Something that’s been on my mind lately has been corporate sponsorships. The majority of parks these days have them. The owners and the reps from said companies make these grandiose statements about how it’s “great for the community”, or “our partnership will bring such and such” to the fans, and all that. But we all know what it’s really for. Lining the pockets of the owners with some more money.
OK, OK, it’s probably not all for the owner’s personal jet fuel bill, or the wife’s shoe budget, I’m sure some of it goes back to the team in some capacity (extra management salary, perhaps? – yes that last bit was sarcasm, Dave), but I’ve yet to run into a fan that honestly thinks these things are a GREAT idea. Most every one of these parks that has a corporate name almost invariably has it’s nickname ignored by the people who matter the most. The fans.
This is a Rangers fan site, so I’m most familiar with our own corporate shill name (which is now fortunately gone), “Ameriquest Field in Arlington”. You ask any fan of the Rangers, and did they call it “Ameriquest Field”? Heck no, they still called it “The Ballpark”, after it’s original name “The Ballpark in Arlington”. I admit I was one of those people who was not at first a fan of the park’s original name. I wanted Vandergriff Field, or perhaps something to do with Nolan Ryan, but over the years, “The Ballpark” really grew on me. I like that name a lot. It’s simple. It works. These corporate names are frequently not simple, and they almost never work – the majority of them are fingernails on a chalkboard. Very few truly blend in – off the top of my head, the only one that does is the name of the Reds’ current home – “The Great American Ballpark”. For two years after it opened, I didn’t even know it was a corporate name, I just thought it was a really cool name. Oh well. That’s one against my argument, but it is very much the exception.
Lately I’ve been thinking of all the parks, and it made me wonder how many of them do not have any sort of corporate sponsorship at all. So I decided to run down the lot of them, and come up with some more information about their names, their former names, nicknames, etc… I’m organizing them by age, from their original opening to the newest parks. I’m also adding a few thoughts of my own unrelated to the corporate sponsorship issue I raised here. I realized once I got started that I have a few thoughts on these places, even though I’ve not personally visited the huge majority of them.
The stadiums I’ve been near, but not been to games at are Fenway, RFK, Tropicana, & Turner. (My wife has been to Skydome, but not for a game). The stadiums I’ve actually seen games at are: Oriole Park, Ballpark in Arlington, Minute Maid, PNC Park, Citizens Bank. Stadiums that aren’t around anymore that I’ve seen games at were: Veterans Stadium, Three Rivers Stadium, The Astrodome, Mile High Stadium (Rockies 1st season).
So sit back and prepare to bask in my opinions on corporate sponsorship deals around Major League Baseball, as well as my thoughts on the various ballparks that make up the major leagues. If you are reading this on an RSS reader somewhere, you will have to visit my site to get the whole article. It was too large (at 18,100 words or so) to stick in the rss feed. :)
Fenway Park (1912)
Team Occupant: Boston Red Sox
Stadium Nickname: “Fenway”
Park Named After: A 1912 designation of that section of the town, “The Fens”
Money from Sponsorship: None
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds (1901-1911)
Other Tenants: Boston Redskins (NFL; 1933-1936), Boston Yanks (NFL: 1944-1948), Boston Patriots (AFL; 1963-1968), Boston Braves (1914-1915), Boston Beacons (NASL; 1968)
Joe’s Remarks: This is it. The elder statesman of major league baseball parks. Opening six days after the RMS Titanic sunk, this ballpark stands to this day. It is by all accounts one of the three baseball meccas (Yankee stadium & Wrigley Field being the others). It is a park that just oozes baseball. While records show 15 years of football was played there, and for one year soccer, this is a baseball park. It just LOOKS like a baseball park. I’ve never actually been there (been inside the place I mean – I have driven by it on the highways), but to be honest, if I was to go there, I doubt I’d be very comfortable. The place’s age also means it was built for a different time when “comfort” was not paramount. Also, people were smaller then. I’m not talking about the general “fat” of the US, but people in general were a smaller size, so today’s size of person, and then the overweight ones (read me) would not likely be comfortable there. I’m told it’s fairly cramped in the seats, and even worse in the concourses. Having said all that I would like to go there one day and see a game for myself.
Of course, you can’t talk about Fenway without talking about the Green Monster. It is the most famous of baseball park walls, even though there have been others that were bigger (The Baker Bowl’s right field wall was much larger and much closer). But there’s no arguing Fenway’s is the most famous one of the bunch. It was the site of one of the more impressive Home Run Derby nights – Mark McGwire launching quite a few balls way past the Coke bottles and the moster. More recently, they’ve added seats up there which look like a very cool place to sit in (although you probably can’t see anything in left field, I would imagine). Ownership has attempted to update the place with more seats and the like. Although my guess is it would take a complete gutting of the seating bowl to properly replace the seats, and then you’d lose capacity for sure. I’ve seen it a lot on TV, and it certainly looks like a cool place to see a baseball game.
Corporate Sponsorship: There’s no sponsorship money for this place, and at this point almost 100 years later, we’d see the second coming of the Boston Tea Party if they tried that. Almost happened when the previous team ownership tried to replace Fenway Park in 1999. :)
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
Wrigley Field (1914)
Team Occupant: Chicago Cubs
Stadium Nickname: The Friendly Confines
Park Named After: Then owner William Wrigley Jr in 1926
Money from Sponsorship: N/A
Former Stadium Names: Weeghman Park (1914-1920), Cubs Park (1920-1926)
Team’s Former Parks: Union Base-Ball Grounds (1870-1871), 23rd Street Grounds (1874-1877), Lakefront Park (I) (1878-1882), Lakefront Park (II) (1883-1884), West Side Park (I) (1885-1891), South Side Park (1891-1893), West Side Park (II) (1893-1915)
Other Tenants: Chicago Whales (FL, 1914-1915), Chicago Tigers (APFA, 1920), Chicago Bears (NFL, 1921-1970), Chicago Sting (NASL, 1977-1979)
Joe’s Remarks: I remember Wrigley field a lot from my time living in Philadelphia. I’d always see it when the Phillies went there. In particular, Mike Schmidt and that field – Schmitty loved hitting there (got 4HR in a game there once). But the thing that comes to mind most about Wrigley is the ivy. And up until a couple of years ago, Wrigley had no advertisements inside the park. That is no longer the case, and that’s a shame, as it was cool to have a park that more or less looked the same all these years later. Now the freeloaders on the rooftops had advertisements of their own, but the Cubs didn’t until a few years ago. I also recall the installation of lights in 1988; Wrigley was the final stadium to get them. Again it was against my hometown Phillies. I recall it being a major deal back when it happened. It was also the site of a game in the 70’s I recall where the Phillies & Cubs played a game and scored 45 runs between them. The Cubs lost 23-22. Was quite a bizarre game. Check out the box score here.
Wrigley is another of the “Holy Trinity” of ballparks, that being Fenway, Yankee, & Wrigley. There’s just “something” about going to Wrigley. Now I have not experienced said “something”, but everyone I’ve talked to who has been there says it’s an awesome place to see a game. Having grown up in Philly where my primary method of transportation to get to games was the Subway, I can full well understand the attraction of going to a Cubs game on the elevated train, and getting off, and you’re there. I’ve seen documentaries about the pubs and places around the park to eat, there are places around the park to “do something”. It seems a lot like a party. Now there’s other places that do this too, but something tells me that Wrigley is the place to be.
I also have a gut feeling that this place won’t be replaced. It will be updated and all that, but my gut tells me that Wrigley will stick around. Wrigley has had two previous names before the name “Wrigley Field” was put into place in 1926. One of those names was after the team, and the other was after one of the two owners (Charles Weeghman) of the park’s original tenant, the Chicago Whales of the old Federal League. It’s the only Federal League stadium still in use today.
Corporate Sponsorship: Again, no corporate sponsor in this park’s name. As mentioned earlier, advertisements have crept in over the last few years, but no corporate dollars.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
Yankee Stadium (1923)
Team Occupant: New York Yankees
Stadium Nickname: The House that Ruth Built
Park Named After: The Yankees
Money from Sponsorship: N/A
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: Oriole Park (1901-1902), Hilltop Park (1903-1912), Polo Grounds (1913-1922), Shea Stadium (1974-1975)
Future Park: Yankee Stadium (2009)
Other Tenants: New York Yankees (NFL, 1926-1928), New York Yankees (AAFC, 1946-1949), New York Yanks (NFL, 1950-1951), New York Giants (NFL, 1956-1973)
Joe’s Remarks: As much as I’m no fan of the Yankees, the one of the things that I’ve liked has been their consistency. They never change their uniforms, they still have the same name for their park since it opened. Granted, the team was a charter member of the American League, so that alone helps. There’s a boatload of memories there, and while most of them are about Yankee baseball which I don’t care about waxing poetic about, I did enjoy what happened there post 9/11 with all the “baseball needs to come back” stuff. I also like Utz potato chips, so I like seeing their ad in the park. OK, that’s spurious, but hey – it’s my article. :)
Can’t put my finger on it (or my brain either, since I seem to be unable to write a lot about the place), but it does have a legendary feel to it, even to a Yankee hater. I wonder how much of that mystique will come to “The House that Steinbrenner Built”. :)
Corporate Sponsorship: The current park has quite a legacy name, and one untainted by corporate dollars. Which is ironic, given how much of a moneymaker the Yankees actually are. The new park though might not have the same deal. After reading a bit, it appears there may be a corporate sponsor name attached to the new Yankee Stadium. Wikipedia lists a quote from Yankees president Randy Levine that it might get called something like “Yankee Stadium at (company name) Plaza” when it opens. If true, that has the advantage of being easily ignored, and just called “Yankee Stadium”. Probably intentional.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium (1961)
Team Occupant: Washington Nationals
Stadium Nickname: RFK Stadium or “RFK”
Park Named After: Robert F. Kennedy, politician
Money from Sponsorship: Not yet available
Former Stadium Names: District of Columbia Stadium (aka DC Stadium, 1961-1968)
Team’s Former Parks: Jarry Park (1969-1976), Olympic Stadium (1977-2004), Hiram Bithorn Stadium (2003-2004)
Future Park: Nationals Park (2008) – Not final name
Other Tenants: Washington Redskins (NFL, 1961-1996), Washington Senators II/Texas Rangers (AL, 1962-1971), Washington Whips (USA, 1968), Washington Darts (NASL, 1971), Washington Diplomats (NASL, USL1, 1974-1981, 1991), Team America (NASL, 1983), Washington Federals (USFL, 1983-1984), D.C. United (MLS, 1996-present), Washington Freedom (WUSA, 2001-2003)
Joe’s Remarks: I don’t recall much about this stadium. I’ve driven past it on a trip to visit DC, but never attended anything. You’d think I’d remember it growing up an Eagles fan when they played the Redskins there, but I don’t. The Texas Rangers franchise played most of it’s Washington years in this park (their first was in old Griffith Stadium, they closed the place down). There’s also an awful lot of soccer played in this park. If you look at the past tenants, the majority of those leagues were some sort of soccer. In fact, it’s still being used for that. The DC United team of the Major League Soccer league plays here in addition to the Nationals. I have to admit I was happy to see baseball return to DC, and this was the only real option for the Nats to play in while their new park is being built. According to my research the conversion back and forth between baseball and soccer costs a lot of money each time it’s done – roughly $40,000 (and was done over 20 times in 2005). This is due to the fact that RFK was the first stadium built for multipurpose use; subsequent stadiums built this way improved on the procedures. Whoever pays for that will probably be happy to see the Nats move into their own park.
Of the current Major League Baseball Stadiums, the break between this one (1961) and the last (1923) is huge, almost all of those parks are gone now.
