About eleven years ago I wrote an article for my Rangers site on Ballpark names and corporate sponsorships.  At the time, I thought about how many stadiums were left that don’t have corporate names.  Things have changed since I wrote that article, including at the Rangers home in Arlington.  So I’ve decided to revisit that article and update it for all the changes since the original piece.   Some info is harder to find – the primary source I used back then doesn’t exist anymore, and I’ve inquired with a few people with the Rangers about where to find that info publicly, and haven’t found a good updated source of info.  So I’ll do my best to find the info – but a few below will say “N/A”, because I couldn’t find the info, not because I didn’t try.

NOTE: I published v2 of this article in July of 2016, and v3 in August of 2017.  The only change between v2 & v3 is that I moved SunTrust Field to “current” vs “future”, and I updated some text and used the name of the new Rangers Park in 2020, as that was announced on Aug 24, 2017.  The only difference between v3 & v4 is the addition of the new Rays park announced in July 2018.  I also added a name change Seattle Mariners on Dec 19, 2018 and a name change for the San Francisco Giants on Jan 10, 2019.

The majority of parks these days have a Corporate Sponsorship name. 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, that’s a sarcastic response.  I’s probably not for the owner’s personal jet fuel bill, or the wife’s shoe budget, I’m sure it goes back to the team in some capacity, 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 names.  The first one was “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.  We now have a new Corporate Shill name since I wrote this piece almost a decade ago.  The new name is “Globe Life Field in Arlington”.  Bleargh.  It’s “The Ballpark”.  Or at least the temporary name inbetween Ameriquest & Globe Life – “Rangers Ballpark In Arlington”.

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 might have to visit my site to get the whole article. It was too large (at 16,500 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)
Stadium Cost: $650,000 ($15.9m in 2016 dollars)

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 two baseball meccas (Wrigley Field being the other – Old Yankee Stadium was a third). 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 population, 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 monster.  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.  Since I wrote the original article, Fenway has added on a few times.  There’s now seats on top of the Green Monster, and some additional seats out in right field.  The video board over center field has been replaced with modern tech.  It’s been updated for sure, but still has that “old” feel.

Corporate Sponsorship: There’s no sponsorship money for this place, and at this point 104 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, though.

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)
Stadium Cost: $250,000 ($5.91m in 2016 dollars)

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, old 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.

The Cubs are currently in the middle of a major renovation to the park, which will take four years total and will dynamically change the look of the place.  Supposed to be done by 2018.   There’s an entire website about all these changes, with news, renderings and all manner of info.  You can check that site out here.

Corporate Sponsorship: Again, no corporate sponsor in this park’s name.   The name could be construed as a Corporate name, but it is named after the original owner who happened to be associated with the Wrigley company.  As mentioned earlier, advertisements have crept in over the last few years, but no corporate dollars.

External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]

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)
Stadium Cost: $23 Million ($180m in 2016 dollars)

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.

Since I originally wrote this nine years ago, this stadium went from to fifth oldest to third oldest, with the closure of old Yankee Stadium as well as RFK Stadium.  There’s also a huge gap between Dodger Stadium (1962) and Wrigley Field (1914) – you can see where all the older ballparks were all built.  :)

Corporate Sponsorship: None again. For an article about corporate sponsorships of baseball stadiums, my first three 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 ]

NOTE: I cannot for the life of me get this Google Maps aerial shot of Dodger Stadium to center properly.  I’m sorry about that.

Angel Stadium of Anaheim (1966)

Team Occupant: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Stadium Nickname: “The Big A”
Park Named After: Team, and The City of Anaheim (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)
Stadium Cost: $24 Million ($175m in 2016 dollars)

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 (moved to the parking lot), 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 the 2000’s, 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 exercised 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 ]

Oakland Coliseum (1966)

Team Occupant: Oakland Athletics
Stadium Nickname: The Coliseum
Park Named After: None
Money from Sponsorship: None currently
Former Stadium Names: Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (1966-1998), Network Associates Coliseum (1998-2004), McAfee Coliseum (2004-2008), Overstock.com Coliseum (Apr-Jun 2011), O.Co Coliseum (Jun 2011 – Apr 2016)
Team’s Former Parks: Municipal Stadium (KC, 1955-1967), Shibe Park (Phila, 1909-1954), Columbia Park (Phila, 1901-1908)
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)
Stadium Cost: $25.5 Million ($186m in 2016 dollars)

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 place looked really nice before Mount Davis – a good view of the Oakland hills and everything.  Check it out.

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 noticeable 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 Internet company Overstock.com was the next naming rights partner, and for a time in 2011 (the first year), the place was known as “Overstock.com Stadium”.  it was later changed to “O.co Coliseum”, but it appears to be the same naming rights deal.  You can read about that here.

