USA - Stadium and Arena Development News

[Bigmac1212]

Uga, the team mascot at Georgia, has a bigger home. With an added upper deck, Sanford Stadium's capacity is now 92746! Here's the link:

http://georgiadogs.collegesports.com...ord/index.html

[staff]

One thing that is noticable is that NO stadiums in the US have a roof. At first i thought "then the crowd can't make any noise/chants", but then i realized - there are no supporters in the US! The crowd is there to eat junkfood and be a part of the "show"/circus. From a european view its mediocre. There is NO terrace culture in America...

[th0m]

College football is awesome, I wish we would have something like that in Europe!
Its one of the reasons I will 100% go back for college to the US again, after having had an amazing year (even though the football wasn't all that great at my school, lol).

And stop the Europe-US wars already, and just accept the fact that cultures differ, and so do stadiums!

[ArchMadness]

Some renderings of the proposed ballpark village.





What the architect says:
"This "Ballpark Village" would rise up from a re-established city street grid and would feature residential, office, and retail development that would bring vibrancy to the urban landscape 365 days a year. In the development section closest to the ballpark, a new building for the Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum would be framed by a series of themed restaurants and retail attractions that would provide an especially festive atmosphere on game days.

The new ballpark design takes into account the rich architectural history of St. Louis as well as some of the more successful historic ballparks of the past, including St. Louis’ own Sportsman’s Park. The major materials of the building exterior are those of downtown St. Louis: brick, granite and glass. Arched masonry windows and openings recall both classic ballparks like Ebbetts Field and the architecture of Cupples Station located across the street."

[Bigmac1212]

Oklahoma's Memorial Stadium had an upgrade to raise it's capacity to 82,112. Here's a photo to what they added.

The whole crowd numbers issue is irrelevant. Since the Hillsborough disaster in the UK our stadia have had to follow much stricter rules regarding attendance, crowd control, etc. If the new Wembley Stadium followed the rules of US stadia in terms of crowd segregation, space apportionment, etc. the stadium would have a capacity approaching 200,000.

[Zaqattaq]

2nd Biggest Beaver Stadium just 5 minutes away!

May favorite american football stadiums have to be Qwest (Seattle)
The Swamp (U FLORIDA) and Autzen (U Oregon)

[Hobodog]

Originally Posted by DeMaFrost

I think the only 5 true cookiecutters were the first 5 you mentioned. They were so similar at first that players would (jokingly?) remark they didn't know whether they were in St. Louis, Philly, or Atlanta until they looked at the other teams players. What were they thinking???

I think the other ones you mentioned were similar to cookie cutters. Anaheim had the rounded bowl shape, but it wasn't truely circular, same with Jack Murphey/Qualquomm in San Diego. They were not molded in the same style that was eerily similar at the other 5 parks

The Meadowlands, Giants Stadium can possibly be thrown in if you include the Vet...and maybe half of Shea stadium.

[rantanamo]

I love the open outfield plaza. Love the way it blends in with the city as well. This is what is great about the old ballparks. They just fit right into the cityscape.

[Hobodog]

Let me find a picture of Turner Field (don't flame me for mentioning the name so many seem to hate)...HKS copied right out of their playbook for this one...(note Turner is theirs too)

[rantanamo]

You're right. It is. The more squared off look of this looks more polished. Seems to fit much better with the surroundings as well.

[edsg25]

i agree with the observation that I hope the Cubs do better against the Cards at the new park.

like others, I think it looks like a great park. there is only one thing that I question about it: you guys have one of the best baseball towns in the nation. if anyone can fill a larger ball park than the norm of the retro era, you guys probably can.

that said, i see two things about the new park that might be a concern:

1. a small crowd will be gobbled up here

2. the park seems to have all the right feel, except one: intamacy. no, i'm not talking wrigley intamacy, but more like PacBell/SBC, the kind you see in so many of the other new parks

Has this issue been raised? Is it even an issue? Whatever, it's all pretty minor...you guys have a great thing going up.

[Hobodog]

What kind of intimacy do you not see? I see just as much as there is at PacBell, Safeco, etc...

[th0m]

What is a cookie-cutter stadium? I don't know a whole lot about baseball, so forgive my igorance

[Hobodog]

They were a series of stadiums built in the 70s that looked nearly identical. Giant concrete monoliths...let me fish out some pictures.

[Bigmac1212]

It's not much, but it's a start.

That's just plain weird.

[rantanamo]

Looks like a retractable roof that would actually form a dome shape. Looks nice I think instead of just haveing a plain warehouse looking roof.

[hngcm]

looks like marlins fins...

[DrJoe]

well atleast its something different from the overdone throwback ballparks everyone is doing these days...the roof looks Skydomish

[EAT my SHORTS!!!!!!]

yea you're right dr.joe