Corporate Sponsorship: There is no corporate sponsorship in this park. It was originally named after the area it was in with a painfully generic name (District of Columbia Stadium). It was then changed to it’s current name to honor the then slain US politician Robert F Kennedy. The new Nationals Park will have an as of yet unannounced corporate sponsor attached to it. The money from that is for obvious reasons unknown.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
UPDATE (Jan 1, 2020): In doing some maintenance on this section of my site, I discovered in Sep 2019, it was announced the stadium will be knocked down by the end of 2021. Here’s a news story about it.
Dodger Stadium (1962)
Team Occupant: Los Angeles Dodgers
Stadium Nickname: “Chavez Ravine”
Park Named After: Team
Money from Sponsorship: N/A
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: Capitoline Grounds (1872), Union Grounds (1873-1875), Washington Park (1884-1890), Eastern Park (1891-1897), Washington Park II (1898-1912), Ebbets Field (1913-1957), Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (1958-1961)
Other Tenants: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (1962-1965)
Joe’s Remarks: It’s going to sound weird, but the #1 thing I remember most about Dodger Stadium is those zig zaggy roofs over the bleachers in left and right field. As I kid, I always remembered liking them. I also remember a lot on TV when someone would get a home that wouldn’t make it into the stands, some fan would run down stairs behind the outfield wall to get the ball. I never found out what it was, but I assume that’s how folks in the bleachers got there in the first place. Dodger stadium is known for a bunch of things, and it’s continued good reputation is a good one. You generally don’t hear many complaints about this place. I’ve never actually been to a game here. I’ve twice tried going when I was in LA for business trips, but the Dodgers were out of town both times. What I know about this place is only on TV. Oh yeah, the other two things I remember a lot at Dodger Stadium were Kirk Gibson’s famous world series home run, as well as Tommy Lasorda. He detested the Philly Phanatic, so it was always entertaining when the Phils took him on the road to LA. :)
In doing research, the fact that the Angels played here for a few years as the home team came up. That’s not a big surprise, it’s happened several times. What is interesting is that during those games, the stadium name was changed to “Chavez Ravine Stadium”, and not called “Dodger Stadium” when the Angels were the home team.
Corporate Sponsorship: None again. For an article about corporate sponsorships of baseball stadiums, my first five didn’t have any! That’s because these are all old school, and at this point, you really can’t add a corporate name to these old school ones and expect to get away with it.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
Shea Stadium (1964)
Team Occupant: New York Mets
Stadium Nickname: None
Park Named After: William A. Shea (man who brought team in)
Money from Sponsorship: N/A
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: None
Other Tenants: New York Jets (NFL, 1964-1983), New York Yankees (MLB, 1974-1975), New York Giants (NFL, 1975)
Joe’s Remarks: As I grew up a Phillies fan, I never much cared for the Mets. With that comes a disinterest for their stadium. I don’t know much about Shea other than what I hear on TV, and the biggest of those complaints appears to be overhead airplane noise. As a baseball fan, the two things I know most about Shea are the gigantic scoreboard in right field and the “Apple”. I always wondered how many lights were broken by home run balls hitting the scoreboard, but you don’t hear much about that. As for the Apple, I always liked that, tell you the truth. It was a much better home run “thing” than our stupid bell for a couple of years. Anyway, I don’t know much about Shea firsthand, but I get the impression it’s a stadium that’s needed replacing for awhile, and will be, as 2008 is the last year for it. It does seem a bit like a precursor to the famed “Cookie Cutter” stadiums of the 70’s, as it’s mostly round. Kind of looks a little like Pac-Man from the air. :)
Corporate Sponsorship: None again. We haven’t yet hit the era of corporate dollars in stadium names yet as I’m still in old school days. :)
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
Angel Stadium of Anaheim (1966)
Team Occupant: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Stadium Nickname: “The Big A”
Park Named After: Team, and the town (although begrudgingly, I believe)
Money from Sponsorship: N/A
Former Stadium Names: Anaheim Stadium (1966-1997), Edison International Field of Anaheim (1997-2003)
Team’s Former Parks: Wrigley Field (Los Angeles, 1961), Dodger Stadium (1962-1965)
Other Tenants: Southern California Sun (WFL; 1974-1975), Los Angeles Rams (NFL; 1980-1994), Freedom Bowl (NCAA; 1984-1994), California Surf (NASL; 1978-1981)
Joe’s Remarks: This stadium has had several incarnations. The original one was a baseball stadium with a nice view on the outside, and the “Big A” scoreboard. That lasted from it’s opening in 1966 through 1979. The NFL Rams moved in after that, and it was converted into an enclosed circular stadium from 1980 through 1996. While I don’t know any “local” Angels fans
personally, I can’t imagine this was a popular decision with any baseball fan. In 1997, the current look of the stadium was started when the team was owned by Disney. In fact, on TV, this is one of my favorite looks to a stadium. I love the giant hats out front at the home plate gate, I really like the fountains and rocks in left field. The distinctive “A” scoreboard was not brought back, but overall, this is a stadium I’d probably really enjoy going to if I was able to attend. I was in Los Angeles a few times on business trips in the early part of this decade, but every time both the Dodgers & Angels were out of town, and I didn’t get to go. As the Rangers play the Angels about 6,000 times a season, we get to see this place a lot. Seems like a nice place to see a game. Although the team’s formal name is pretty darned stupid.
Corporate Sponsorship: None currently. There was some corporate $ involved when it was called Edison Field, but I can’t find any numbers on that at the moment. The deal with Edison was a 20 year deal starting in 1997, and after the 2003 season, Edison excercized an option to get out of the deal. It then took on the current name it has.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
[ Great link with pictures of the three phases of the park’s look ]
McAfee Coliseum (1966)
Team Occupant: Oakland Athletics
Stadium Nickname: The Coliseum
Park Named After: Current Corporate Sponsor
Money from Sponsorship: $13.7 Million over 5 years
Former Stadium Names: Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (1966-1998), Network Associates Coliseum (1998-2004)
Team’s Former Parks: Municipal Stadium (KC, 1955-1967), Shibe Park (Phila, 1909-1954), Columbia Park (Phila, 1901-1908)
Future Park: Cisco Field (2010?)
Other Tenants: Oakland Raiders (NFL, 1966-1981, 1995-present), Oakland Stomphers (NASL, 1978), Oakland Invaders (USFL, 1983-1985), Oakland Clippers (NASL, 1967-1978), San Jose Earthquakes (MLS, 2008-2010 planned)
Joe’s Remarks: Well, the biggest thing one talks about when they talk about this park is “Mount Davis“, a reference to Raiders owner Al Davis. The other thing people talk about is the enormous expanse of foul territory. It’s always mentioned a lot, because a lot of pop ups are outs here that are into the seats everywhere else. Other than those two things, the stadium is fairly generic. There’s some odd shaped seating areas above the outfield wall which are noticable when home runs are hit out that way. There’s also stairwells beyond the right and left field walls that make home run balls hit onto them bounce rather a lot, since it’s cement. They do appear to have some of the smallest Jumbotrons around. A fairly “blah” baseball stadium. Even the team got tired of all the empty seats and covered the top level with tarp, so they don’t look like empty seats up there. This same thing was done in Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh for awhile, too. The other thing that I think of with this stadium is once football season starts, the center field area is all messed up due to the seats put there for Raider games.
Corporate Sponsorship: Well, for the longest time this stadium had no corporate sponsorship from opening in 1966 through 1998. After that it was sponsored by Network Associates, a computer networking company. Due to renaming and merging issues with Network Associates, their name became McAfee, so the corporate sponsorship name changed. The odd thing is that the corporate name appears to have no relevance to a sports arena. Some of them are relevant, some are just dollar amounts, and some make you go “Uh OK – why?” This is a why to me. Don’t understand what the company thinks they’re gaining by spending their roughly $2.7 million for the name. Which brings up another point. Since the A’s are not the owner of the stadium, and they also share the place with the Raiders, I bet you the A’s see little of that $2.7 Million annually.
Between Mount Davis, the stupid corporate name, and the assumed low income from the name money, one has to think the A’s would love to run screaming to Fremont to their new place.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
Ewing F. Kaufman Stadium (1973)
Team Occupant: Kansas City Royals
Stadium Nickname: “The K”
Park Named After: Original team owner, Ewing F. Kaufman
Money from Sponsorship: N/A
Former Stadium Names: Royals Stadium (1973-1993)
Team’s Former Parks: Municipal Stadium (1969-1972)
Future Park: None, but a big renovation is underway at Kaufman
Other Tenants: None
Joe’s Remarks: When I was growing up in Philly in the 70’s, the only time I ever saw this place was on This Week in Baseball. Why do I remember that? The fountains. The fountains have always been there. It’s a very distinctive feature in a stadium. Funny thing is Philly’s Veterans Stadium had fountains in the early years of the place, but they were removed (go figure). When folks talk about Kaufman, you always hear about it being ahead of its time, how it still looks awesome even though it’s 34 years old, and many parks built 
around the same time are already gone (The Vet, Three Rivers, Riverfront). It has always had an air of being georgeous – the fields past the stadium look great on TV, the fountains, the nice grass burms, etc.. That’s look that way for a long time. Problem is in the last 5-6 years or so the nice look in the outfield has been destroyed by excessive advertising – something that has plagued many a stadium, so that’s brought it down a few notches. Still, it’s not like the place is horrific, just not as spectacular as before. I’ve never been there, although it’s not too obscenely far away a drive from Dallas – someday. The place used to be a turf field from 1973 through 1994 when it was replaced with grass. During the offseason of 2007 through till 2009 there’s a big renovation going to happen here. Probably something that needs to be done. You can check out details on the renovations here. It’s cool in that the new renovations look like they will keep the overall look and feel of the place, yet giving it a nice updated look as well. Can’t wait to see it.
Corporate Sponsorship: There’s no corporate sponsorship here. In fact, they changed the team name to a name after the original owner. Something nice to see, and is one of the last totally un corporate names on my list. :)
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (1982)
Team Occupant: Minnesota Twins
Stadium Nickname: “The Metrodome”, “The Homerdome”
Park Named After: Former Mayor and US Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey
Money from Sponsorship: N/A
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: Metropolitan Stadium (1961-1981), Griffith Stadium (1911-1960), National Park (1903-1910), American League Park (1901-1902)
Future Park: Twins Stadium (working name); opens in 2010
Other Tenants: Minnesota Vikings (1982 – present), Minnesota Golden Gophers (NCAA football, 1982-2008), Minnesota Strikers (NASL, 1984), Minnesota Timberwolves (NBA 1989-1990)
Joe’s Remarks: Well, I’ve never seen a game in this place (which is a common theme actually), so my “memories” of this place are from television. The earliest one was a catch by Kirby Puckett out in left near what was then a “glass wall” over the left field fence. The other things you think of when you think of the Metrodome are the baggie wall, as well as the fact that the roof is more or less the same color as the ball. But it is indoors. One wonders what the planners of the new Twins park were thinking in building a stadium up there without a roof. It’s going to make scheduling a nightmare there. I’m REALLY surprised at that.
Anyway, the Metrodome seems more like a football place, although in reading about it it was designed for both. One thing this place has going for it is climate control. Something I wish we had in Arlington. One amusing story is that the roof is held up by air pressure, and as such can collapse. It has a few times over the years, something I wish I could find a picture of.
Not a lot to say about this park, really. It is what it is. An indoor place they play baseball games at, not a lot memorable to me about it.
