Comments on: 15,115

By: pjk

pjk — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 18:54:25 +0000

…Never mind that A’s-Yankees games are anything but a true reflection of how much support the A’s have since half the crowd is rooting for the Yankees. At the last Yankees series, I had some Yankees fans getting upset with me for making fun of Alex Rodriguez. We’re not supposed to make fun of the other team’s players? OK.

By: Nam Turk

Nam Turk — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 16:53:40 +0000

So that’s at least 7,000 people discouraged by tarps? Tragic.

By: pjk

pjk — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 14:52:41 +0000

excuse me – 7,000 short of a sellout

By: pjk

pjk — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 14:52:15 +0000

Team is winning, Yankees are in town, it’s a weekend game, tickets are cheap and…17,000 short of a sellout. I’m sure some people will still find a way to blame Wolff…

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 03:45:35 +0000

Hey 28,142 tonight. Almost a great number, until you remember they were playing the Yankees and those games used to be sure things to sell out or near sell out on weekends.

By: Dan

Dan — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 20:58:12 +0000

In Wrigley and Fenway it’s fitting given the early 20th century surroundings. They’re charming or quaint if uncomfortable for the average American ass these days. In a giant 60′s donut clone stadium they just seem lazy, old and out of place and just add to the stadium’s overall neglected feel. They’re not like the seats in Wrigley, or particularly Fenway that have been updated, repaired, and cared for. At RFK they’re only there because DC is too broke and too disinterested in doing anything to replace them since they’ve fully expected to demolish RFK stadium for the last 20 years and have just not got around to doing it (again because they don’t have the money to do it).
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And yeah I forgot Baltimore on that list as well. Given it’s similarities in design with Cleveland I’d probably list it along with Cleveland in that strange 30′s-50′s transition period between the turn of the century parks like Shibe and Fenway, and the multipurpose/donut clone stadiums of the 60′s-80′s. Though strictly speaking both were designed to be multipurpose, just with more emphasis on baseball than the stadiums that came later. Which again makes sense when you consider football’s growing popularity. Cleveland (1932) and Baltimore (1949) were more heavily favoring baseball, RFK (1961) still favored baseball slightly but was much more neutral, the donuts starting with the Astrodome in it’s original configuration (1965) and Coliseum (1966) were even more neutral, then the Atlanta/Cinergy/Three Rivers/Veterans quadruplets were nothing but neutral, and by the time the last multipurpose stadium was built with the Metrodome (1982) the emphasis had swung almost completely to football.
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Also we forgot Arlington Stadium on both our lists. The overheated poor man’s minor league based version of the Coliseum. I’d probably slot it in just below RFK on my list.

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 18:20:03 +0000

Yeah, I was thinking Cleveland and Baltimore could have been on there as well. I guess I should have noted that I put the Astrodome where it was based on its ’65-’88-or-so configuration before the upper deck went all the way around. After that, I’d put it near the bottom. I was also counting Busch before the ’90′s renovations (as it wasn’t multipurpose after that given the lack of a football team).
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I guess I like RFK because the stands are actually shaped like a baseball field, instead of being circular or square/rectangular like the rest of the stadia on this list. And don’t people love Fenway and Wrigley because of the wooden seats?

By: Dan

Dan — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 04:49:39 +0000

See I’d rate them differently. Never liked Shea’s ridiculously high/steep stands, enclosed concourse and heavily partitioned seating area (not to mention the planes constantly flying over). I’d also give the old Coliseum for the nod over San Diego Stadium just because it had a full set of real bleachers that SD Stadium didn’t have until the Jack Murphy Stadium upgrades in the 80′s.
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As for RFK, maybe it’s because I went late in it’s life, but that place is an absolute toilet and would be near the bottom of any of my lists. It actually makes the Coliseum look good even in the Coliseum’s current compromised state. I mean come on RFK has wooden seats, lacks true luxury suites which even the old Coliseum had (not to mention the walkways to it’s “luxury suites” are those scary ass acrobatic bridges), and most of your view from what should be choice behind the plate seats is of nothing but the back of the press boxes. Not to mention most of the RFK concourse on the first level is enclosed unlike the old Coliseum before the Raiders had those damned fences put up. And the run down neighborhood is the cake topper.
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I’d probably rate the multipurpose stadiums as follows:

Oakland Coliseum (pre-95)
Jack Murphy Stadium
Busch Stadium (post 90′s renovations)
San Diego Stadium
Shea Stadium
Skydome
(Anaheim Stadium)
Cinergy Field (during it’s last years with the outfield opened up)
Qualcomm Stadium
Network Associates/McAfee/O.co Coliseum
Atlanta-Fulton County
(Candlestick Park)
RFK Stadium
Busch Stadium (pre 90′s renos)
Astrodome
Kingdome
Metrodome
Veterans Stadium
Three Rivers Stadium
Riverfront Stadium
Olympic Stadium
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I just can’t forgive pure outdoor stadiums that have fake grass. At least domes had an excuse. Also in theory Cleveland Stadium could be considered the first multipurpose however it had more in common with Milwaukee Co. Stadium than the 60′s-80′s donuts. And while Dolphin Stadium has a lot in common with the Metrodome it was built as a football stadium first and foremost and wasn’t supposed to be a long term home for the Marlins despite what actually happened. And of course Candlestick and Anaheim Stadium while multipurpose for a chunk of their respective lives were built as baseball stadiums first and foremost but as they were multipurpose for quite a while (particularly Candlestick) I’ve slotted them in where they’d fit.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 03:59:22 +0000

I’d actually put the old Oakland Coliseum as the best of the multi-purposes. I thought it was clearly better than Jack Murphy and about even with Shea.

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 03:02:01 +0000

I would say Shea Stadium was better than the old Coliseum. San Diego was probably better pre-1980′s renovations as well (when it was San Diego Stadium before Jack Murphy and way before Qualcomm).
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I would rate the true multipurposes in this order (including Skydome as a true multipurpose as I don’t see why it wouldn’t be):
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Shea Stadium
San Diego Stadium
Oakland Coliseum
RFK Stadium
Jack Murphy Stadium
Busch Stadium
Atlanta Fulton-County Stadium
Qualcomm Stadium
Skydome
Astrodome
Riverfront Stadium
Three Rivers Stadium
Net/McAfee/O.co Coliseum
Metrodome
Veterans Stadium
Kingdome
Olympic Stadium
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Did I miss any?