Baseball Stadiums

[W. Gray]

The new Yankee stadium seating 52,000 people opened this year at a cost of $1.3 billion.

The new Coors Field seating 52,000 and housing the Colorado Rockies opened in 1993 at a cost of $300 million. It was the first baseball only park built in the U.S. in 23 years.

Sixteen years later, Coors Field is now the 3rd oldest baseball park of sixteen such parks in the National League.

[pepelect]

I went to a Rockies game last summer the stadium is still cool for being so "old."  I was trying to get seats for a game in KC this summer as we haven't been to a Royals game since Brett was playing.  I hear that the new additions to the K have really been an improvement.   I guess you feel just as good after an afternoon of losing baseball as you do when they win.   The game is almost secondary to the atmosphere.   

[W. Gray]

The Rockies have the highest one year baseball attendance record, which they set in 1993 with 4,483,350 people attending. That is around 55,000 people per game.

The opening game had an attendance of 80.227; I do not believe that is a record, though. The Dodgers and maybe even the Indians in the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium may have had a higher one game attendance.

The Rockies figures are from the short time the team played in the old Mile High stadium, which has been replaced by an entirely new Invesco Field at Mile High.

I saw many games in Royals Stadium (now Kaufman Stadium, I believe) right after it opened in 1972. Prior to that I was a semi-regular at the old Municipal Stadium at 22nd and Brooklyn in Kansas City, which the Kansas City Blues, Athletics, Royals, and Chiefs all called home.

The Kansas City Royals replaced Paul Schaal at 3rd base with George Brett in 1974 and I thought management was out of their mind.

[Tobina+1]

I went to a couple Royals games when I lived in KC, and also attended a Rockies game last summer when I was in Denver.  And you're right; the atmosphere is more fun than the game, most of the time!  Even if you don't appreciate baseball, I think going to a game truly is the great american pasttime.

[Diane Amberg]

I've only been to 2 stadiums....White Sox and Phillies. The antics  the TV cameras never show are indeed a real hoot. For the the ticket price, I guess ya have to get something besides just the game.     

[W. Gray]

When I was a boy, the Philadelphia Phillies played in the same stadium as the Philadelphia Athletics. I think the stadium might have held 30,000, if that.

Connie Mack, the Athletics owner not only owned that stadium, renting it out to the Phillies, he owned the Athletics.

At one time, his stadium was all wood. Sometime in the thirties, he built a more modern stadium.

Further, he was also the Athletics' manager. Until he died around 1954, he was the only manager the Athletics ever had. After he died, the team was bought in an estate sale and went to Kansas City.

Colorado Rockies single game tickets remaining for the rest of the season run from $8 to $4,200 (for a single game) with lots of prices in between. I think the $4,200 is for one of the corporate luxury boxes (which might have more than one seat) and it is available for only one game the rest of the season. The other luxury boxes of which some may have a higher price are apparently all taken for the entire season.

[Diane Amberg]

How about the owner's box?

[W. Gray]

I dunno Diane. If you are interested you might contact the owner, but I do not think he will give it up.

[larryJ]

My son, now 32 years old, is a real baseball fan.  He played all the way from T-ball through high school including little league every year.  One of his goals in life is to visit every stadium there is.  He has been to many of them.  One of which was Coors field.  We were on a dad/son trip and stopped in Denver for the night.  The next day we went to the stadium and were prepared to pay through the nose for tickets when we were approached by a man with tickets in his hand.  At first, I thought he was a scalper.  It turned out that his company had given out tickets to the employees for this game and he could care less about baseball.  So for $10 apiece we had tickets.  A word of warning though-----stay away from the garlic fries.  The smell will stay with you forever.  I almost had to get another room at the motel because my son had some!!!!!  I will agree that it is a beautiful stadium. 

One more stadium story and then I will shut up.  Here, in SoCal, there are several stadiums.  One of my favorites is called the Epicenter in Rancho Cucamonga.  It is the home of the Single A Quakes.  Their mascot is a Alligator named Tremor and the backup mascot when they have some teenager available to work is named Aftershock.  One of the first times I attended a game there, the stadium shook a little and I thought, WOW!!  What a neat effect!  It turns out that there really was a small earthquake in that area that shook the stadium!   

[W. Gray]

Can't top that.


I hope you folks have seen the movie Ed, about the minor league California team whose new third basemen was a chimpanzee and needs a home so he winds up staying with one of the pitchers.

The movie did not go very far and got some razzie awards but I liked it and some of the apartment scenes are hilarious. It think it is also a good baseball movie.