Between Mount Davis, the stupid corporate name they had for years, and the assumed next to nothing income from the name money, one has to think the A’s would love to run screaming to some new stadium (which they’ve been trying to build).  In fact, the last time I wrote this article, there was a plan in place to build a new stadium called “Cisco Field”, but it fell apart when the Giants threw a hissy fit about the A’s moving any closer to them.   There has been some recent talk (Jan 2016) of the Raiders moving to Las Vegas.  I wonder if that happens if the A’s would then remodel the place, removing Mount Davis, and restoring the baseball only look of the place, or they’d still build something new.  Hard to tell, it’s a very ‘stuck in quicksand’ type of situation.

UPDATE APR 2016: I wrote this part of the article back in February of 2016, and then in April of 2016, I discovered the formal name of the place changed again.  Apparently O.co opted out of the final year of their deal, and the name reverted back to “Oakland Coliseum”.  When O.co was paying, the deal was for $7.2m over 6 years (starting in 2011, $1.2m per year).  When they were Network Associates/McAffee, there was $2.7m a year in corporate money paid.  That went DOWN with the switch to Overstock/O.co.

External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]

Ewing F. Kaufman Stadium (1973)

Team Occupant: Kansas City Royals
Stadium Nickname: “The K”, “Kaufman Stadium”
Park Named After: Original team owner, Ewing Kaufman
Money from Sponsorship: N/A
Former Stadium Names: Royals Stadium (1973- Jul 1, 1993)
Team’s Former Parks: Municipal Stadium (1969-1972)
Other Tenants: None
Stadium Cost: $70 Million ($373m in 2016 dollars)

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 40 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 gorgeous – 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.

When I originally wrote this article in 2007, the Royals were starting a major renovation to the place – they added a MASSIVE scoreboard in center field, the revamped all kinds of places through the stadium, and changed the look in the outfield.  It still has the fountains, but there is a lot more out there.  I’ve yet to see a game in the place, but from what I’ve been told from friends who go there (and what I’ve seen on TV), it looks awesome.   The stadium is physically 44 years old now, so it was probably time to renovate, even though the old park has REALLY stood the test of time.

There was a nice subset of mlb.com where they detailed the renovations to the place.  Seven years after they finished, it was probably time to remove that, but I found an archive of it online here.  Check it out, has some good info on what changed.

Corporate Sponsorship: There’s no corporate sponsorship here. In fact, they changed the stadium 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 ]

Rogers Centre (1989)

Team Occupant: Toronto Blue Jays
Stadium Nickname: “Skydome”
Park Named After: Rogers Communications
Money from Sponsorship: N/A
Former Stadium Names: The Skydome (1989-2005)
Team’s Former Parks: Exhibition Stadium (1977-1989)
Other Tenants: Toronto Argonauts (CFL; 1989-present), Toronto Raptors (NBA; 1995-1999), Vanier Cup (CIS; 89-03, 07-present), International Bowl (NCAAF; 2007-present)
Stadium Cost: $570 Million ($966m in 2016 dollars)

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, 1993 over 20 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 would 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, Tropicana owned by PepsiCo
Money from Sponsorship: $46 Million over 30 years (unknown start year)
Former Stadium Names: For the Rays, none – see below
Team’s Former Parks: None
Future Park: Rumored replacement; but nothing set in stone.
Other Tenants: Tampa Bay Storm (1991-1996), Tampa Bay Lightning (1993-1996), 1999 NCAA Basketball tournament
Stadium Cost: $130 Million ($235m in 2016 dollars)

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 (then Devil) Rays played their first game. I’m a little unclear on the timing, but the deal was for 30 years for $46 million dollars. A million plus 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 Globe Life. Anyway, I don’t know much of this money the Rays see, since I believe the deal started before they came into existence (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.

The Future: There’s been talk of the Rays getting their own ballpark for a very long time.  When I originally put this together, there was some talk of a new stadium on the bay that had some really nice looking stadium designs.  That was 2007, and that proposal was supposed to be completed and opened by 2012.  Well, this is 2016, and they’re still stuck in the cave.  Oddly enough, the lease the Rays have say they’re not even allowed TO LOOK at new stadium sites until the year 2027.  However, in Jan 2016, I read where there might be some movement regarding a lease amendment to allow the Rays to build in the area surrounding Tropicana, keeping them in St. Petersburg.  We shall see.