Corporate Sponsorship: There’s no corporate sponsorship here. Was named after a local politician, and has retained that name. With most of the tenants moving out or making plans to do so, my guess is that this name will remain, assuming the place does at all.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
Dolphin Stadium (1987)
Team Occupant: Florida Marlins
Stadium Nickname: “Joe Robbie Stadium”
Park Named After: Primary Tenant; NFL’s Miami Dolphins
Money from Sponsorship: N/A
Former Stadium Names: Joe Robbie Stadium (1987-1996), Pro Player Park (1996), Pro Player Stadium (1996-2005), Dolphins Stadium (2005-2006)
Team’s Former Parks: None
Future Park: Your guess is as good as mine
Other Tenants: Miami Dolphins (1987-present), Florida Atlantic Owls (NCAA; 2001-2002), Orange Bowl (NCAA, 1996-present), Champs Sports Bowl (1990-2000)
Joe’s Remarks: This is a football stadium. That’s what it was built for, that’s what it looks like. It is however, one of the few stadiums built with no public money. It was financed by private money, although I’m not sure whose (Huizenga’s?). When the Marlins came into existance in 1993, they were shoehorned into here. That never really works in a football stadium because the dimensions are quite odd. The most memorable thing about this place to me as a fan who lives elsewhere are the enormous amount of empty seats when I see the place on TV. There’s all this talk about how Miami is a great baseball community, but I never see it in turnout on TV. Makes you wonder if the place can really support a team that isn’t winning all the time. I do kind of like the large scoreboard in left. Sort of (and I use that loosely) reminds me of the Green Monster; this being the smaller brother – the “Teal Monster”. :) If you read the Wikipedia page for the stadium, there’s a lot of talk of all the money and work that went into adding the Marlins as a tenant. It’s pretty good reading if you’re into stadium trivia (and if you have read this far down, you probably are). This is another place the Rangers played at not too long ago via Interleague play, and there was little memorable to take from it on TV.
Corporate Sponsorship: There’s no current corporate sponsorship of the place, but it wasn’t always that way. The place was originally called “Joe Robbie Stadium” (a name most locals still use apparently) after the man who was responsible for bringing the stadium into existance. In 1996 it was rechristened “Pro Player Park”, and then “Pro Player Stadium” and stayed that way until 2005 when the contract ran out and it reverted to Dolphins Stadium. During the “Pro Player” time, they took in $2 million per year. Given the numerous discussions and articles I’ve written about how poor a deal the Marlins make, I have to assume most of that money went to Huzigena, who at that point had 100% ownership of the stadium. What’s interesting about his deal is that Pro Player went bankrupt in 1999, but the name was still in use for 6 more seaons after that. So that was $2 million a year for a name that no fans used from what I can gather. There’s talk that when the University of Miami moves into the stadium in 2010 (and the Marlins move out), there will be a new Corporate name. No details now, though. One has to figure that if the Marlins ever get a stadium deal finalized, they’ll have a corporate name for it, too.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
Rogers Centre (1989)
Team Occupant: Toronto Blue Jays
Stadium Nickname: “Skydome”
Park Named After: Corporate entity that owns team and stadium
Money from Sponsorship: N/A
Former Stadium Names: Skydome (1989-2005)
Team’s Former Parks: Exhibition Stadium (1977-1989)
Future Park: N/A
Other Tenants: Toronto Argonauts (CFL; 1989-present), Toronto Raptors (NBA; 1995-1999), Vanier Cup (CIS; 89-03, 07-present), International Bowl (NCAAF; 2007-present)
Joe’s Remarks: As a Phillies fan, I hate this place. Joe Carter and 1993 is a dark day for me. I have a seriously hard time even watching that clip of October 23, 2993 a little over 14 years later. When I see it coming, I have to change the channel. :)
But there’s a lot memorable to Rogers Centre The Skydome. It’s got memorable architecture both inside and outside. Outside there’s the CN Tower, which looks quite cool in long shots. Usually once a year we get a shot on TV from the top of the tower looking down into the stadium. Inside, you have the uber large scoreboard. This thing looks seriously impressive on TV. While I’ve read stats that show it’s not the biggest, it just “feels” big. Then there’s the hotel which has rooms looking out onto the field (where we annually get a story about “couples in the rooms”). The stadium has an odd feel in that it does look rather cavernous when it’s mostly empty, but yet it’s got a lot unique about it from what I can tell on TV. I’ve never been there, although my wife has (before we got married, and not for a baseball game). Seems like a fun place to see a game, even if it is turf.
Corporate Sponsorship: There doesn’t appear to be any actual money involved in this. Rogers Communications who owns the team and the stadium presumably just stuck their name on the stadium since they owned the rest of it. Can’t see a reason why there’d be any actual stadium money involved in this corporate name.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | Ballparks.com ]
Tropicana Field (1990)
Team Occupant: Tampa Bay Rays
Stadium Nickname: “The Trop”
Park Named After: Tropicana Orange Juice product
Money from Sponsorship: $30 Million over $30 years
Former Stadium Names: For the Rays, none, see below
Team’s Former Parks: None
Future Park: There’s a rumored replacement, but nothing concrete at this time.
Other Tenants: Tampa Bay Storm (1991-1996), Tampa Bay Lightning (1993-1996), 1999 NCAA Basketball tournament
Joe’s Remarks: This is one of those places that you near nothing bad bad things about. Horrible field, the catwalks are bad, the place looks like a grey dump, there’s no atmosphere, etc, etc, etc. One has to wonder if it really is that bad, or if it’s reputation was something that started off as something small, and then snowballed. My brother and I were in the area during the Spring of 2007 for Phillies spring training. I tried to take a tour of this place, but they had it closed due to scoreboard renovations. I was disappointed in that, as I would have liked to have taken the tour. The first picture in this entry was taken by me from the highway (hence the roofs of other buildings in the shot). The one thing I recall most from the games I watch here on TV is that heckler that sits near home 
plate. Since the place is a dome, and it’s usually got about 25,000 empty seats, you can hear this guy really well. Beyond that, you think of the catwalks when you think of this place, and not a whole lot more. Again, I have to think it’s not nearly as bad as all the negative opinions of the place are. What’s interesting in driving around the area is that there’s a lot of water, and you can see the park from almost anywhere around the bay near where it is. If you look at this link, it’s a picture I took of Tropicana Field from across the bay. You can also look at this link, which is a satellite view of the place showing all the surrounding water.
Corporate Sponsorship: This stadium has an odd deal. It was built and then opened eight years before the Devil Rays played their first game. I’m a little unclear on the timing, but the deal was for 30 years for $30 million dollars. A million a year to name the place after juice. Doesn’t seem like the most natural fit for a corporate name, but what the heck. Could be Ameriquest. Anyway, I don’t know much of this money the Devil Rays see, since I believe the deal started before they came into existance (but again, I’m a little hazy on the start of the corporate name deal here). The place had two names before it was renamed to Tropicana. It was originally called the Florida Suncoast Dome, and then “The Thunderdome”, when the NHL Lightning played there, but it would appear none of the corporate money was around during that time.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | Ballparks.com ]
US. Cellular Field (1991)
Team Occupant: Chicago White Sox
Stadium Nickname: “The Cell”, “New Comiskey Field”
Park Named After: US Cellular Phone Company
Money from Sponsorship: $68 Million over 23 years
Former Stadium Names: Comiskey Field (aka New Comiskey Field, 1991-2003)
Team’s Former Parks: Milwaukee County Stadium (1968-1969), Comiskey Field (1910-1990), South Side Park (1901-1910)
Future Park: N/A
Other Tenants: None
Joe’s Remarks: This was a place that I have to admit I felt bad about. It was the last park built before Oriole Park, and as such didn’t ride the wave of modern “retro” parks. This place always had the look of being the last of the old cookie cutter places, even though it really wasn’t one of them. When it first opened there were a lot of complaints, although my research shows they were mostly by people who were against the old Comiskey being torn down. On the other hand, the lowest seat in the upper deck in the new place was higher than the highest seat in the old place, so that kind of lends itself to a not rather cozy feel. Over time though there’s been some renovations including reducing the number of seats in the upper deck, making the place more fan friendly, and is widely reported to be a very nice place to see game. I’ve been to Chicago once, but it was in December, so seeing either Chicago park was not an option, really. The place looks pretty nice on television. Beyond that, I don’t know much else about the place.
Corporate Sponsorship: This is another one of the parks that opened with a non corporate name (New Comiskey Park, although officially just Comiskey Park), and then switched to a corporate one. That pretty much guarantees that fans won’t use the corporate name, and will just use the old name instead. Although I have seen the corporate nickname shortened to just “The Cell” a lot. Probably moreso than I hear Comiskey. Anyway, the money brought in was just under $3 million a year ($68 million over 23 years is about 2.9 million). A bunch of money, indeed. A Cellular phone company isn’t too bad, although generally people who talk on cell phones during games are despised, so that could be a “mixed signal” of sorts.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | Ballparks.com ]
Oriole Park at Camden Yards (1992)
Team Occupant: Baltimore Orioles
Stadium Nickname: “Camden Yards”
Park Named After: The Orioles & former rail yards at the site
Money from Sponsorship: N/A
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: Memorial Stadium (1954-1991), Sportsman’s Park (1902-1953), Lloyd Street Grounds (1901)
Future Park: N/A
Other Tenants: None
Joe’s Remarks: The gold standard by which most modern parks are compared. And why not? It looks great, it feels great (when it’s not humid in Baltimore), and the atmosphere is heard to beat. My wife and I attended a few games there around 1999 or so and it was every bit as cool as you think it is seeing it on TV. The Eutaw street vendors were quite nice. Walking in there is something “to do”. What added to that for us is we stayed at a hotel across the street, so that helped the “walking” feel. There are boatloads of food selections around, although the crab cakes at the park were nowhere near as good as restaurants around – a lot of places say they’re just as good at the park. Bah, no they’re not. There’s a lot of metal plates in Eutaw St around the right field fence where people have hit home run balls. I just can’t say enough about the experience around the park before and after a game. It’s quite cool.
A personal memory of the warehouse behind right field is that when I was living in Philadelphia, I had driven down to Baltimore a couple of times, and quite clearly recall driving on Eutaw Street in front of the warehouse. Little did I know that they’d do something as cool as that with it some years later. Also, when you’re there, you can see the Ravens’ stadium which is on the other side of the parking lot. That’s not something you usually see in overhead shots. It’s not as close as it is in say Kansas City. It feels like Pittsburgh in that regard.
Also, while not part of the park, the Babe Ruth Museum is within walking distance of the place, and should be something you should check out if you’re there.
Corporate Sponsorship: No corporate sponsorship with this place. It’s an icon, that I think if the Orioles tried to sell the name there’d be a total revolt. It’s one of the final stadiums with no corporate name.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | Ballparks.com ]
Jacobs Field (1994)
Team Occupant: Cleveland Indians
Stadium Nickname: “The Jake”
Park Named After: Former team owner, Richard Jacobs
Money from Sponsorship: N/A
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: Cleveland Municipal Stadium (1932-1993), League Park/Dunn Field (1904-1946)
Future Park: N/A
Other Tenants: None
Joe’s Remarks: Jacobs Field is always one of those parks I love seeing on TV. It’s got some odd glass structures down the right and left fields, the fence in left is a good size fence, not too gigantic (left field in Boston), or too tiny (right field in Boston). I’ve always enjoyed watching this place on TV when the Rangers are there. One of the more notable features is the gigantic scoreboard in left, something I think was used as a model a few years later for the scoreboards in Detroit and Philadelphia. I love scoreboards, and it’s places like this that make me realize what a failure the scoreboard situation in Texas is like. The team “retired” the number 455 for a streak of sellouts of the same number. You don’t hear much about that now, as the streak ended in 2001, but it was something pretty cool when they did it.
