Rays unveil new stadium

[adamb100]

ST. PETERSBURG -- The Tampa Bay Rays, who have played indoors at Tropicana Field for their first 10 seasons,unveiled plans on Wednesday for a retractable-roof, 34,000-seat, open-air waterfront ballpark that could open as early as 2012.

 

Source and renderings: http://tampabay.rays.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071128&content_id=2313331&vkey=news_tb&fext=.jsp&c_id=tb

[Invader3K]

Well, it certainly looks impressive.

 

Their current stadium isn't even that old, though, is it?

[adamb100]

It was built in the late 80's I believe to lure in a team but sat empty pretty much till the rays moved in 10 years ago.

[Brian the Automator]

Well, it certainly looks impressive.

 

Their current stadium isn't even that old, though, is it?

Construction on Tropicana Field started in 1986. It was finished in 1990, but had no occupant until the Rays got their franchise in 1993 when the Lightning started using it. The Devil Rays came along in '96, finally.

I really like the look of the new stadium, from what I can tell from the photo. It just seems to me like Florida teams will always be destined to have low attendance, no matter what the ballpark

 

[bacon06]

Is this a ploy to get people to the ballpark in Tampa? Build a new stadium every 15 years?

[homer]

At least they aren't going with the retro look. I think their design is pretty cool.

[bball123h2]

Having spoken with the natives during a game there, a roof is basically mandatory due to rain/lightning on a pretty regular basis during the summer. Thad said, I actually liked the Trop (for a dome), but that new stadium looks pretty sweet.

[JohnBriggs12]

I attended a game at Tropicana in 2004. While not very old, the place is, well, a dump.

 

If you can imagine what a place would look like that was built as cheaply as possible, that's what Tropicana is. It's dark, dank and spartan in it's imenities. It's quite depressing walking in from the Florida sunshine to such a dark inhospitable place. It's concourses are like walking through a dark alley at night. Amazingly, the main entrance is actually in CF and you have to walk half way around the park to get to seats by home plate.

 

The views aren't bad, and you can walk up and get a good seat at a reasonable price virtually every game but that's about it.

[homer]

Plus the Trop is way out in the middle of nowhere - basically they picked a spot near a big interchange if I'm not mistaken.

[davego]

Wow. The drawings look pretty neat. If they pull off somethign close to this, could be a really nice place!

[PlayerHader]

What kind of roof is that?

[Samurai Bucky]

34,000 seats? I'm guessing there would be room to expand if necessary.

[fondybrewfan]

That looks like a transparent roof. That could be a major issue with glare one would think. I would hope that they figured that in however. It appears they are going into the future rather than the retro look. Looks very very nice

[homer]

I think the new football stadium in AZ has a transparent roof.

[bacon06]

The front of the new stadium reminds me of the Milwaukee Art Museum and their fins or whatever they're called.

[TooLiveBrew]

Plus the Trop is way out in the middle of nowhere - basically they picked a spot near a big interchange if I'm not mistaken.

 

Glad the Brewers would never do this.

 

Wow, that stadium looks incredible. And I agree it appears that they've left room to add seats in the future. Very cool design.

[RU Rah Rah]

The front of the new stadium reminds me of the Milwaukee Art Museum and their fins or whatever they're called.

That's what I thought, too -- very Santiago Calatrava-esque.

 

[owbc]

If that is built, it will be the most unique, coolest-looking stadium in MLB. It looks like the roof is designed to look like a sailboat and I imagine that the roof material will be canvas-like instead of a bulky, expensive steel roof. The major issue is that it will probably be very hot in there, despite their "climate cooling" methods described in the article.

 

I really hope it gets built, there are baseball fans in Tampa Bay and Orlando and they need this in order to make baseball trendy again.

[homer]

"Glad the Brewers would never do this. "

 

Should have seen this coming http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif. At least MP is within shouting distance of downtown. Where 894/I43 and Hwy 45 meet out in Hales Corners is probably a better comparison.

[Invader3K]

Not to be negative, and I am not an architect or engineer of any sort, but doesn't the roof kind of look like a disaster waiting to happen? I'm sure it will be fine, and will be built solidly...just kind of pointing out from a layman's perspective.

 

Still, I think it's a really neat design. I would go down there just to see a game or two if it gets built.

[Cracked Bat Collector]

That roof does look sweet, says it'll be weatherproof. I agree with Invader3k though that something about the roof just has problems written all over it. The Expos old roof came to mind immediately when I saw this. Hopefully it works out for them.

[DannoMac21]

That looks sick.

[Weirdos19]

Tropicana Field was built to lure a team. The White Sox used Tampa as a pawn to get the new Comisky built.

[colbyjack]

The Giants nearly moved to the St. Pete area as well IIRC before they got their new stadium built.

[Glennron]

I don't care if the Trop is only 15-20 years old, it was a complete dump. I've only been to six stadiums, but it is by far the worst one I've seen. It's probably good they only plan on 34,000 seats, but what if they get really good in 8 or 10 years and they're always selling out?