External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | Ballparks.com ]

Guaranteed Rate Field (1991)

Team Occupant: Chicago White Sox
Stadium Nickname: Old Nicknames were “The Cell”, “New Comiskey”
Park Named After: Mortgage Broker
Money from Sponsorship: $68 million over 20 years, $3.4m/yr – Revised after 2017 Name Change, see below
Former Stadium Names: U.S. Cellular Field (2004-2016), Comiskey Park (aka New Comiskey Park, 1991-2003)
Team’s Former Parks: Milwaukee County Stadium (1968-1969), Comiskey Park (1910-1990), South Side Park (1901-1910)
Other Tenants: None
Stadium Cost: $167 Million ($290m in 2016 dollars)

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” (har-har) of sorts.

UPDATE Jun 2017: I noticed in the middle of the 2017 season that this park changed names again.  It had been “US Cellular Field” for 13 years, which is short of the original 20 year deal they signed (20yr, $68m, $3.4m/yr).  The new deal (which moves this stadium right to the top of the stupid list is for 13 years started on Nov 1, 2016.   In reading around I found that US Cellular exited the Chigago area but continued to support the White Sox.  Read where “U.S. Cellular also let the White Sox know that if the team found something that made sense for them, they would be open to the change.”  This new company, while a stupid name, at least is local to the Chicago area.  I guess that’s something.  Turns out the White Sox won’t see any new money from this deal, the remaining years from the US Cellular deal will be paid at the same rate to the team.  The money gained from the additional years on the deal will now be paid to the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, the organization that maintains the Stadium.  As per Sep 2016, that money amounted to about $20.4 million for the White Sox, and $4.7 million to the Authority.

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)
Other Tenants: None
Stadium Cost: $110 Million ($185m in 2016 dollars)

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 in 1999 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.

The Future: There are no plans to replace Oriole Park.  While still awesome, it is 20+ years old, so some renovations are in order.  Read in late 2015 where there will be some major renovations coming soon, but no timetable is set yet.  The Orioles’ lease here expires in 2021, and the team has an option to extend it for five years.  That is in six years, so if they were thinking of replacing it/moving, they wouldn’t be talking about major renovations.

External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | Ballparks.com ]

Progressive Field (1994)

Team Occupant: Cleveland Indians
Stadium Nickname: “The Jake”
Park Named After: Progressive Insurance Company
Money from Sponsorship: $58m over 16 years ($3.63m/yr)
Former Stadium Names: Jacobs Field (1994-2008)
Team’s Former Parks: Cleveland Municipal Stadium (1932-1993), League Park/Dunn Field (1904-1946)
Other Tenants: None
Stadium Cost: $175 Million ($279m in 2016 dollars)

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, Philly, & Pittsburgh. 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.

That last paragraph was from the first version of this article.  I didn’t edit it from Jacobs Field, as it speaks to my point.  Stadiums that had a “regular” name and then went to corporate money tend to have their official names ignored by the fans.

In August 2015, the Indians announced that they are starting some renovations to the stadium, mostly around “sightlines”.  There’s details on mlb about that here.

Corporate Sponsorship: Another park that used to have a cool name (Jacobs Field) that went to a corporate name, which means fans won’t use it.  I don’t know why sponsors think this is a good investment.  It can’t be.

External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | Ballparks.com ]

Globe Life Park in Arlington (1994)

Team Occupant: Texas Rangers
Stadium Nickname: “The Ballpark” or “The Temple”
Park Named After: Globe Life Insurance
Money from Sponsorship: $50m over 10 years ($5m/yr)
Former Stadium Names: The Ballpark in Arlington (1994 – May 2004), Ameriquest Field in Arlington (May 2004 – March 2007), Rangers Ballpark in Arlington (March 2007 – Feb 2014)
Team’s Former Parks: Arlington Stadium (1972-1993), RFK Stadium (1962-1971)
Future Park: Globe Life Field to open in 2020, details below.
Other Tenants: Untitled XFL Team (starting in 2020)
Stadium Cost: $191 Million ($305m in 2016 dollars)

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.  From 1997 to 2007, I’ve averaged going to about 20-25 games a season in this park (less since, but I still go). 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 JerryLand next door, but that doesn’t impact this at all.  Just another venue with parking lots.   Even before the park was opened in 1994, there was talk about how it would bring surrounding businesses to the area, and make it a “destination”.   Has never materialized.   There’s been talk several times.  There was the Glorypark project that got somewhere when Tom Hicks owned the team, but was abandoned.  There was talk in late 2015 of a new version of Glorypark (not called that) to be constructed.  However, I see that more as a play by Arlington to keep the team vs it actually happening (as the lease is up in less than 10 years, so now would be the time to start talking about stuff like that).    In my opinion, unless mass transit/Dart runs a train line out here for Rangers and Cowboys games, not a ton will change.  I’ll drive out, see the game, then get in my car and go back home to Garland.

OK, I guess I need to write about the park itself. It has a reputation 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/restaurant 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. That actually changed after I wrote this piece, there were some adjustments made to the screens and whatnot.  It’s not the way it used to be in 1994, but it’s better than it was.  Still can be a launching pad on the right conditions, though.