Corporate Sponsorship: No corporate sponsorship with this place. I’m not from Cleveland, so I don’t know what the attraction to the name is, so I don’t have a feel on what would happen if they wanted to change it. The park is named after a former team owner, which is cool.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | Ballparks.com ]
Rangers Ballpark in Arlington (1994)
Team Occupant: Texas Rangers
Stadium Nickname: “The Ballpark” or “The Temple”
Park Named After: The Texas Rangers and the City of Arlington
Money from Sponsorship: None currently
Former Stadium Names: The Ballpark in Arlington (1994 – May 2004), Ameriquest Field in Arlington (May 2004 – March 2007)
Team’s Former Parks: Arlington Stadium (1972-1993)
Future Park: N/A
Other Tenants: None, although there was a college tournament played here during the summer for a few years in the early 2000’s.
Joe’s Remarks: You know, it’s weird. I’ve written what I know about all the ballparks around, and then it comes time to write about my “home” park (didn’t grow up here, but have lived here awhile), and I find myself oddly out of ideas. Since 1997, I’ve averaged going to about 20-25 games a season in this park. I know it well. I pay attention when the slightest change happens – even down to the advertising. I notice pretty much everything about this park, I know all the great places to park, the best deals on coupons, and things like that. But I find it hard writing about my own park. Not sure why, but I’ll give it a stab.
It is a great place to see a game, once you get there. That’s part of the problem, I suppose. In the 70’s the team was positioned (more or less, I know it’s not exact) halfway through Ft Worth & Dallas (and to a lesser degree Denton), to straddle the towns/communities and attract more people, I would assume. That’s also the albatross. It’s out in the middle of nowhere, basically. Now it’s not as a bad as all that, but most modern parks have some sort of “something” around them that draws the fans before the game, and keeps them afterwards. There’s nothing to DO out there really. Oh, there’s a few restaurants in the general vicinity, but realistically, when the game is over, you go home. There’s JerryLandâ„¢ being built not too far down the road, but that won’t impact this aspect. I suppose in a way, that is part of the Glorypark project that has started construction. Something else for “outside”.
OK, I guess I need to write about the park itself. It has a reptuation of being a hitter’s park, and after seeing so many games there, I tend to agree with that. It wasn’t always that way – before The Hicks ownership put in a bar/restuarant behind home plate, it was more fair. That place created the well known “wind tunnel/jet stream” out to right field. It definitely favored lefthanders. Right handers were treated more fairly than lefties, although a right hander that knows how to hit the other way can do well here. The only other negative thing I can think of is the scoreboard situation. The jumbotron is anything but “jumbo” by modern stadium standards. Yeah, I know the place is only 13 years old, but places that have come since just beat the tar out of this place in terms of scoreboard quality. The fact that it’s over top of the right field bleachers means a lot of people out that way can’t see it – and it’s friggin TINY! I mean it’s really small. Hicks needs to spend a few bucks and upgrade the video boards, plus add a second in left field.
Despite all that has been done to the place since it opened, it really is still a nice place to see a game. The outfield wall has a lot of eccentrities, the kids running onto the batter’s sye for home runs is fun, the dot race was invented here (as were ballpark nachos, although those things were in the older park). Despite all the negative stuff I’ve said about it, it really is a fun place to see a game, once you get there. Plus the 200 level seats are a bit wider than the seats in the rest of the park, and are more comfortable for “larger” fans. :) Heck, I even like Rangers Captain, the mascot that was added a couple of years back. A fun place for a major league baseball game, if not perhaps the “sexiest” park whenever national lists of best ballparks come up.
It also looks really georgeous from the outside – look at this picture of the outside of the place I took during the 2007 season here. Inside’s pretty nice too, especially since “Section 201” was restored (see next section). :)
Corporate Sponsorship: There’s no current sponsorship here. Although that wasn’t the case for about two and two thirds seasons. From May 2004 through till the end of the 2006 season, the place was called “Ameriquest Field in Arlington”. Tom Hicks whored the place out to an home mortgage company for at the time was a 30 year lease for $75 million. That was $2.5 million a year. And it was all over the place. It was QUITE annoying. One time I was at a game, and spotted about 10 instances of Ameriquest from my seat. That doesn’t count all the times it’s on the tickets, in the bathroom, in signs around the place. It was puke inducing, that’s for sure. You can bet your ass not a fan was even remotely interested in using Ameriquest because their name was here. If anyone did do business with Ameriquest, I’d say it would be accidential. Who bases something like the HOME MORTGAGE on the fact that said company was giving Tom Hicks $2.5 million a year? Nobody with half a brain, that’s for sure. If anything, it had to be a case where people would avoid Ameriquest for that exact reason.
Which brings up an interesting case. When the name change was announced, Rangers brass went through great pains to call it “Ameriquest FIELD in Arlington”, not “Ameriquest Ballpark in Arlington”. For the obvious reason – the latter could too easily be ignored and the old name would still be there. Someone from the Rangers was grilled by that day by local radio personality Randy Galloway over this specific issue. The person from the Rangers never gave in on that subject, but the way it was handled, the guy more or less confirmed the fact it was named “field” just so that folks couldn’t ignore the name change even if they wanted to. I know I did. Never called the place Ameriquest Field. It’s still not technically back to the original name. “Rangers Ballpark in Arlington” is close enough to the original name. Plus to be honest, this could have been the original name and it probably would have come off with the same feel, so I’m OK with “RBiA”.
I’d be remiss as a Rangers FAN if I didn’t take a parting shot at the stupid shill of the Ameriquest money. The bell that replaced Section 201. Hated that thing – it looked cheap and plastic. About the only thing I wish had happened when it was in here is for someone to hit a home run off the bell. That never happened, though. THAT would have been interesting.
Bell UPDATE: After I published this article, a friend at the Texas Rangers read it, and sent me a couple of pictures of the bell being removed. She didn’t actually get any pictures of the bell itself in pieces, but did add that she saw it. Said the bell was made of some sort of foam, as she did see it when it was removed. She asked not to be named, so I’ll respect that, but I was allowed to use the pictures. Here they are. Gotta love this! :)
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | Ballparks.com ]
Coors Field (1995)
Team Occupant: Colorado Rockies
Stadium Nickname: Unknown
Park Named After: Coors Brewing Company
Money from Sponsorship: $15 million; unknown years
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: Mile High Stadium (1993-1994)
Future Park: N/A
Other Tenants: None
Joe’s Remarks: This is a stadium that I was close to seeing. During the summer of 1993, I was in Colorado Springs for a company convention, and while I was there, I decided to take in a Rockies game over in Denver. This was during their inaugrual season, and as such Coors had not yet been built. So I saw a game in Mile High Stadium, which I recall had all the problems of a baseball game shoehorned into a football stadium. But this article isn’t really about Mile High, it’s about Coors.
The two most unique things I think of when I think of Coors are the “mile high” row of purple seats, and the Humidor. The purple seats are cool, and mark the actual point where the stadium is a mile high off of sea level. The humidor is a more recent addition, where they keep the balls from drying out and becoming rockets that fly out. One other thing that sticks out to me on TV is the Rockpile, that section of seats way out past Center field that’s up high. Seems enormously far away, but they also to me seem like it’d be a cool place to sit. I also recall a few home run balls out of there in the Home Run Derby back in 1998, including one by McGwuire that seemed to never come down. Definitely a huge hitters park. I’m also not aware of any fan based nickname for this place; it appears to be just “Coors”.
Corporate Sponsorship: $15 Million is the amount the name Coors has given towards the coffers. It’s an unknown number of years, so I’ll have to guess – my gut feeling is 10-15 years. That’s an unscientific guess mind you, but many more years reduces the amount to under $1mil a year. Since I have no facts on years, I’ll say 15 years, $15 million. That’s $1 million a year. OK it’s a beer company, which isn’t too bad in terms of names, and relevance to a baseball park. For me personally, one of the more benign corporate names around.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | Ballparks.com ]
Turner Field (1996)
Team Occupant: Atlanta Braves
Stadium Nickname: “The Ted”
Park Named After: Ted Turner, former team owner
Money from Sponsorship: N/A
Former Stadium Names: Centennial Olympic Stadium (1996)
Team’s Former Parks: Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium (1966-1996), Milwaukee County Stadium (1953-1965), Braves Field (1915-1952), Fenway Park (1914-1915), South End Grounds (1894-1914), Congress Street Grounds (1894), (South End Grounds (1871-1894)
Future Park: N/A
Other Tenants: 1996 Summer Olympics
Joe’s Remarks: Well, most people know this place as the place where the summer Olympics were held in 1996 when there was a bombing scare. At least that’s how I remember the place, since I’m not a Braves fan. The year after that, the place was reconfigured for baseball only and the Braves moved in in 1997. In 1998, I was in town for another corporate convention, and actually drove past the place, but did not attend. Part of the reason I did not is one thing I simply cannot stand. The stupid chop the fans do. It’s one of the two things I detest most about baseball (the other being the Yankees), I simply cannot tolerate watching Braves fans do that. It’s highly annoying, and has caused me to not watch games and even not watch the World Series when the Braves were there. Having said that, the Braves do have one thing in Turner Field that I would like. That seriously awesome scoreboard in center field. It was not an original thing, having been added for the 2005 season, but it was (when added) the Guiness Book of World Records holder for the biggest high def scoreboard anywhere. It does look seriously impressive when I see it. That’s the kind of thing I’d love the Rangers add. To be honest, I don’t know much aout this place other than what I’ve said above, so I’ll take a bit of a pass.
Corporate Sponsorship: No corporate money here, as the place is named after TBS founder, and former Braves owner, Ted Turner.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | Ballparks.com ]
Chase Field (1998)
Team Occupant: Arizona Diamondbacks
Stadium Nickname: “The Bob”
Park Named After: JP Morgan Chase Bank
Money from Sponsorship: $33.1 million over 30 years
Former Stadium Names: Bank One Ballpark (1998-2005)
Team’s Former Parks: None
Future Park: N/A
Other Tenants: NCAA Insight Bowl (2000-2005)
Joe’s Remarks: This seems like one of those places not really known to the overall larger audience, although I know a lot of people enjoyed November 4, 2001. That was the day the Diamondbacks beat the Yankees in the World Series to win it all. Probably the park’s finest moment. To be honest, other than the pool in right field, I can’t think of much unique to say about this place. It does have a retractable roof, and given the climate in Phoenix, I guess you kind of have to have that, otherwise you’d cook your fans.
If you look at the pictures of the place, it just seems cavernous – that’s because the spaces inbetween the top of the playing area and the roof are filled with stuff – mostly advertisements. The Astros park has the same kind of feel, but since they have giant windows in left in that space instead of more ads, it doesn’t feel so cavernous. In all fairness, I know little about Chase Field, so it’s probably unfair to slag it, but I don’t know much about the place other than what I’ve said here.
