Official Sports Stadiums Thread

[gene]

According to Wikipedia, there are only two west-facing professional baseball fields, Wahconah Park in Pittsfield, Mass. and Sam Lynn Ballpark in Bakersfield, Calif. I am familiar with Wahconah Park and a beautiful place it is. It was built in 1919 before ballpark lights and night games so games took place earlier in the day, long before sunset. Now with lights and night games, there is frequently a temporary suspension of games while the sun is setting because the sunset is directly into the eyes of batters. It is another nice little quirk in an already excellent site for a baseball game.

[NehemiahNesheim]

In Minneapolis the new U of M Gophers Stadium (TCF Bank Stadium) is under Construction





*These images are from the U of M TCF Bank Stadium Website:http://www1.umn.edu/stadium/tcf.php*

[TXLove]

^^^Thats a nice looking stadium!!!!

[NehemiahNesheim]

*Image from:http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com*


*Images from:http://www.twinsballpark2010.com/bas...ium/Home.html*

How about the new Twins Ballpark thats going to be compleated in 2010.

**http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/min/b...and_sounds.jsp**

[TXLove]

^^^Even nicer!!!!

[the dude]

beautiful stadium. too bad about the parking garage, though.

[Jemmba]

oh ,those are very good stadiums,but i perfer soccer stadiums,especially the rose

[osmo]

Originally Posted by Tigerbitch

Am I missing something here? Maybe its my Cincinnati "can't-do" mentality, but what do others see in Great American that makes it a cut above some of the other retro parks (which, in theory, are just a re-hash of the 1960s-70s cookie-cutter type stadia only with better ameneties aka "Since everyone else has one, we've gotta have one too!").

As far as I'm concerned, the story of Great American Ballpark is modern-day Cincinnati in a nutshell: They had the opportunity to build something great (a la a "Place of the Fans" for the 21st Century) in Broadway Commons, or even a ballpark with an outfield that faced Downtown Cincinnati, but in typical fashion, the damn park was built with a view of the wrong side of the Ohio, and despite the sea of red seats (they're the Cincinnati Reds, go figure!), the building's mix of white and concrete (No green? No red beyond the seats? No multicolored seating as an homage to Riverfront ?) is dreadfully sterile compared to modern parks that were built right (Camden Yards or PNC, for example).

i agree with you 100% honestly cincy dropped the ball with there ballpark.. its ugly.. faces the wrong side and looks cheapish.. like it was rushed or something..pual brown stadium looks very nice and has a future-ish kind of look.. GAballpark.. looks like a crappy minor league park.. that was one of the last retro style parks and it just look like it got on the trend to late.. bush stadium turned out great but i feel that has been in planing for a long time and im sure they had a insane amount of funds to work with... im happy the new twins park and nationals park in DC are jumping off the retro trend

pittsburgh,san franscisco,and baltimore,seattle got it right.. they rest are ugly IMO for the retro styled parks

[osmo]

twins ball park looks great... i really liked the old proposal tho



images are from ballparks.com

[rsbear]

Originally Posted by Stephenapolis

^
Yes there are rules one which way a stadium can face. Usually it is NE. I canno think of any stadium where at home plate you are not facing NE-E.

PGE Park - Portland. Seating about 25,000. Home plate faces southeast.

[Rambam]

Great for the Gophers and Twins. Are the Vikings still going to be stuck with the nasty old Metrodome? Or has there been anything official for a new NFL stadium?

What's the capacity for the Gopher's stadium?

[Buckeye Native 001]

Originally Posted by osmo

i agree with you 100% honestly cincy dropped the ball with there ballpark.. its ugly.. faces the wrong side and looks cheapish.. like it was rushed or something..pual brown stadium looks very nice and has a future-ish kind of look.. GAballpark.. looks like a crappy minor league park.. that was one of the last retro style parks and it just look like it got on the trend to late.. bush stadium turned out great but i feel that has been in planing for a long time and im sure they had a insane amount of funds to work with... im happy the new twins park and nationals park in DC are jumping off the retro trend

pittsburgh,san franscisco,and baltimore,seattle got it right.. they rest are ugly IMO for the retro styled parks

Paul Brown is great, its just a shame it hosts the Bengals...

On the plus side, there's been talk of building an arena either near or in the same spot where the Broadway Commons ballpark was planned. The city hopes it'll be a shot in the arm for Over-the-Rhine, and with the Main Street bars only a few blocks away, it might actually work, especially after concerts and whatnot. Maybe someone like the Bearcats could jump on board, but I doubt they'd leave Fifth/Third Arena (built in 1989).