The scoreboard situation has improved since I last wrote.  The tiny scoreboard in right field has been replaced, and they’re adding a new one in left field so people under the old scoreboard location can see that stuff.  It will be up and running before opening day 2016.  They installed a new LED lighting system in the 2015 offseason as well.

Despite all that has been done to the place (excessive advertising) since it opened, it really is still a nice place to see a game. The outfield wall has a lot of eccentricities, the kids running onto the batter’s eye for home runs is fun, the dot race was invented here (as were ballpark nachos, although those things were in the old 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 gorgeous from the outside – look at this picture of the outside of the place I took during the 2007 season here (it’s changed a little since this pic, but still looks really nice). Inside’s pretty good too, especially since “Section 201” was restored (see next section). :)

Corporate Sponsorship:  Since the 2014 season, the Rangers Ballpark has had a corporate name of “Globe Life Park in Arlington”.  As I said with Ameriquest, all that deal does is guarantee that I won’t buy their products for screwing up the name of the park.  One thing though, I don’t know how much the Rangers are taking in from Globe Life for this deal for sure.  It’s rumoured to be $50 million over 10 years, which would make it a much higher dollar value than most (except the Mets, which is insane) at $5m a year. I foamed at the mouth a bit in the older version of this article, so I’ll just repost that.  Subsitute Globe Life for Ameriquest.

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.

On March 19, 2007, the Rangers severed their relationship with Ameriquest, and the name changed to “Rangers Ballpark in Arlington”.  At the time much was made about how they wanted to push the branding of the “Texas Rangers” first, which I accepted.  I was on board with that idea.  But then they went an threw that out the window on Feb 5, 2014, when it was announced that the new corporate name was to be “Globe Life Park in Arlington”.

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.  After I published this original version of 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 ]

NOTE: This is another aerial shot that Google Maps just doesn’t want to center properly.  Sorry about that.

Coors Field (1995)

Team Occupant: Colorado Rockies
Stadium Nickname: Unknown
Park Named After: Coors Brewing Company
Money from Sponsorship: $15 million lump sum
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: Mile High Stadium (1993-1994)
Other Tenants: None
Stadium Cost: $300 Million ($466m in 2016 dollars)

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 inaugural 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 McGwire 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.  Since I wrote this original article, I’ve found out it was a one time lump sum payment which gives Coors the naming rights in perpetuity.  There’s no “per year” deal here.  So long as the Rockies are in this place, it’s Coors Field.  A beer company 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: Robert Edward “Ted” Turner, former owner
Money from Sponsorship: None
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: SunTrust Field, opens 2017 season, details below.
Other Tenants: 1996 Summer Olympics
Stadium Cost: $209 Million ($315m in 2016 dollars)

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 Guinness Book of World Records holder for the biggest high def scoreboard anywhere.  It has been supplanted since, but 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 about this place other than what I’ve said above, so I’ll take a bit of a pass.  It does feel though that they’re abandoning it before its time, however.

Corporate Sponsorship: No corporate money here, as the place is named after TBS founder, and former Braves owner, Ted Turner.  That changes with the new park – see elsewhere.

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 & Co.
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, although there’s been some noise about it recently.
Other Tenants: NCAA Insight Bowl (2000-2005)
Stadium Cost: $354 Million ($514m in 2016 dollars)

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 ]

T-Mobile Park (1999)

Team Occupant: Seattle Mariners
Stadium Nickname: Unknown
Park Named After: T-Mobile Cellular
Money from Sponsorship: $85.5 million over 25 yrs ($3.42m/yr)
Former Stadium Names: Safeco Field
Team’s Former Parks: The Kingdome (1977-1999)
Future Park: N/A
Other Tenants: Seattle Bowl (NCAA; 2001)
Stadium Cost: $517.6 Million ($735m in 2016 dollars)

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.  (These remarks were written when the place was called Safeco – not much has changed, so I left them alone)

Corporate Sponsorship: Well, come the 2019 season, the Mariners will be a cell phone name, and not an insurance name.  It’s been Safeco from 1999 through 2018, and Safeco opted to not renew the contract.  So the Mariners (on Dec 19, 2018) announced that they’ll be the “Pink Park” – T-Mobile Park.  They’re not the first cell phone company to do this, but the pink they showed in sketch drawings looks pretty garish.

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 (owned by Coca-Cola)
Money from Sponsorship: $170 million over 28 years ($6.07m/yr)
Former Stadium Names: Enron Field (2000-2002), Astros Field (2002)
Team’s Former Parks: The Astrodome (1965-1999), Colt Stadium (1962-1964)
Other Tenants: None
Stadium Cost: $250 Million ($344m in 2016 dollars)

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 existence, 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 gorgeous 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 gorgeous, the train that goes back and forth for home runs is cool (although less so now that it’s filled with oranges), 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.