Corporate Sponsorship: A long term deal. 30 years, eh? Banks do not seem like a natural target for baseball fans. Does anyone feel more inclined to bank with Chase for the $1 million a season they’re spending to call this place that? For the record, it was Bank One Ballpark for the first 8 years of its existance, it’s now Chase due to corporate bank buyouts, which speaks to what I’m thinking. Does anyone care about the corporate name? I mean really – people call this place “The Bob” anyway.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | Ballparks.com ]
Safeco Field (1999)
Team Occupant: Seattle Mariners
Stadium Nickname: “Safeco”
Park Named After: The Safeco Insurance Company
Money from Sponsorship: $40 million over 20 years
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: The Kingdome (1977-1999)
Future Park: N/A
Other Tenants: Seattle Bowl (NCAA; 2001)
Joe’s Remarks: This is a place I know well. We see this all the time being in the same division as the Mariners, so we have something like 10 games a year there. The Rangers and this place have an odd relationship, as the place was opened in the middle of the season in 1999. Usually stadium openings are at the start of the season, but Safeco’s first home game was July 15th. The Rangers were the final opponent at the Kingdome, and in odd scheduling in 99, we didn’t play again in Seattle until 2000, so we were the last AL team to play at Safeco, too. The stadium has a sliding rooftop, which is more like an umbrella than a “sealed in” roof. Safeco has a really nice scoreboard in the upper right field area, a big 
manual scoreboard in left – it seems like a nice place to see a game to me, but I’ve never been up in that area of the country, so I can’t say firsthand. Another thing I remember at Safeco was the final All Star home run by Cal Ripken – in fact that whole All Star game was great. The other great moment I recall was in 2001 when Arod returned there for the first time as a Ranger. The vitriol of the local fans was quite amusing, some of the ways they taunted him were quite inventive. But the park itself. There’s nothing that’s truly unique to this park, but it all seems to have been put together nicely. I do like how the home plate gate really resembles the similar feature in some of the old school parks like Ebbets or Connie Mack.
Corporate Sponsorship: $2 Million a year on the hopes an insurance company would gain enough business to cover that expense? If it was a beer company, I might buy it, but not insurance. I doubt there’s been many (if any) people that go to Safeco for insurance because of hearing the name at a baseball park. I don’t agree with this sponsorship at all.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | Ballparks.com ]
Also, as a Rangers fan, I’d be remiss if I didn’t show this when talking about the Mariners. Anyone who watches Rangers coverage from Seattle knows this footage. Did I hear a train or see an old guy in a blue hat, too?
Minute Maid Park (2000)
Team Occupant: Houston Astros
Stadium Nickname: “The Juice Box” or “Ten Run Field”
Park Named After: Minute Maid Company
Money from Sponsorship: $170 million over 28 years
Former Stadium Names: Enron Field (2000-2002), Astros Field (2002)
Team’s Former Parks: The Astrodome (1965-1999), Colt Stadium (1962-1964)
Future Park: N/A
Other Tenants: None
Joe’s Remarks: As this stadium is about a four hour drive from where I live, I’ve visited a few times, although not in a few years now. My wife and I went down there to check out the new stadium in its first year of existance, and then we went down a second time the following year. This is a great park. There’s so many cool unique things there it’s hard to write them all here. The hill in center with the in field flagpole is nice, I actually like the short left field fence. They have one of the most beautiful scoreboards, a georgeous hi-def screen in center field (one of the first I ever saw). They were the first stadium I ever noticed to have closed captioning boards for the in stadium speech. The overall color scheme is georgeous, the train that goes back and forth for home runs is cool, I just like this place a lot – I really need to get back there.
Corporate Sponsorship: ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY MILLION DOLLARS? I’m dumbfounded. In working on this article, I was given a list of every corporate stadium naming rights deal for all the major sports (and some college too). But $170 million? That’s nuts! That’s six million a season and change. I mean good lord! That comes out to be $74,955.91 per game. Now, a corporate name that is a juice company isn’t the most obvious choice for a baseball park, but it’s not as silly as a bank or an insurance company. So from that aspect, I don’t have a big problem with it, but six million dollars a year? Makes you wonder what good that money could do in the hands of say a church or some more beneficial party than whoever gets this money from the Coca-Cola Corporation. Sigh. The original deal was a 30 year $100 million deal with Enron, and we know how that went. Wow. Both of these deals dwarf most of the other deals I’ve seen in putting this article together.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
Comerica Park (2000)
Team Occupant: Detroit Tigers
Stadium Nickname: None that I know of
Park Named After: Comerica Incorporated (Bank)
Money from Sponsorship: $66 million over 30 years
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: Tiger Stadium (aka Navin Field & Briggs Stadium; 1912-1999), Bennett Park (1896-1911), Burns Park (Sundays only; 1901-1902), Boulevard Park (1894-1895)
Future Park: N/A
Other Tenants: None
Joe’s Remarks: When this place opened, it opened as a seriously old school feel to it. The dirt path between the mound and the plate, the expansive field that favored pitchers, and of course the old school feel of the Tigers themselves. I rather liked it. In the era of smaller parks, more home runs, it was quite refreshing to see this place open up the dimensions in the other direction. I’ve never been there, but from what I’ve seen on TV, it has quite a nice feel to it. The Tigers go way back and have a lot of players from ther past that are recognized in the stadium. There’s also several Tigers all over the place as part of the decor, including a merry go round outside the park. I like home runs as much as anyone else, but I’m a big fan of the piching/doubles/triples kind of game, so I’d probably love this place.
Even the reducing of the stands in left at the start of the 2003 season hasn’t done much to this – there are “new Comerica” home runs, but for the most part, this is still a seriously big pitchers park. Makes me wish I could see some games there. The fence in right field past the scoreboard is positively miles away, something Mark Teixeira hit a home run over as a right hander. Despite the corporate name, it seems like a positively enjoyable place to see a game.
Corporate Sponsorship: $2.2 Million a year over the span of 30 years? Yikes! I say the same thing about this place that I do about Chase Field. Does ANYONE change their banking preferences because of a stadium name? Especially when Comerica isn’t even based there (their HQ is in Dallas). Dividing the yearly dollar amount by the default of 81 home games, that breaks down to $27,160.49 per game for Comerica to have the place named after them. I really doubt they make that back. Dumb decision, IMO.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | Ballparks.com ]
AT&T Park (2000)
Team Occupant: San Francisco Giants
Stadium Nickname: “The Phone Booth”
Park Named After: American Telephone & Telegraph Company
Money from Sponsorship: $50 million over 24 years
Former Stadium Names: Pacific Bell Park (2000-2003), SBC Park (2004-2005)
Team’s Former Parks: Candlestick Park (1960-1999), Seals Stadium (1958-1959), Polo Grounds IV (1911-1957), Hilltop Park (1911), Polo Grounds III (1891-1911), Polo Grounds II (1889-1890), St. George Grounds (1889), Oakland Park (1889), Polo Grounds I (1883-1888)
Future Park: N/A
Other Tenants: Emerald Bowl (NCAAF; 2002-present), San Francisco Demons (XFL; 2001)
Joe’s Remarks: The thing most people think of when they think of this place is the spectacular view out into what has been named “McCovey Cove”. I’ve never been there, but I know some people who have, and have seen quite a few pictures of the place. It looks spectacular. I absolutely would love to take in a couple of games here. The folks diving out of their boats in the water after home run balls is quite funny (although I wonder if it will be as intense now that Bonds won’t be there in 08). As long as we’re talking about right field, they have a cool fence that folks can peer in and see some of the game for free without a ticket – kind of like the really old school days where that kind of thing was a regular occurrance. There’s the giant Coke bottle and glove in left field, a really large scoreboard in center, and garlic fries. :) There’s just so many really cool little quirks and unique bits in this place that it definitely deserves to be in the top 5 stadiums in all of baseball. I’ve not seen a true unique fan nickname for this place, although my research turned up “The Phone Booth”, although I can’t say I’ve ever heard that myself. One thing that’s amusing to me as a Texan are all the people who drink hot coffee and are bundled up in blankets and coats no matter what the month is you see a game on TV. It’s quite funny to see when the games in Texas are routinely starting at over 100 degrees at start time. :)
Corporate Sponsorship: You know, of all the stadiums built with Corporate sponsorship deals, this is one that doesn’t bother me. Despite the constant name changing, one thing that is cool about this one is the stadium was built totally without public financing. It’s for that reason that I don’t care that they’re trying to bring in a couple of (ok, lots of) extra dollars via corporate naming. Most of these corporate deals are done under the guise of “making the roster better”, but we know better than that. There is a lot of debt on this place, and since it’s prirvately financed, I don’t have a problem with these corporate dollars at all. One other thing about the name here. It’s technically been the same deal since it opened, but due to corporate changeovers, it’s had three names (Pacific Bell, SBC, and AT&T). It’s part of the silliness of corporate naming deals.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
Miller Park (2001)
Team Occupant: Milwaukee Brewers
Stadium Nickname: Unknown
Park Named After: Miller Brewing Company
Money from Sponsorship: $41 million over 20 years
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: Milwaukee County Stadium (1970-2000), Sick’s Stadium (1969)
Future Park: N/A
Other Tenants: None
Joe’s Remarks: I don’t know about locally, but nationally, this park is known more for what has gone wrong than good parts. There is the retractible roof that got stuck open, and then has a propensity to leak. Then there’s the tie game at the All-Star game, which really isn’t a problem with the stadium, but it’s on the pile. Finally there was the long delayed opening, which also had the death of two construction workers in July 1999. I also remember a lot of talk about the place being railroaded into construction with public dollars. The Brewers, being a small market team, don’t lend themselves to a lot of national coverage. I know a lot of ex Rangers are there due to their GM being the Rangers former GM, Doug Melvin. However, I don’t hear much about the stadium other than negative things, and that doesn’t help the perception. I’m sure it’s nowhere as bad as it’s reputation is, it’s probably pretty nice, but of all the parks, I have amongst the fewest words for Miller Park.
I would bet though that they have some of the best tailgating in the league, however. In reading about the place, there does appear to be a strong local following, but I don’t get to hear about any of that, since the national media is more interested in the Yankees and Red Sox. If I was in the area, I’d probably be a big Brewers fan. It was the home of the sausage race until Pittsburgh copied it with the Pierogi race, and now Texas as well with the live dot race.
Corporate Sponsorship: $2 million, 50 thousand dollars a year is the take from the Miller Brewing Company to have their name on this place. It’s no surprise that in Milwaukee, the place is named after beer. Make me wonder if they ever did anything with Laverne & Shirley. Anyway, it’s so much an ingrained name in the area I’d wager that there hasn’t been any thought as to a replacement nickname like lots of fans give these corporate names. This seems like one of the more benign corporate names, as it’s named after a beer, which is a strong local thing, plus beer is tied to baseball anyway, unlike something like say Chase Bank.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
PNC Park (2001)
Team Occupant: Pittsburgh Pirates
Stadium Nickname: Unknown
Park Named After: PNC Financial Services
Money from Sponsorship: $30 million over 20 years
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: Three Rivers Stadium (1970-2000), Forbes Field (1909-1970), Exposition Park II (1891-1909), Recreation Park (1884-1890), Exposition Park I (1882-1883)
Future Park: N/A
Other Tenants: None
Joe’s Remarks: This park routinely ranks at the top of the list of most beautiful ballparks. Even if you have never been there and just have seen it in pictures, you can get an appreciation as to why. This place is georgeous. The view of downton Pittsburgh is spectacular! It’s how a downtown park should look. I mean, look at the picture I have here of the place. I’ve been there a few times. My wife is from Pittsburgh, so the couple of times we’ve gone home to visit, we’ve taken in games. My wife and I did attend a few games the first year of the place, and the inside panoramic shot below was taken by me in August of 2001. We were back in the area in 2006 when the All-Star Game was there, but couldn’t get (much less afford) tickets, although we did attend Fanfest. Anyway, the actual playing field is not terribly unique. The wall in center and left is pretty constant, and the wall/scoreboard in 
right is also a constant height. There’s not a lot of “nooks an crannies” in the actual playing field as such. The right field wall, however, is 21 feet high in honor of the late Roberto Clemente, one of the best Pirates of all time. Speaking of the wall, the Allegheny River is right beyond it, and what is surprising to me is that to date, only one ball has been hit into the water on the fly. One would think more than that would be hit. It’s not the smallest right field distance, but it’s not that large, either. What makes this park for me is intimate size (smallest in MLB), the fact that it’s got the lowest “highest seat” in the bigs, and the various food and concessions – some of the best I’ve seen. The view is awesome, and there’s boat parking. There are a limited number of docks out in the river, and there’s also a showboat ferry you can take to get to the game from elsewhere in the city. The yellow bridges you can see past the park are closed before and after gametime (well, the one closest to the park is), and you can walk over them to the game. The street right outside the park usually has some sort of “event” going on – it’s not quite as boistrous as Eutaw Street in Baltimore, but it is a nice touch. The team pays homage to it’s legacy quite nicely – all in all, it might very well be my favorite major league baseball park. Shame though that the Pirates have not had a winning season since Barry Bonds left in 1992. The city deserves that. When the Pirates make it back to the playoffs, I’m sure this place will get a lot more National coverage; it deserves it.