Still, with Riverfront Coliseum (US Bank Arena, renovated about ten years ago), Cincinnati Gardens, the Cintas Center (Xavier University), and Fifth/Third Arena (UC), its not like Cincinnati has a dearth of indoor sporting venues.

[jeffwhit]

I was looking through the HOK Sport website and found this gem. The (a?) new Devilrays stadium.

All renderings by HOK Sport:











34000 seats, LEED and apparently opening in 2012.

More photos and videos here: http://www.majorleaguedowntown.com/default.aspx

[Buckeye Native 001]

Nice looking stadium, but why are the Rays getting a new ballpark? Granted Tropicana Field is a dump, but they've only been playing there for ten years.

[Stadiums]

I'd agree with people who say that European skyscrapers are modest in compare to North American, I believe Europe has best stadiums in the world, my favorite 'Emirates Stadium' in London, home of Arsenal F.C.

It's a harmonic combination of opposites, it looks huge still seats 'only' 60.000 spectators, from outside it looks like it's a closed facility (arena-like) but with detached roof it's really an open-space vanue, roof is in strickt lines while stadium sides are whirley, looks great in the evening games with the light decor and all...

It costed around $800 million, finished in 2006 and is a pricey place to attend games there: Category B tickets from $60-120, Category A from $80 and above, the stadium is almost always sold out for Arsenal's over 30 home games in a season.

[urbanactivist]

Houston area stadia

The Astrodome: the Grandaddy of all enclosed stadia...

[img]http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A9G_bDsrx95HPEcA_Y.jzbkF/SIG=12ltu6pb3/EXP=1205868715/**http%[/img]
Courtesy Johhny Roadtrip http://www.johnnyroadtrip.com/cities.../astrodome.jpg

It's of course been used for sports, but also more pressing concerns. B/c of Katrina, the Astrodome still has its own zipcode.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennycu/40603271/

Reliant Arena- Home of the Houston Texans, and upcoming host to NBA Sweet 16....

[img]http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A9G_bF7hyd5Hh5MAP1OjzbkF/SIG=1243r6gg8/EXP=1205869409/**http%3A//www.selenaforever.com/images2/Reliant.jpg[/img]
http://www.selenaforever.com/images2/Reliant.jpg


as always in Houston, a retractable roof
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobnaud/246819542/

Minute-Maid Park...


http://www.flickr.com/photos/j-a-x/2062528279/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/94283635@N00/5215918/

[img]http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A9G_bHPtzd5H5QUAcU2jzbkF/SIG=13sdjim1e/EXP=1205870445/**http%3A//www.worldstadiums.com/stadium_pictures/north_america/united_states/texas/houston_minute_maid1.jpg[/img]
http://www.worldstadiums.com/stadium...nute_maid1.jpg

[Ayreonaut]

Originally Posted by Tigerbitch

Nice looking stadium, but why are the Rays getting a new ballpark? Granted Tropicana Field is a dump, but they've only been playing there for ten years.

I think it's got something to do with a battle between Tampa and St. Petersburg.

[Siriusly]

Originally Posted by Stadiums

This rendering had me thinking Cole and Viera re-signed for a minute...

[Owlhorn]

Originally Posted by Stadiums

I'd agree with people who say that European skyscrapers are modest in compare to North American, I believe Europe has best stadiums in the world, my favorite 'Emirates Stadium' in London, home of Arsenal F.C.

It's a harmonic combination of opposites, it looks huge still seats 'only' 60.000 spectators, from outside it looks like it's a closed facility (arena-like) but with detached roof it's really an open-space vanue, roof is in strickt lines while stadium sides are whirley, looks great in the evening games with the light decor and all...

It costed around $800 million, finished in 2006 and is a pricey place to attend games there: Category B tickets from $60-120, Category A from $80 and above, the stadium is almost always sold out for Arsenal's over 30 home games in a season.

It costs in the $350 million range when it was built and it really doesn't look bigger than 60,000. The stands are very short and not steep. Its a prototypical modern European stadium(too much roof emphasis with a plain seating bowl)

[Siriusly]

Originally Posted by Owlhorn

It costs in the $350 million range when it was built and it really doesn't look bigger than 60,000.

It costed 430 million pounds, which at that time was around 800 million dollars.