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
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)
Other Tenants: None
Stadium Cost: $300 Million ($412m in 2016 dollars)

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 their 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 pitching/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 ]

Oracle Park (2000)

Team Occupant: San Francisco Giants
Stadium Nickname: Unknown
Park Named After: “The Oracle Corporation”
Money from Sponsorship: $300-350 million over 20 years
Former Stadium Names: Pacific Bell Park (2000-2003), SBC Park (2004-2005), AT&T Park (2006-2018)
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 Cricket Grounds (1889), Oakland Park (1889), Polo Grounds I (1883-1888)
Other Tenants: Emerald Bowl (NCAAF; 2002-present), San Francisco Demons (XFL; 2001)
Stadium Cost: $357 Million ($491m in 2016 dollars, self funded – no public money used)

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 privately financed, I don’t have a problem with these corporate dollars at all.  In early 2019 it was announced that they were changing the name to “Oracle Park” in a new deal.

The original deal when this place opened was supposed to be $50m over 24 years.  It didn’t run for 24 years, so I wonder what happened to those dollars from the unplayed years.  Officially, the original naming rights deal remained in place through the first three names (Pacific Bell, SBC & AT&T) – all due to phone mergers and buyouts.  I did see a note on twitter that the original deal was started in 1996, but since the stadium didn’t open until 2000, I’m not sure what the deal with that is.  The 2019 deal is supposedly between $300-$350m over 20 years.  So an upgrade in naming rights money for sure.

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)
Other Tenants: None
Stadium Cost: $400 Million ($535m in 2016 dollars)

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)
Other Tenants: None
Stadium Cost: $216 Million ($289m in 2016 dollars)

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 gorgeous. The view of downtown 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, not that many balls have been hit into the river on the fly.  In the first version of my article, there had only been one.  I would imagine there’s been a couple more since then, but I can’t find hard stats. 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 anyway), 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. When the Pirates make it back to the World Series, I’m sure this place will get a lot more National coverage; it deserves it.  Great place to see a game!

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/Palace of the Fans (1902-1911), League Park II (1894-1901), League Park I (1884-1893), Bank Street Grounds (1882-1883)
Other Tenants: None
Stadium Cost: $290 Million ($373m in 2016 dollars)

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”, “The Bank”
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)
Other Tenants: None
Stadium Cost: $458 Million ($574m in 2016 dollars)

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)
Other Tenants: USA Sevens (Rugby Tournament; 2007-)
Stadium Cost: $450 Million ($564m in 2016 dollars)

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”, “New Busch Stadium”
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)
Other Tenants: None
Stadium Cost: $365 Million ($428m in 2016 dollars)

Joe’s Remarks: When I wrote the earlier version of this article, this was the then newest stadium.  It’s been 9 years since that article, and I’ve never been there, so I don’t have much to say about the place 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 first hand. Sorry folks in St. Louis.

Besides, 2001 World Series.  The hell with 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.  If you happen to know what it is, let me know.

External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]

Nationals Park (2008)

Team Occupant: Washington Nationals
Stadium Nickname: Unknown
Park Named After: Team
Money from Sponsorship: None
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: Jarry Park (1969-1976), Olympic Stadium (1977-2004), Hiram Bithorn Stadium (2003-2004), Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium (2005-2007)
Other Tenants: Unknown
Stadium Cost: $693 Million ($762 in 2016 dollars)

Joe’s Remarks: Never having been there, it’s hard to write about this stadium.  I’ve seen it more on my Xbox than I have on TV.

The pictures I’ve seen 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 stadium make me think of old Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. The inside looks quite nice too. 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 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.

Corporate Sponsorship: There isn’t any, which honestly surprises me.  I figured this place would launch with a corporate name, and it didn’t.

External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]

Citi Field (2009)

Team Occupant: New York Metropolitans
Stadium Nickname: None that I know of
Park Named After: Citigroup, Inc.
Money from Sponsorship: $400 million over 20 years (holy crap!)
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: Polo Grounds (1962-1963), Shea Stadium (1964-2008)
Other Tenants: None that I know of
Stadium Cost: $900 Million ($993m in 2016 dollars)

Joe’s Remarks: Well, Shea Stadium was replaced with Citi Field, which opened 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. Even though this opened seven years before this update to my article, I still don’t know much about it.  As I grew up a Phillies fan, I never much cared for the Mets. With that comes a disinterest for their stadium.