Corporate Sponsorship: Well, another park named after a bank, or at least a financial institution. Don’t like these, because it just strikes me as “use our services because our name is on your stadium”. Nope. All these things do is make me NOT want to use their services. That’s $1.5 million a year for me to not use PNC Financial services. Oh well. Another dumb use of corporate money.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
The Great American Ballpark (2003)
Team Occupant: Cincinnati Reds
Stadium Nickname: “The Gap”
Park Named After: Great American Insurance Company, a division of the American Financial Group
Money from Sponsorship: $75 million over 30 years
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: Riverfront/Cinergy Field (1970-2002), Crosley/Redland Field (1912-1970), League Park III (1902-1911), League Park II (1894-1901), League Park I (1884-1893), Bank Street Grounds (1882-1883)
Future Park: N/A
Other Tenants: None
Joe’s Remarks: This is another park I know next to nothing about. The only time I can recall seeing it on TV was when the Rangers were there for interleague a couple of seasons ago. But not much stuck in my mind from those. Granted, a Rangers game is not the best place to learn about the park, though. It does appear to be a hitters park from what I can find, although probably not Coors (pre 
humidor), or even in Texas. A few nicknames about that seem to have popped up, like “The Great American Launching Pad”. The playing field is not terribly exciting, as the outfield wall is similar in look to the old cookie cutters where the wall goes without change around the outfield. Now granted, I’m not saying it’s as bad as that, but from the pictures I’ve seen, it doesn’t seem to have a lot of vareity. The riverboat smokestacks in right along with the very tall light tower stacks are what sticks out to me the most. The place is called the “Gap” mostly from what I belive to be a reference to the name of the place (GABP). There is also a section “missing” in the upper deck, creating gaps up there, and the mascot is named “Gapper”. The shots you see of the park show a river in the outfield, but there’s nothing there to see like there is in Pittsburgh, and the water does not appear to be close enough to allow balls to be hit into the Ohio River, although my research shows one was hit into the river, which is technically the state of Kentucky. Funny stat, the only home run in the majors hit into another state. Again, other than the name, I don’t know much about this place, and most of what I wrote is solely based on my research for this article, and may not be completely accurate in terms of capturing the “feel” of the place.
Corporate Sponsorship: This one is an odd one for me, and along with the Rangers park was one of the reasons I wrote this entire article. This place opened in 2003, and I knew of the name for a time before it actually opened. For the longest time, I thought this was merely the coolest ballpark name to come along in years; almost a patriotic name. “The Great American Ballpark”. It just sounded so cool. Sometime in 2005 I found out it was a corporate name. I have to admit I was disappointed in that. It just sounded so “ballparky”, and then when I found out it was a corporate name, my excitement went down a bit, but not a bunch – it still sounds cool, so for me, this is one of the few corporate names that TOTALLY works. The name is perfect for me. Yeah, it’s $2.5 Million a year, but it’s for one of the coolest names I can think of. Of course, I would never use their banking or financial services, but the name is cool. Ironic factoid of the corporate name: The principal shareholder of Great American is former Reds owner Carl Linder, Jr.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
Citizens Bank Park (2004)
Team Occupant: Philadelphia Phillies
Stadium Nickname: “The Vault” ???
Park Named After: Citizens Financial Group
Money from Sponsorship: $95 million over 25 years
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: Veterans Stadium (1971-2003), Shibe Park/Connie Mack (1938-1970), Baker Bowl (1887-1938), Recreation Park (1883-1886)
Future Park: N/A
Other Tenants: None
Joe’s Remarks: The new park for my hometown team, the Phillies. I know the team well, as my family (mostly) still all lives there, plus I grew up there; that’s the hometown ties to this team. I was up there in 2004 to see the opening of the place, and have been back a few times since. It kicks the crap out of the old place the Phillies played in since the early 70’s, that’s not even a valid comparison. The place has a ton of cool unique features which I enjoyed. Really asymmetrical fences, the bell that rings for home runs, the rather oddly shaped stadium design itself, along with some things that were purloined from other park designs. Mostly Ashburn Alley is what I’m talking about. It’s a “street” (not a real one) behind the playing area similar in design to Eutaw Street in Baltimore; at least that was the idea. Eutaw Street was a real street, this is not. While it’s still a cool idea, it unfortunately was SEVERELY overcrowded. So much so that it was totally impossible to stop and look at anything due to the crush of people. I did take a tour of the place, and it was pretty nice when it wasn’t overcrowed with humanity, but during game days the few times I tried to go there, it was just too crowded to be enjoyable. That said, it is a cool mix of food stands and whatnot. 
The Baltimore comparison continues out there with a stand called “Bull’s BBQ” owned by former Phillie Greg Luzinski, not unlike Boog’s BBQ in Baltimore, run by Boog Powell. There’s also a section of seats on top of the buildings behind Ashburn Alley, which is a throwback to some “on the rooftop seats” across the street from the old Baker Bowl in the early 1900’s. There is a fantastic section behind the giant batter’s eye wall in center which goes into the history of baseball in Philadelphia. It mostly focuses on the Phillies for obvious reasons, but also gets into the A’s and if I remember right, Negro Leagues. The Phillies Wall of Fame is out there, too. There’s actually QUITE a lot of nice things in the stadium to check out. Scoreboard is nice and huge, the place is pretty clean, and there’s a not too bad (bot nothing like Pittsburgh AT ALL) view of downtown Philly – too bad it’s marred by that stupid white “Phillies” sign, which was a holdover from the era of the Vet. If I still lived in Philly, I’d probably have more to say about the specifics of the place, but it definitely was a nice place, and not just because the Vet was such a dump. Speaking of the Vet, that place was a donut. I’m sure that factored into the shape design of this new place. It’s an octagon, although with one side partially missing (behind Ashburn Alley). There’s also a “gap” in the stadium behind first base, rather similar to the one (if a bit bigger) than the one in Cincinnati.
Corporate Sponsorship: Another bank sponsorship. I’m sure someone involved with the team enjoys the $3.8 million that Citizens sends over annually to have their name plastered all over the place. But it’s a bank. Why do banks think it’s a good investment to put their name on a sports stadium? I just don’t get it. It just seems like pissing in the wind – what’s the point? They simply cannot make enough money back on that in my mind. The fans have dubbed this place quite a lot of names, but the one I hear more often is “The Vault”. What’s funny is I read at the time that Citizens Bank was mad that folks were not wanting to use the proper name. Bah, like they can do anything about it. :)
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
PETCO Park (2004)
Team Occupant: San Diego Padres
Stadium Nickname: Unknown
Park Named After: PETCO Animal Supplies, Inc.
Money from Sponsorship: $60 million over 22 years
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: Qualcomm Stadium/Jack Murphy Stadium/San Diego Stadium (1969-2003)
Future Park: N/A
Other Tenants: USA Sevens (Rugby Tournament; 2007-)
Joe’s Remarks: Another place I don’t know much about, having never seen a game there in person or on TV other than one or two in the World Baseball Classic. It’s reputation is the same as Detroit’s park – great pitcher’s park, not great for power guys. So these most recent parks I don’t have much to say in terms of personal experience. I do know about the usage of the old warehouse building that has the left field foul pole on the corner. That’s kind of cool, even if it does seem like a small ripoff of Camden Yards. Something else that’s kind of cool is a burm in center field where you can sit on the lawn for $5. Said burm also doubles as a public park when there’s no game going on. That’s kind of a nice thing, and family related too, as it’s cheap. As it’s one of the more recent stadiums, it does seem to be a hodgepodge of cool bits from other stadiums built since Camden Yards in 1992. The center field batter’s eye looks like Detroit, the right field scoreboard looks like Philly, the bullpen in right center looks like Comiskey, etc, etc. I’m sure it’s a beautiful place if I was to attend, but alas, San Diego is a bit far away for me, and I have next to zero experience with the place on TV.
I asked a friend of mine who I work with that hails from San Diego if there was a fan made nickname for this place, and he said there was not. He even checked with some friends who lived back home there, and there appears to be no corporate replacement by the fans. They use PETCO.
Corporate Sponsorship: OK, a baseball park named after a pet store. It’s not totally stupid and irrelevant like banks and insurance companies are, but a pet store? It just strikes me as goofy. You put $2.7 Million in my coffers a year, and you can probably call my house “The PETCO Siegler Abode”, and I wouldn’t care, I suppose. But this is about the relevancy of a pet store to a baseball park. It’s a head scratcher to me. Not exactly bad, but whenever I think about it, I go “Uh… OK, I don’t get it”.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
Busch Stadium (2006)
Team Occupant: St. Louis Cardinals
Stadium Nickname: “Busch”
Park Named After: Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc.
Money from Sponsorship: Unknown
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: Busch Memorial Stadium/Busch II (1966-2005), Sportsmans Park III/Busch I (1920-1966), Robison Field (1893-1920), Sportsmans Park I (1882-1892)
Future Park: N/A
Other Tenants: None
Joe’s Remarks: This is the current newbie of the crop of Major League Stadiums. As such, I know zero about it, all I see is the odd highlight on Baseball Tonight, or the occasional still picture. From what I’ve seen, it has a nice skyline out the back of the stadium (although not as killer as Pittsburgh’s is). The St Louis arch is a nice touch, and the place just looks dynamite all decked out in red when the fans all wear it. The city has a reputation of being a great baseball town, so I’m sure it’s an awesome place to see a game, I just unfortunately know nothing about it. Sorry folks in St. Louis. :(
A note about the aerial shot. I’ve tried to avoid using stadium under construction pictures, but I can’t find a good quality aerial picture of Busch post construction, so I had to use the one I did. It’s mostly finished. Sorry about that.
Corporate Sponsorship: I can’t find any info on corporate dollars for Busch Stadium. Even if there was some, it’s a beer name again. Doesn’t seem too out of line. My first thought was that since the team was owned by the Busch family that there might not be corporate dollars, akin to what the Rogers Corp is doing in Toronto. However, I found out that the Busch family hasn’t owned the Cardinals since 1995. So my guess is there is corporate money, but my research has not turned up a dollar value for that.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
The Future
It doesn’t end there. There’s several parks in various stages of construction and or planning. When I started writing this article, it was in mid July 2007, and at that time I figured I’d get it out the door quickly. That didn’t happen (this article came out in November 2007), and as such the Nationals park has a “current” one that has been closed. I thought about switching it, but since the Nats haven’t actually played a game in their new park, I decided to leave it the way it was. Having said that, here’s some thoughts on future parks. Obviously, with these events being in the future, they’re open to change.
