hot dogs but they also had a Sonny’s stand and different variations of everything. I had a big plate of chicken tenders and fries, the chicken was spicy and it was good, I only wish I could have tried all of the food.
8/10

5. Staff
The staff was very friendly. They talked to you and helped you if needed. At the end of the game someone stole my souvenir cup and when we found a stand that had the cup my dad was willing to buy it but the manager just gave it to me for free. Great service.
9/10

6. Cleanliness
For a stadium almost 15 years old it was very neat and well kept.
8/10

7. Parking
the only downside to the day. My dad went with me and he needs handicap parking. The handicap section was at a baseball field across the street from Everbank and we still had to walk to the gates. If I didn’t have to pay $25 to walk the same distance we would have walked from the $10 garages I might not have been as mad.
2/10

8. Atmosphere
I’ve heard people say that Jaguar fans don’t care about the team. WRONG!!! The crowd was very into it the whole game. They love this team and support them. Every first down you can hear the famous Jaguar home game chant “MOVE THOSE CHAINS, MOVE THOSE CHAINS, MOVE THOSE CHAINS, MOVE EM!!!!!! The 9/11 tributes also made this a very emotional experience. The pre-game and half time ceremonies were very touching. In the end the crowd was loud and having fun, especially when the Jags won a nail biter..
9/10

9. Playing Surface

It was good. Nothing special but no complaints about it.
7/10

10. Scoreboard
There are two identical scoreboards, one on each end of the field. Both were good quality, full of ads, and solid. 7/10

Overall I give Everbank Field a 76 of 100.

Extreme Sun Life Stadium Makover

So the Marlins are officially out of this stadium for good. After their entire history in a football stadium that just happens to fit baseball there, the Marlins will move to their new stadium. Everyone down there is excited, which makes me jealous, but it's still nice to look at.

Stadium Report Cards: Louisville Slugger Field

Team: Louisville Bats
Location: Louisville, KY
League: International League(West)
Built: 2000
Capacity: 13,131
My event: Regular Season Game, vs Indianapolis Indians

1. Outdoor Design

By now, you should know I like bricks. This was really cool. The area like this was a huge hall, and actually had a wedding set up there. The ticket windows and stuff were inside that. So it was like this was a separate building entirely, but I loved this.
8/10

2. Indoor Design

Also cool. A bug lower deck, overhang seats, with box seats above that. The outfield(scroll down) was nicely put together. It just was a cozy ballpark.
8/10

3. Prices
For a AAA park, it was pretty good. The ones online say 10 for where we thought. I thought it was higher, but it was okay. The 59fifties were 32, when they're normally cheaper at minor league parks.
7/10

4. Food
You know already. They did have local made ice cream that was really good. So better than average!
6/10

5. Staff
They did have some ticket Nazis, but they were nice about it. I found my seat, and the old man who showed me to my seat actually wiped it down. I thought it was nice of him. The store people were pretty cool too, even thought I didn't buy anything.
8/10

6. Cleanliness
It was solid. Some parts were iffy, but overall good.
7/10

7. Parking
A lot of people parked for free right behind the left field wall, on the street. but there wasn't much of other parking that I saw.
7/10

8. Atmosphere
I liked it! The team was about 8 back, but the crowd was into the game. They had their guys who's limit is AAA ball, and they all loved their team. Also the one guy who is obnoxious and tries to start every cheer. He was there.
8/10

9. Playing Surface

Kentucky Bluegrass. Get it?
8/10

10. Scoreboard

There was a video board, and a scoreboard. You can see both above, but no complaints, but the video board was shotty at points.
7/10

74! I love AAA parks. Theyre just a nice atmosphere with local flair, and no huge names. That's the last one from my trip, and for the first time, the home team was undefeated. A perfect 4-0, and 7-2 on all my trips.