Corporate Sponsorship: 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 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 financial 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:

Yankee Stadium (2009)

Team Occupant: New York Yankees
Stadium Nickname: “New Yankee Stadium”, “The House that Jeter Built”
Park Named After: The team
Money from Sponsorship: None
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: Oriole Park (1901-1902), Hilltop Park (1903-1912), Polo Grounds (1913-1922), Yankee Stadium (1923-1973 & 1976-2008), Shea Stadium (1974-1975)
Other Tenants: Pinstripe Bowl (2010-), New York City FC (MLS, 2015-)
Stadium Cost: $2.3 Billion (same in 2016 dollars)

Joe’s Remarks: One of the three earliest Meccas of baseball gets replaced.  In what I’ve seen of the place since it opened, they took care to keep the general baseball “feel” of old Yankee Stadium.   It is not the same of course, but when you replace a stadium as legendary as old Yankee Stadium, you can’t exactly make it look something like Tropicana Field.   I’ve never been to either the old or new Yankee Stadiums, so I can’t comment on it personally.   My mother actually has been to old Yankee Stadium, and she’s not a baseball fan, so that kind of sticks in my craw a bit.  haha.  :)

Corporate Sponsorship: When I wrote the first version of the article, there was talk that this place would have a name like “Yankee Stadium at (company name) Plaza” or something along those lines.  In the end, they ended up with none, which surprises me.  I figured it would have SOME corporate something, given how money money money the Yankees are.

External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]

Target Field (2010)

Team Occupant: Minnesota Twins
Stadium Nickname: None that I know of
Park Named After: Target Corporation
Money from Sponsorship: Believed to be $5m/yr for 25 years
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: American League Park (1901-1902), National Park (1903-1910), Griffith Stadium (1911-1960), Metropolitan Stadium (1961-1981), Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (1982-2009)
Other Tenants: Minnesota Golden Gophers (NCAA, 2010, 2012)
Stadium Cost: $545 Million ($591m in 2016 dollars)

Joe’s Remarks:  This is a park that I don’t know much about – the newest parks in this article all fit that.  That’s because I don’t usually watch the Rangers on TV anymore, I mostly take in games on the radio, and it’s hard to get a feel for the park.  As good as Eric Nadel is, it’s hard to piece together what a park is all about just from audio.  Anyway, I know there’s an odd shaped area down the left field line, and it has an open view outside the park – of mostly downtown skyscrapers.  Not the ugliest look, but not the best either.  Speaking of that open view, that’s one thing that surprises me – the early season games.  There’s no dome now, and people going to games early would be more susceptible to cold weather than they were in the Metrodome.  There was a lot of noise made about that when the park was still yet to be opened, but I haven’t heard much about that since then.  Must be doing OK.

Corporate Sponsorship: When I wrote the first version of this article, this park was still in the future – it had no name at that point.  So the retailer Target has their name on here.  It won’t make want to shop at Target any more.  I mean, I like Target – we shop there, but once again, another thing that they THINK will recoup the investment in the name in increase sales.  Not by me.  Can’t find the precise amount of dollars on this.  My research says it’s between $4 & $6m a season over 25 years.  So I went with 5 above.  If anyone reading this knows a concrete, absolute fact on this, please email me and let me know.

External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]

loanDepot Park (2012)

Team Occupant: Florida Marlins
Stadium Nickname: None that I know of
Park Named After: loanDepot Bank
Money from Sponsorship: Unknown
Former Stadium Names: Marlins Park
Team’s Former Parks: Joe Robbie Stadium (1993-2011)
Other Tenants: Miami Beach Bowl (2014-)
Stadium Cost: $634 Million ($653m in 2016 dollars)

Joe’s Remarks: I actually know almost zero about this place.  I’ve never seen a Marlins game from this place on TV, and as I write this text, it’s been open for four years now.  The only thing I know about this place is that godawful whatever that is in left center that goes off for Marlins home runs.  I mean, I get the Apple in New York. I’m not a Mets fan, but I get that.  No problem with that.  This thing?  I just don’t understand it.  On the chance that a Marlins fan is reading this, can you please email me and tell me what this thing is supposed to be, and why it’s indicative of a Marlins home run?  Here’s a video of it in case anyone hasn’t seen this monstrosity.

Corporate Sponsorship: From 2012 to 2020, the place was known simply as Marlins Park.  Starting with the 2021 season, it’s known as “loanDepot Park”.  Yeah, no fan is gonna call it that.

External Links: [ Wikipedia | Official MLB Site | ballparks.com ]

SunTrust Park (2017)

Team Occupant: Atlanta Braves
Stadium Nickname: Too early to tell
Park Named After: SunTrust Banks
Money from Sponsorship: About $10m/yr for 20 years
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: Turner Field (1997-2016), 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)
Other Tenants: Miami Beach Bowl
Stadium Cost: $622 Million

Joe’s Comments:  Turner Field was replaced far too soon.  I was in Atlanta for a convention years ago, and while I didn’t go to Turner Field for a game, I was by it a few times.  Always felt it looked great, and it feels odd to replace it after only 20 years.  As of the writing of this article, I don’t know what’s going to happen to the old place.