Nationals Park (2008)
Team Occupant: Washington Nationals
Stadium Nickname: Unknown
Park Named After: Unknown
Money from Sponsorship: Unknown
Other Tenants: Unknown
Joe’s Remarks: This is next up on the slate of future ballparks. The Nationals new park will open in April 2008. It is unknown if “Nationals Ballpark” is the final name of the place, but I cannot fathom how it will open with that name. Given how much stink there was about getting the public to fund this place, I can’t imagine it won’t go out with some sort of
corporate name. Not that those dollars would repay the debt, but if a team/managment/MLB is so hung up on getting the taxpayers to pay for it, you think they won’t try and squeeze a couple of million out of naming rights?
The pictures make it look like a good park. The outside looks like an interesting mix of several other parks’ exteriors. I see a bit of Yankee Stadium in the exterior design. Heck, the ramps in the foreground of the picture make me think of old Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. The inside looks quite nice if these renderings are to be believed. Trees in left gives it a minor league park feel to me. The seats in center look nice, and the scoreboard reminds me of some other recent nice ones. The bit most by right field looks a LOT like the same area in Veterans Stadium again – odd that I’d think of the dead Philly park twice here.
I’ll be checking it out the first time it’s on an ESPN game in 2008 – looks very nice. Next time I’m home in Philly, I might have to take a drive down there and check it out.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
New Yankee Stadium (2009)
Team Occupant: New York Yankees
Stadium Nickname: Unknown
Park Named After: Unknown
Money from Sponsorship: Unknown
Other Tenants: Unknown
Joe’s Remarks: One of the three earliest Meccas of baseball gets replaced. In looking at the pictures and designs for the place that have been published, it seems the goal here is to rebuild the old stadium yet make it more modern and comfortable. Even with the refit in the 70’s, Yankee Stadium was a park built for a different time. I would have loved to have been to the old stadium and see it just for the reasons everyone stated (Ruth played here, Gehrig played here, Mantle played here, etc…), I won’t. Shame, as I would have loved to have seen a game there.
The new place will probably be a great park – you can’t really build a BAD new park (although the White Sox place wasn’t that great when it first opened). I do have to admit to being curious to see how much of the mystique (if any) of the old place transfers over here. It is interesting that the playing field dimensions will be exactly the same as current Yankee stadium.
If you read about the park, there will be some corporate name attached to the park, but not in the traditional sense. The overall name of the park will be “Yankee Stadium”, but some other naming issues will be sold inside the place. Not entirely sure how that will shake out, even after reading a bit about it.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
Citi Field (2009)
Team Occupant: New York Metropolitans
Stadium Nickname: Unknown
Park Named After: Citigroup, Inc.
Money from Sponsorship: $400 million over 20 years (holy crap!)
Other Tenants: Unknown
Joe’s Remarks: Well, Shea Stadium is being replaced with Citi Field, which will open in 2009. I have to admit, I don’t know much about the new park at all. In researching this article, I’ve read the press on it, seen the pictures, etc, etc, etc, and I can’t get much of a feel for this. It does look like they’re retaining the “large” amount of scoreboard that is in right field in Shea with more than one scoreboard cluster. Will have to see how it plays out when it actually opens. I’m sure it will be like all the newer parks, nice seats, nice that, great scoreboard, etc, etc, etc..
But what is most surprising to me is the staggering amount of corporate dollars for the naming rights. FOUR HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS OVER TWENTY YEARS! That’s twenty freakin million dollars PER YEAR to call this place “Citi Field”. I mean holy shit. There hasn’t been a single dollar taken in from tickets, vending, sales, and that’s $20 million a year. That’s more than every player salary except one (Arod). That’s more than several entire team’s salaries not too long ago, either. It is banking again, so I’m going to trot out my corporate naming rights rant about naming your place against a finiancial company. Corporate sponsorship is done in hopes to gain business back because the name is out there in front of as many eyeballs as possible. But $20 million a year? How the heck can they possibly hope to gain that much more money? The fun part is that there’s options on both sides to extend the rights out to 35 years (presumably at $20 mil a year too). That would mean $700 million dollars over 35 years. That’s just mind numbing. I can’t even insult that, I don’t know where to begin. I’ll just leave Pooh Bear to sum it up:
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
New Twins Ballpark (2010)
Team Occupant: Minnesota Twins
Stadium Nickname: Unknown
Park Named After: Unknown
Money from Sponsorship: Unknown
Other Tenants: Unknown
Joe’s Remarks: The saga of the Twins new ballpark has taken a lot of turns. It started a few years back when Selig threatened to contract the Twins & the Expos. Through many threats and a long debate, construction has finally begun on the new Twins park. As it’s not supposed to open for another 2.5 years after I’m writing this, not a ton is known in detail about it. Like the name and corporate dollars, but given how much of a tightwad Carl Pohlad is reported to be in terms of spending money on the Twins, I can’t imagine there won’t be a corporate name attached to this place. The artist renderings of the inside of the place seem to have a lot of influnces I see fromo other parks. The trees in center remind me of Baltimore a bit, the scoreboard of Cleveland, seats like Anaheim, etc, etc. But in all fairness it’s hard to really tell based on artist renderings.
But what amazes me most about this place is NO DOME. It’s open air – which will be most interesting in April, and in October (assuming the Twins play in October). It seems quite bizarre that they’d pick a park design that has no roof. From what I can gather it was purely a cost thing. It was done to save money. In all fairness, retractable roofs are amazingly expensive, so I can understand that, but Pohlad could probably pay for it himself and not really blink. I’m sure during the summer it will be georgeous, but one has to question not even considering a roof. It will make for a lot of rescheduled games due to weather, as the climate up there isn’t really a good one for fair weather during the early and late part of the season.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
Cisco Field (2011?)
Team Occupant: Oakland A’s
Stadium Nickname: Unknown
Park Named After: Cisco Systems
Money from Sponsorship: Unknown
Other Tenants: Unknown, hopefully none.
Joe’s Remarks: A replacement for the A’s is something that really is needed. I talked about this earlier up when I talked about McAfee Stadium, Al Davis & the Raiders really screwed up the existing park for the A’s. It used to be a fairly nice baseball stadium until the Raiders were shoehorned into the place. The A’s by all accounts get shafted when it comes to income from the place, so corporate naming aside, they could do way better. The replacement is already named, “Cisco Field”. The place is named after the company that makes Internet networking hardware (most common name I know is Linksys). Anyway, it’s funny that a corporate naming deal was in place before the plans for the park were formally approved.
If the renderings are to be believed, this place seems to draw VERY heavily from the “warehouse” look that is in Baltimore. San Diego’s new place sort of does that, but this REALLY does, as you can see several warehouses outside the ballpark. It’s impossible to judge at this time (heck, they haven’t even broken ground yet), so I’ll reserve judgment. I’m sure the A’s will love to get rid of Mount Davis, and all the covered seats in the upper most sections of their current home.
This isn’t in Oakland, it’s in Fremont (which according to Google Maps is about 27 miles away). It’s the same general area, but not specifically in Oakland anymore. One interesting factoid. When the A’s move into this place, it will be the first place built new just for them since they moved into Shibe Park in 1909. Wow.
This is a stadium NOT being designed by HOK, who seems to design all the major league baseball parks. This place is being designed by “360 Architecture”.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]
New Rays Park (2012?)
Team Occupant: Tampa Bay Rays
Stadium Nickname: Unknown
Park Named After: Unknown
Money from Sponsorship: Unknown
Other Tenants: Unknown
Joe’s Remarks: This is an interesting possibility. The Rays have a 30 year lease at Tropicana Field, arguably the single WORST stadium in the majors. It’s no surprise to me that the team wants to get out of there. From what I’ve seen on TV, it’s atrocious. However, the fact that they have an existing lease is a big sticking point.
However, in November of 2007 I started seeing some rumors that the Rays would try and have a new park built anyway and open in time for the 2012 season. While there isn’t a single picture or anything available about this idea, one has to believe that even if it was the worst of the new parks built, it would have to be better than the place they’re in now.
The story I read says that the big sticking point would be finding a developer to put up some sort of retail/resdential complex on the current site of Tropicana Field, which would allow the team to exit their lease. The new park would alledgedly be built on the site of the Rays current spring training field – something they’re abandoning after the 2008 season. Starting in 2009, the Rays will do their spring training at a renovated facility in Port Charlotte (which housed the Texas Rangers until they went to Arizona). I think the possibility of selling off and using the land where Tropicana Field is now gives the Rays an edge on getting approval and financing for an new park over their intra state opponent, the Marlins.
It seems to this fan that the plan is a good one, and can work. The Rays obviously need a better stadium, but they’re stuck. Only way out would be to get the existing debts paid off, so they can go. Even the Governor of Florida thinks this is a good idea, and can work.
The day I posted this article public, the Rays had a press conference announcing their plans to build the new park. The picture below is from their photo gallery they released (which you can get to on the official mlb link below). They have a separate website set up for the overall plan, which you can get to here.
External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com (no page yet) ]
New Marlins Park (Who Knows?)
Team Occupant: Florida Marlins
Stadium Nickname: Unknown
Park Named After: Unknown
Money from Sponsorship: Unknown
Other Tenants: Unknown
Joe’s Remarks: There’s not much to say about this one. The Florida Marlins have been trying to get financing together for a new park for YEARS. The attempt has spanned multiple owners of the team, too. There were a few times over the years they got close, but as far as I know, there are no actual plans now that are concrete. Oh, the team wants to, but are finding building options limited both by location and by cooperation from local and State governments.
Thing is, they HAVE to have a new place soon, as their lease states they can’t playin Dolphin Stadium after the 2010 season. They’ll be homeless at that point.
It’s amusing that the governor of Florida seems to want to go out of his way to help the Rays get a new park, but it does’t seem (from my perspective anyway) that the Marlins are getting the same treatment. Thing is, Dolphin Stadium has atrocious attendance. I know part of it is the place they play, but I sometimes wonder if it wouldn’t be better for the Marlins to move somewhere else that has a fanbase that is interested in showing up.
Too bad MLB doesn’t have a centralized stadium fund like the NFL does, which would prevent all these things from ever happening. Who knows what’s happening with this one?
Corporate Summary
So what have I learned from all this? Easy, baseball has too darned much money. :)
This article started life as an exercise on ranting on corporate money and how it dominates the game in terms of naming of ballparks. What I found is that (barely) the stadiums without a corporate name outnumber the stadiums with a corporate name. I thought it was mostly the other direction before I started this.
Of the current parks, 16 do NOT have corporate names, and 14 do. However, three of the current “no corporate” stadiums did used to have a name at one point in the past (Angel Stadium, Dolphin Stadium, & Rangers Ballpark in Arlington).
Regarding future parks, it’s hard to tell what’s going to happen, since it is the future. Of the seven known future parks, two already have corporate names attached to them. Of the remaining five, only one is known not to have a name (Yankee Stadium). The remaing four are unknown. I’m not going to include the future parks in my summary, although the amount of money being paid by Citi for the Mets new park is just staggering.
Of the 16 currently named corporate parks, here’s a breakdown of what kind of entity the corporate name is:
Phone Co: 2 (AT&T, US Cellular)
Bank: 4 (Chase, Citizens Bank, Comerica, & PNC)
Beer: 2 (Coors & Miller)
Insurance: 2 (Great American & Safeco)
Computer Software: 1 (McAfee)
Drinks/Juice: 2 (Minute Maid & Tropicana)
Pet Store: 1 (PETCO)
Totaled together, those corporate dollars amount to around 34.5 million per year. That’s a lot of money for banks, juice, and phones. I know as a whole, the country has obscene amounts of money, but I can’t fathom how this much money translates back into real additional profit for the various corporate entities that are giving the money to various teams. Those numbers are approximate, as at least one of the deals I used to figure out the number has an unknown number of years, although I do know the dollars for it (Coors).
