New Yankee Stadium and Citi Field may be getting all the press, but let’s not forget the $250 million in renovations being done to Kauffman Stadium. The big stuff has been completed, which includes the following enhancements:
- Widened concourses from 24 to 37 feet
- The ability to walk around the entire stadium, including the outfield
- Hall of Fame in left field with party suites/meeting rooms underneath
- Restaurant in right field that opens 2 hours before the gates open, party deck on top
- Miniature playing field for kids way out beyond the LF wall
- Royals team administration offices with modern exterior
- Increased and improved landscaping
- The crown-topped new video/scoreboard in center, a fitting replacement for the original
- Standing room area below the fountains in right
Check out the Kansas City Star’s open house photos and a PDF explaining the new features. It’ll be interesting to see if the changes produce a significant increase in attendance. The team may be coming of age at the right time to give KC a double boost.
Miami-Dade County approved the issue of $563 million in bonds for the Marlins’ Orange Bowl ballpark. Questions remain about the general fund being raided to pay for it if hotel tax revenue doesn’t come in as expected, and the interest rate(s) the county will be able to secure in the market. The market’s weak enough that it eventually could be dangerous for both the county and the team:
The county bonds are designed as interest-only instruments at the start, with large payments due at the end. The plan to pay off the bonds relies on steady growth in sports and tourism tax revenue.
Is it me or does that seem a little too subprime? If the bond deal can’t be struck by July 1, the whole thing is off.
Down south, the cities of Diamond Bar and Industry settled over traffic concerns spurred by the LA Football Stadium project. Diamond Bar will get $20 million to cover traffic mitigation work. Neighboring city Walnut has filed a lawsuit, claiming that Industry’s EIR for the project was insufficient. As far as the stadium goes, it looks like a Staples Center for football. Ed Roski must have an obsession with purple seats.
Frank Deford thinks architects should pipe down in their critiques of Yankee Stadium and Citi Field. His argument is that ballparks are for nostalgic fans, not architects. I don’t know about that, it seems that ballparks are as much about making money as they are about fan experience.
Check out the piece that Deford criticizes, by NYT architecture writer Nicolai Ouroussoff. Citi Field’s first regular season game comes April 13. Yankee Stadium’s first game is scheduled for April 16. Last but not least, Reno’s ballpark is scheduled to open April 17.
A man died after getting into a fight at the A’s-Angels game last night. Apparently the guy was cheap-shotted. I’m sure a manslaughter charge is coming…
Giants and A’s ownership are making the rounds in the media. Bill Neukom and Larry Baer were on CSN’s Chronicle Live yesterday, Lew Wolff and SJ Mayor Chuck Reed (their first joint appearance?) will be on Friday. Baer was also on KQED-FM’s Forum this morning. His stance? “A rule is a rule.” When pressed on T-rights later, Baer admitted that the issue would be “hashed out by Major League Baseball.” What happened to the litigation threats? Hmmm???
19 San Jose Giants games will be on the Comcast Hometown network, channel 104 for South Bay Comcast subscribers. There’s something so utterly patronizing about what the SF Giants are doing, I have to chuckle a bit.
A Field Poll shows that 82% of California residents are opposed to splitting the state into Eastern and Western California. 71% are opposed to splitting the state into Northern and Southern California. But you wouldn’t know that from the comments at the bottom of the SacBee article, and after all, aren’t comments sections truly reflective of the populace? Randomly sampled surveys by reputable firms? Pish posh.
newballpark.org 