If the story I read is true about how much money they’re paying here, it makes this deal the second largest, behind the Mets and Citi.  Both are banks.  If you’ve read this far, you know how I feel about that.  Never using these banks.  Not that I have them near me, but if I was near them..  Nope, not interested in their product just cuz its name is on a ballpark.

THE FUTURE

It doesn’t end there.  When I wrote the original version of this article in 2009, there were seven stadiums in various states of planning/construction.  Most have opened.  A couple of them failed to materalize (A’s & Rays), even though there were stadium renders released.  Both of those teams are caught in legal and locational hell. I suspect there will be a time when they will get new ones, but the info I had for them before is almost a decade out of date, and no longer applies.  If you want to see that old info, it’s still in the “Future” section of the 2009 version of this article.  No solid info on those two, but there are a lot of stories if you care to search around for them.

Having said that, here’s info on the only currently announced future MLB ballpark.

Globe Life Field (2020)

Team Occupant: Texas Rangers
Stadium Nickname: “The Ballpark” or “The Temple”
Park Named After: Globe Life Insurance
Money from Sponsorship: $275m ($11m/yr for 25 years, expires after 2048 season, is extension of current deal)
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: The Ballpark in Arlington (1994-2019), Arlington Stadium (1972-1993)
Other Tenants: Too early to tell
Stadium Cost: $1 Billion (estimated)

Joe’s Remarks: Well, this is happening.  I don’t really have problems with the current Rangers Ballpark.  But it does get bloody hot there.   A retractible roof which will allow for air conditioning will make things a lot better, IMO.  It would probably get me to come to more games.  I’m sure that’s what the Rangers are banking on.  The folks who are all “pitchforky” saying they won’t come to any games because of the roof will be more than offset by those who will come cuz the inferno is no longer an issue.

As of this update on Aug 24th, 2017, we still haven’t seen any concrete plans on what the place will look like beyond the sketches here, which were released when this was all first announced.  We’re told that we should be seeing more detail on this subject in October 2017, which would roughly be when they start actual construction.

The only exception to say that during the original press conference, it was said that the capacity would likely be in the 42-44,000 range, which is down roughly 5-6,000 seats from the current park.  Here’s what I said about that in the Rangers fan group I’m part of.

Here’s the numbers for every new ballpark that opened since ours in 1994, which covers the last 22 years.

1994 – Rangers Ballpark – 48,114
1994 – Progressive Field – 35,225
1995 – Coors Field – 50,398
1996 – Turner Field – 49,586
1998 – Chase Field – 48,519
1999 – Safeco Field – 47,963
2000 – AT&T Park – 41,915
2000 – Minute Maid Park – 41,676
2001 – Miller Park – 41,900
2001 – PNC Park – 38,362
2003 – Great American Ball Park – 42,319
2004 – Citizens Bank Park – 43,651
2004 – Petco Park – 40,162
2006 – Busch Stadium – 43,975
2008 – Nationals Park – 41,313
2009 – Citi Field – 41,922
2009 – New Yankee Stadium – 49,642
2010 – Target Field – 38,871
2012 – Marlins Park – 36,742
2017 – SunTrust Park – 41,500 (New Braves)
2020 – New Rangers Ballpark – 42-44k estimated

 

New Rays Ballpark (202?)

Team Occupant: Tampa Bay Rays
Stadium Nickname: Unknown
Park Named After: Unknown
Money from Sponsorship: Unknown
Former Stadium Names: None
Team’s Former Parks: Tropicana Field (1998-202?)
Other Tenants: Too early to tell
Stadium Cost: $892 Million (estimated)

Joe’s Remarks: On July 10, 2018 it was announced that the Tampa Bay Rays intend on moving to a new stadium in the city of Miami – specifically in an area called “Ybor City” (which isn’t an actual city as such).

They’ve been trying to move out of the cave they’re in for quite a long time, but they had a horrible lease, it was 30 years they were locked into the place, and the local government didn’t want to let them leave.  Apparently they’ve struck some sort of deal, because they now have a three year window to seek out a deal for a new park.   They have tried before, and my original version of this article shows a previous attempt, with a really radical design.  That is no longer the case, but this version of a new Rays park does have a translucent roof, which is an interesting idea.  The original version of the Astrodome tried that kind of thing, and it killed the grass.  So we’ll need more details on that.

