Apparently, the boosters who put together the site aerial images love PNC Park too, as its footprint has blessed all three images. I grabbed the PDF’s from the Facebook page and resized the images. First, let’s take care of the one that’s already been shot down, Howard Terminal. I think we’ve covered it enough.
Now on to the more realistic sites, starting with JLS North/West, then Victory Court.
There will be time for writeups tomorrow. You can find the large PDF’s here (50+ MB).
newballpark.org 
Isn’t the alignment of the ballbark image wrong? It’s westerly, yes? I thought that would not work. If that’s the case, seems like a big oversight from the Oakland group. If I’m wrong, then nevermind.
The preferred orientation is for the line from home plate through the mound to center to point north east. This limits sun being a problem for batters an fieders ( also fans). That said, there are several mlb parks with a south/south east orientation. Arlington, PNC, Great American, Comerica, MIller and U.S. Cellular. I assume the orientation in the PDFs is just a cut and paste of PNC.
Gracias.
“It is desirable that the line from home base through the pitchers plate to second base shall run East Northeast.” – Official Baseball Rules, section 1.04.
I checked this site (http://www.findballparks.com/) which shows every MLB ballpark using google maps aerial views. It looks like out of the 30 ballparks in the entire league, about 65-70% of them are facing north or north east (like the coliseum). The other 30-35% are facing either East or Southeast, but mostly East if anything. I personally think the ballpark could possibly work facing Oakland’s waterfront rather than 880 which would be even more perfect. turn the ballpark so it’s facing out of the corner of Fallon & 4th st. and it might just work better than some originally thought. It’s facing in the exact same direction as Tiger’s Cromerica Park in Detroit that would make it work in Oakland for a waterfront view. Take a look at their ballpark in Detroit…
http://www.findballparks.com/ballparks/detroit_tigers/
I used to work inside the JLS north parcel. Just the other side of 880 and just left of 980 that large, irregular shaped, white-ish building is a strip mall. Does anyone know if you can still get those spicy sweet and hot chicken wings at the Chinese fast food place there?
Good catch on PNC Park, ML.
I would have preferred that they used Connie Mack Stadium as their place-holder.
After all, it’s named after a great guy, and the A’s played there for nearly 50 years.
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Who put these graphics together?
It’s a disappontingly uninformed job.
At Howard terminal, the park should have been rotated 20 degrees counterclockwise to align with the shoreline, and also come closer to the preferred MLB orientation.
Sure, it’s not critical at this point, and it’s easily fixed, but it also reveals a lack of professional input and a quick-and-dirty approach.
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BTW, there’s roughly a 160-degree orientation range that’s workable, as far as sun angles go.
Petco’s CF faces due north, and Comerica’s faces SSE.
Good catch on PNC Park, ML.
I would have preferred that they used Connie Mack Stadium as their place-holder.
After all, it’s named after a great guy, and the A’s played there for nearly 50 years.
.
Who put these graphics together?
It’s a disappontingly superficial job.
At Howard Terminal, the park should have been rotated 20 degrees counterclockwise to align with the shoreline, and also come closer to the preferred MLB orientation.
Sure, it’s not critical at this point, and it’s easily fixed, but it reveals a lack of professional input and a quick-and-dirty approach. It undermines Oakland’s credibility.
.
BTW, there’s more than a 170-degree orientation range that’s workable, as far as sun angles go.
Toronto’s CF faces about 15 degrees west of north, and Detroit’s faces about 22 degrees east of south.
Toronto is indoors…And I would imagine that because it is so far north the sun is further south, so an orientation like that might work if it were outdoors.
Toronto is indoors when the roof is closed. Otherwise, it’s outdoors.
And the sun is not further south — it’s 93 million miles away for all the parks.
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Yet another west-facing park is Vince Genna in Bend, OR.
Been to all three; saw games in the first two.
Makes you wonder what they were thinking.
Of course, Wahconah is about 100 years old, when all the games were over before 6 p.m., so orientation wasn’t an issue then.
But the other two were simply mistakes.
Planet earth is a sphere, depending on where you are the sun can be further north or south. It’s the same reason why the closer to the poles you get, the less of a direct angle from the sun you get. And the point is that Toronto is a dome, there will be no sun on the horizon to disrupt the game.
Hey there’s always Sam Lynn Ballpark in Bakersfield, facing west and slightly north:
Or Wahconah Park in Pittsfield, MA
Except for having occasional sun delays when the sun sets, they do just fine!
The view of 880 is the least pressing concern. Odds are you can have seating or at least a big jumbotron (like in KC) or other novelty (instead of a giant glove and coke bottle, how about 4 giant World Series Trophies?) covering it up, and a gap in the left field seating to reveal downtown Oakland. Sort of like a concourse. The Giants have a concourse in right field, we just make ours in left field.
The more I look at that Victory Court site, the more I like it. It’s an absolutely fabulous location especially if we can orient the ballpark towards the waterfront. Keep in mind that the Lake Merritt Channel, which borders the site, is being renovated with Measure DD money. New foot bridges and paths are being constructed, along with boating access from Lake Merritt to the Oakland Estuary . The ballpark will be linked directly to Lake Merritt via the new paths on the Lake Merritt Channel all the way to neighborhoods around the Lake. Technically, fans will be able to walk down the beautifully landscaped paths from Lake Merritt all the way to the center field gate of the ballpark. Also, it’s possible for the ballpark to have boating access from the Estuary AND Lake Merritt. The possibilities to create a PNC style ballpark with access to two waterfronts are indeed exciting. Unfortunately, Lew Wolff is feeling the heat and is bringing the housing and retail component back into the picture. Anything to derail a wonderful opportunity in Oakland. This guy needs to sell the team. Enough is enough. We have a wonderful opportunity to create something really special here in Oakland.
Im glad to see people excited about possibilities in Oakland. It is rare to see this much enthusiasm surrounding Oakland. Navigator your insight on the surrounding areas give a good vision to what could be a potential ballpark.