It’s not going to get any better, with seven new stadiums coming into existance in the next 6 or 7 years or so. I know some stadiums couldn’t change their names or the folks would just completely revolt (Yankee, Fenway, Wrigley), but one wonders where it will stop.
It probably won’t, as money is the root of all evil, and the devil loves to use evil to tempt us and lie to us. Hmm, can I blame corporate namings rights on the devil? Perhaps I can. Perhaps it isn’t. But I do know this. All that money could be far better used to service mankind than to line the pockets of some business person or team/stadium owner.
There is also the issue of most of these stadiums being paid for by public dollars, or at least a big percentage of them. It’s one of the reasons I don’t have a problem with AT&T Park and corporate dollars. The team paid for the stadium itself – no public money. They could have the dugouts shaped like cel phones, and I wouldn’t care. It just seems wrong to take this money when the park was paid for by Joe Schmoe, who increasingly cannot afford to attend as many games as they want.
Article Credits & Thank Yous
I’d first like to thank God for giving me the ability to do something like this. This article has been a long time coming, and I’m thankful to be in the position I am in both personally and professionally that would allow me the time and leisure to construct this article.
I’d also like to thank all the folks whose websites I used pictures from. There’s several of them, and even when the picture was a public domain release, I credited it when I knew the proper credit. But a big thanks goes out to Paul Munsey of ballparks.com, a site I’ve known for many years. He has some great photos, great ballpark info, and on top of that, has a store where you can buy aerial shots of your favorite parks – go check it out.
I’d also be remiss if I didn’t thank Maury Brown over at bizofbaseball.com. He helped out a lot with the dollar amounts for the various parks. You’ll want to check out his site – there is a boatload of cool stuff there.
I’d also like to thank my wife, who has attended games with me in a handful of these places. Together, we’ve seen games in Veterans Stadium, Three Rivers Stadium, The Astrodome, The Ballpark in Arlington, Minute Maid Park, PNC Park, & Oriole Park. I hope to do the “30 stadiums in one season” tour with her some day. :)
That’s about it, just the list of photo credits below. If you made it this far, I’d like to thank YOU for reading through all this. It’s gigantic I know (about 18,000 words), but it was something I started back in July of 2007, and it survived my feeling like I wanted to shut down the site in September. In fact, I think had I not started this article, and would have left it unfinished that I may have quit the site in September like I talked about.
Thanks for visiting my site, and I would really appreciate any feedback you have on this piece – or anything you’d like to add about a specific park.
Joe Siegler
Webmaster – rangerfans.com
Photo Copyrights:
Here’s a copyright for all the photos I used in the article, if I’m aware of them. I decided to credit the pictures after I had already started collecting them. As such, some I can’t find again via Google Image Search which is where I found a bunch of these. If one of these is yours and you want credit, email me and let me know. Thanks.
Fenway:
Aerial: Photo (c) 2006 Aidan Siegel – Picture licensed under CC Attribution 3.0 ShareAlike License.
Inside: Unknown copyright. Image taken from Fenway Park page on Ballparks.com
Wrigley:
Aerial: Unknown copyright. Image taken from Wrigley Field page at Ballparks.com
Inside: Unknown copyright. Don’t recall where this came from.
Yankee Stadium:
Aerial: Unknown copyright. Image taken from Yankee Stadium page on Ballparks.com
Inside: Unknown copyright. Don’t recall where this came from.
RFK:
Aerial: Public Domain – Photo by Marine Sgt Ken Hammond.
Inside: Unknown copyright. Originated at baseballpilgrimages.com.
Dodger Stadium:
Aerial: Unknown copyright. Image taken from Dodger Stadium page on Ballparks.com
Inside: Unknown copyright. Don’t recall where this came from.
Shea Stadium:
Aerial: Unknown copyright. Image taken from Shea Stadium page on Ballparks.com
Inside: Unknown copyright. Originated at baseballpilgrimages.com.
Angel Stadium:
Aerial: Unknown copyright. Image taken from Angel Stadium page on Ballparks.com
Inside: Public Domain, taken by US Staff Sgt Chad McMeen
McAfee Coliseum:
Aerial: Unknown copyright. Image retrieved from here.
Inside: Copyright Oakland Athletics. Retrieved from here.
Kaufmann Stadium:
Aerial: Unknown copyright. Image retrieved from here.
Inside: Unknown copyright. Don’t recall where this came from.
HHH Metrodome:
Aerial: Photo (c) 2007 Bobak Ha’Eri; licensed under GNU Free Documentation License.
Inside: Unknown copyright. Image retrieved from here.
Dolphin Stadium:
Aerial: Public Domain – Photo by Adam First.
Inside: Unknown copyright. Don’t recall where this came from.
Rogers Centre:
Aerial: Unknown copyright. Image retrieved from here.
Inside: Unknown copyright. Don’t recall where this came from.
Tropicana Field:
Aerial: Photo taken myself – March 24, 2007.
Inside: Unknown copyright. Image retrieved from here.
US Cellular Field:
Aerial: Unknown copyright. Don’t recall where this came from.
Inside: AP News Photo – don’t recall date of game.
Oriole Park:
Aerial: Unknown copyright. Image taken from Oriole Park page on Ballparks.com
Inside: Photo (c) 2005 Howcheng. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.
Jacobs Field:
Aerial: Unknown copyright. Image taken from Jacobs Park page on Ballparks.com
Inside: Unknown copyright. Image retrieved from this site.
Ballpark in Arlingon:
Aerial: Photo taken myself – Jul 24, 2007
Inside: Photo taken myself – ??? ??, 2000
Coors Field:
Aerial: Photo (c) 2007 John Maushammer. Licensed via GNU Free Documentation License.
Inside: Photo (c) 2006 Matt Kozlowski. Licensed via GNU Free Documentation License.
Turner Field:
Aerial: Unknown copyright – Picture retrieved from here.
Inside: Public Domain – Picture taken by “Elb2000“.
Chase Field:
Aerial: Photo (c) 2006 Brian Merzbach – Photo taken from this location.
Inside: Photo (c) 2006 Brian Merzbach – Photo taken from this location.
Safeco Field:
Aerial: Photo (c) 1999 Seattle Post-Intelligencer – Photo taken from here.
Inside: Photo (c) 2007 “Cacophony“. Licsesed under GNU Free Documenation License.
Minute Maid Park:
Aerial: Unknown copyright. Image taken from Minute Maid Park page on Ballparks.com
Inside: Unknown copyright – image originated here.
Comerica Park:
Aerial: AP News Photo – 2005 Home Run Derby
Inside: Photo (c) 2007 “MJCdetroit” – Licensed under GNU Free Documentation License.
AT&T Park:
Aerial: Unknown copyright. Image taken from Fenway Park page on Ballparks.com
Inside: Photo (c) 2006 “Coasttocoast – Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Miller Park:
Aerial: Photo (c) 2005 “Jeramey Jannene“. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License
Inside: Photo (c) 2006 “Royalbroil“. Licensed under the Creative Commons ShareAlike 2.5 License
PNC Park:
Aerial: Photo (c) “Aerial Views” – This picture has been seen all over the Internet.
Inside: Photo taken myself – Aug 7, 2001
Great American Ballpark:
Aerial: Photo (c) Blue Sky Aerial Photography. Picture originated here.
Inside: Photo (c) 2006 “Rdikeman” – Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Citizens Bank Park:
Aerial: Photo taken myself – Jul 24, 2004.
Inside: Photo taken myself – Jul 24, 2004.
PETCO Park:
Aerial: Unknown Copyright (Apr 30, 2004), photo taken from this location at the University of San Diego.
Inside: AP News Photo – Taken during the World Baseball Classic
Busch Stadium:
Aerial: Public Domain – Photo taken by B. Tristan Denyer.
Inside: AP News Photo – Taken during the first home game at stadium.
Picture of future stadiums were taken from the respective team website’s photo galleries.
Wonderful piece, Joe. Simply wonderful.
Great stuff Joe!
two words…holy sh-crap (am I allowed to cuss on here? yes, I would ask).
definately a long read. If anything it’s a great reference. You should like make it a tab on the right or something and keep updating it periodically.
Didn’t you say once upon a time you wish to see all 30 teams’ parks someday? You may have even said it here I probably just overlooked it.
Oh and by the way, my news feeder had all of it.
Great read Joe. I have been to 24 of the 30 parks, including the “Holy Trinity” and for any baseball park fan out there…it is well worth saving some coin to go to the Mecca of those 3 holy ballparks. Great memories…Juan Gone hitting a grand slam in the top of the eighth in Fenway to win a game, Juan Gone again with 3 moonshots to left at Camden yards, McGwire doinking a dent with a cruise missile shot at the BOB scoreboard in batting practice, etc. Miller Park is actually very nice and like Kaufman Stadium, a bit of ways from the city. But the Brew Crew fans know how to tailgate with the best of them. Camden Yards and the Jake are a must see of the new retro parks for sure. And you are right…while visiting these parks, I was just immune to the corporate sponsorship and logos…did not even register in my head or affect my consumer needs. Just an absolute waste of money by companies while lining the wallets of fat cat owners. Great Article!
Those shots you added of the bell being removed are pretty neat. I didn’t mind the sound of the bell after a game too terribly much (it certainly added something to the famous Dellucci Double walkoff celebration), but the bell itself was hideous.
Joe,
Gosh what an article. It will take some time to weave through it. I have been to Fenway, back in ’03. It was our 10th anniversary, which in modern times is diamond. So, we went to a baseball diamond. It was really cool. We had really good seats down the 3rd base line, right behind a column! Yep, they had those back in 1912. Any modern ballpark has fiddled with the engineering enough to eliminate them. It was still a great night there. Fenway only seats about 36K or so, so they want to expand the seating capacity to get more fans in. They are loosing out on sales of about 15K people each game. It will have to be replaced, but the new architects will have the critique of the Red Sox Nation to deal with.
Great work Joe.
Hey Joe,
I can tell you put some serious work into this piece– great job, great perseverancey. Just seeing PNC on tv, I’m inclined to agree with you that it’s one of the best. Can’t wait to go see it for myself. I think you underestimate Safeco– it’s a fabulous place to see a game with lots of little quirks. I understand why, but I think you may overestimate Philly–very nice place, but nothing that struck me as special. Not knowing Philly history, maybe I just didn’t know what to look for?
If I have one piece of encouragement for you–don’t sit on your goal of hitting every ballpark. You have to get creative– plan family vacations and business trips around ballgames. Pony up your annual bonus for tickets instead of new carpet. Pledge every Christmas/birthday gift from all loved ones in exchange for contributions to your dream fund. Heck, cash in the kids college fund if you have to!! (maybe you should check with your wife first) There are so many little things that you’ll get from each park. I’ve only been to about 18 parks and each has its own feel.
About the corporate sponsorships–
Thinking locally, I know Hicks is going to get his. If he can grab an extra $2.5 mil per year from a mortgage company, bank, or fruit juice company, that’s the equivalent of more than $1 per fan in attendance for the ENTIRE SEASON. (2007 attendance ~ 2.3 million) I’m not naive enough to think Big Tom is going to pass along all $2.5 mil to the fans, but maybe it’d deter him from upping the prices??
I also think it’s pretty awesome that there are major corporations that would give a nod to the sport by tying their corporate brands to America’s pastime. They’re looking to raise the profile of their brands and they recognize baseball fans as a great bunch of people that they’d love to have as customers. That’s a compliment to you and me and every other baseball fan. I wouldn’t go out and buy a product/open an account because someone sponsors a ballpark, but if all other things were equal, I’d probably be inclined to give them my business.