But the biggest surprise to me is the announced seating capacity.  28,216.   Will have standing room of 30,842.  That’s the smallest ballpark that I know of in my lifetime of a major league level.    Here’s a few photos showing some of the design.  Even the Rays site doesn’t have a dedicated page for this yet, so there’s a lot yet to come.  :)

 

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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 30 current parks, 12 do not have a corporate name, and 18 of them do. (When I last did this article 9 years ago, that radio was 16 do not, and 14 do).  Since the last time I did this article, a few have changed sides. Oakland used to have sponsorship, it doesn’t have any now. Cleveland added sponsorship. Rangers changed their sponsorship.

Of the 18 currently named corporate parks, here’s a breakdown of what kind of entity the corporate name is:

• Bank: 5 (Chase, Comerica, PNC, Citizens Bank, Citi)
• Insurance: 4 (Progressive, Globe Life, Safeco, Great American)
• Beer: 3 (Coors, Miller, Busch)
• Communication: 2 (US Cellular, AT&T)
• Food/Drink: 2 (Tropicana, Minute Maid)
• Pet Supplies: 1 (Petco)
• Shopping: 1 (Target)

Totaled together, those corporate dollars amount to around 83.365 Million per year (it was 34.5  nine years ago). 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).  Also, $20 million of that 83 is solely for the Mets.  In 2017, that number will go way up too when another $10m is added for the new Braves park.

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 naming 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. A big thanks also 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. He helped out a lot with the dollar amounts for the various parks. You’ll want to check out his Facebook page.  He mostly writes Sports stuff for Forbes these days, his old site isn’t updated anymore.

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 Credits:

• Fenway Park: Photo by “Mr. Schultz”.  Photo taken from Wikipedia. Original photo and copyright here.
• Wrigley Field: Photo by “H.Q. Roosevelt”. Photo taken from their site.  Original can be viewed here.
• Dodger Stadium: Photo by Cook & Sons.  Photo taken from their site.  Original (and others) can be viewed here.
• Angel Stadium of Anaheim: Photo by Ben Cooper.  Photo taken from their site.  Original (and others) can be viewed here.
• o.Co Coliseum: Photo by Ben Cooper.  Photo taken from their site.  Original (and others) can be viewed here.
• Kaufman Stadium: Photo by Bill Moss. Photo taken from his site.  Original can be viewed here.
• Rogers Stadium: Photo by Cook & Sons.  Photo taken from their site. Original (and others) can be viewed here.
• Tropicana Field: Indoor photo by Cook & Sons.  Photo taken from their site. Original (and others) can be viewed here.
• Tropicana Field: Outdoor photo is my own photo I took when I visited the area in 2007 for Phillies Spring Training.
• US Cellular Field: Photo by Joseph Askins.  Photo taken from this page.
• Oriole Park: Photo by Cook & Sons.  Photo taken from their site.  Original (and others) can be viewed here.
• Progressive Field: Photo by Eric Drost.  Photo taken from Wikipedia. Original photo and copyright here.
• Globe Life Field: All photos are my own.
• Turner Field: Photo by “The Itinerant Fan”.  Photo taken from their site.  Original can be viewed here.
• Chase Field: Photo by Ben Cooper.  Photo taken from their site.  Original (and others) can be viewed here.
• Safeco Field: Photo by Cook & Sons.  Photo taken from their site. Original (and others) can be viewed here.
• Minute Maid Park: Photo by unknown.  Originally came from this location, per Google.
• Comerica Park: Photo by Matthew T. Aromando.   Photo taken from their site.  Original can be viewed here.
• AT&T Park: Photo by Bspangenberg.  Photo taken from Wikipedia.  Original photo and copyright here.
• Miller Park: Photo by Zeldink. Photo taken from “Red Hot Mama” site.  Original photo and copyright here.
• PNC Park: I took this picture myself when I visited Pittsburgh in 2001.
• Great American Ballpark: Photo by Unknown, but taken from this site.
• PNC Park: I took this picture myself when I was at the stadium in 2004.
• Safeco Field: Photo by Cook & Sons.  Photo taken from their site. Original (and others) can be viewed here.
• Busch Stadium: Photo by “Matt ???: Photo taken from his blog here.
• Nationals Park: Photo by Malcolm MacMillan.  Photo taken from his blog here.
• Citi Field: Photo by Ben Cooper.  Photo taken from their site.  Original (and others) can be viewed here.
• Yankee Stadium: Photo by Ben Cooper.  Photo taken from their site.  Original (and others) can be viewed here.
• Target Field: Photo by Amanda Rykoff.  Photo taken from Flickr, and can be viewed here.
• Marlins Park: Photo by “apc”. Photo taken from their website.  Original photo can be viewed here.
• SunTrust Field: Panoramic picture taken from Post & Courier site here.
• New Texas Rangers Stadium Renders taken from Dallas Morning News website here.
• New Rays Ballpark Stadium Renders taken from Ballpark Digest site here.