Proposed Tampa/St. Pete Stadium

[Guest AG/DC]

With a sail-style roof, like the San Diego Convention Center and other recent paviliion-type buildings in warm-weather cities.

http://www.majorleaguedowntown.com/



Roof Open:



Romantic rendering of the marina at night:



Fa�ade:



Interior:



Whities strolling the neighborhood:



The exteror concourse:



The view from downtown towers:

[Benjamin Grimm]

Cool! (But I do wonder if that sail will make a loud flapping noise on windy days.)

At this point, I'm in favor of any stadium architecture that doesn't try to evoke the kind of ballparks they were building 100 years ago.

I wish that more teams (including the Mets) had decided to get with the 21st Century program. Rebuilding Ebbets Field is taking a page from Disney, and I don't like it.

[Farmer Ted]

To be located on the site of Al Lang Field.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

The setting of Al Lang is just awesome. I'm all for that park.

[Farmer Ted]

IIRC, very limited space over there, zero parking. Gonna have to tear down some existing buildings or do away with that little airport there.

on edit: from the website

12,000 parking spaces are located within a 15 minute walk of the site, significantly more than what currently exists within the same walking distance from Tropicana Field. Over 5,000 parking spaces will be constructed nearby as part of the redevelopment of Tropicana Field, and additional parking will be constructed adjacent to the ballpark.

[Guest AG/DC]

I'm not sure there's an "at this point" necessary. A league is definitely better when the different teams have different character. The Red Sox play in a museum, the Orioles in a monument, the Expos in a flying saucer, the Pirates in an armory.

The A's have turn-of-the-century moustaches, the Raiders cheat, the Cowboys date movie stars and do coke, the Flyers wear long pants and try to kill people.

It's better when teams have distinctive cultures for fans to choose among, rather than different colors and labels on more or less the same product.

Humbug. Bring back interleague trading obstacles, while you're at it.

[Benjamin Grimm]

AG/DC wrote: I'm not sure there's an "at this point" necessary.

Maybe not.

At the time, I thought Camden Yards was a neat idea, a throwback stadium.

Now it's been done to death.

[Frayed Knot]

So I reckon this place is covered for rain but not air-tight for AC?



In other Florida baseball news:
It looks like an agreement for a new Marlins stadium is all but a done deal.

[Guest AG/DC]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: ="AG/DC"]I'm not sure there's an "at this point" necessary. Maybe not. At the time, I thought Camden Yards was a neat idea, a throwback stadium. Now it's been done to death.

Agreed. But I meant to say that it was disappointing when the first team copied them. It's eye-rolling now.

Funny how Baltimore is the city everyone copied when they turned their watefront into a revitalization district, and the city everyone copied when they built a downtown retro ballpark nestled into a neighborhood, and yet they still have a pretty run-down city.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Yes. As I remarked a few months back, Baltimore's once-famous waterfront tourism area is a complete corporate yawnfest today (as is South Street Seaport and other copycat "festival marketplaces.")

Memorial Stadium was probably more "nestled" into the neighborhood, as I remember it.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yes, it was. I went to two games at Memorial Stadium back in the 1980's. I had a friend who lived in Baltimore and he drove us there. All I remember is that we parked in some neighborhood and walked past people's houses and front lawns and suddenly there was a ballpark in front of us.

Baltimore's waterfront seems like a pleasant enough place to spend your lunch hour if you work in town, but it's nothing that would draw any discriminating tourist. See the aquarium, get some lunch, and get out of town.

[Guest AG/DC]

Well, Memorial is from 1950, not from the cookie-cutter era when parks and huge lots dropped like bombs on the fringes of receding cities.

[Valadius]

It's an awesome-looking stadium. Very distinctive.

[metsmarathon]

that's beautiful!

america needs better architecture in general.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: ="AG/DC"]I'm not sure there's an "at this point" necessary. Maybe not. At the time, I thought Camden Yards was a neat idea, a throwback stadium. Now it's been done to death.

I'm not sure if that's entirely true. Camden, Coors, PNC and ATT certainly have a retro feel. Petco, probably, too.

But Cleveland and Cincy are more modern (and kind of similar). Seattle, Arizona and Milwaukee have the funky moving roof thing going.

Detroit is, well, a mess. And I wasn't too impressed by Philly, either.

I haven't seen enough of the new Busch to know for sure.
Atlanta is a tricky one sicne it was designed to do different things, but I haven't been there to decide if it works.

Living near Detroit, I guess I'd rather they would have done another retro design and be copycats than do what they did and have people openly mourn Tiger Stadium.

[Guest themetfairy]

My biggest gripe with Comerica is that the ferris wheel and merry go round inside the part detract attention from the game itself. I feel the same way about the wiffle ball diamond at Petco.

[Guest Triple Dee]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I wish that more teams (including the Mets) had decided to get with the 21st Century program. Rebuilding Ebbets Field is taking a page from Disney, and I don't like it.

A lack of imagination certainly appears to be a prerequisite of being a ballpark architect these days. Eric Pastore of digitalballparks.com calls retro ballparks "the cookie-cutters of the 21st Century." Very apt.

But what really disturbs me about rebuilding Ebbets Field: the Brewers have already done it.

[Frayed Knot]

It just occured to me that, together with the new stadium already in the works in Minnesota, this plan going through in Tampa would mean the end of the last two full-time domes. It also kills 2 of the final 3 artificial turf fields (Toronto pick up the white phone).

[Benjamin Grimm]

Wow. I remember when it looked like artificial turf was the wave of the future. Now it's going the way of the Soviet Union.

At one time the National League was 50% artificial surface. (Maybe more... met me do the math: Montreal, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Houston, Cincinnati. That's half. And San Francisco had artificial turf for a while, too, but it may have been while the Expos were still at Jarry Park.)

[seawolf17]

Remember when SkyDome was cutting edge? Ah, the good old days.