After a standstill in 2020, there was an abundance of new ballparks in 2021
Text and photos by Joe Mock, BaseballParks.com
All rights reserved
In hindsight, the pandemic year of 2020 was the calm before the storm. Until the League Championship Series, fans weren’t allowed in MLB parks, and there were no affiliated Minor League games at all. That meant that four brand-new parks in the Minors sat empty in 2020. In the Big Leagues, there was a shortened season, but fans weren’t allowed to attend.
What a difference a year makes. Those new Minor League parks — with limited capacities initially — opened, albeit in a completely re-imagined alignment of leagues and franchises. Indeed, the year 2021 was memorable in many, many respects. And our camera ran from coast to coast to capture the Ballpark Year in Pictures!
Check out our pictorial review of 2021. There are a LOT of parks to talk about!
With rows of corn as far as the eye could see, the Field of Dreams Ballpark without a doubt generated the most interest in 2021. Originally planned in 2020 as a one-time event, COVID pushed it to 2021, and the overwhelming interest in the game prompted MLB to schedule at least one more game here in August of 2022. We provided a full write-up on the background of the pop-up park, plus it won our Ballpark of the Year Award. No doubt, this is the biggest event that’s ever happened in Dyersville, Iowa! |
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After the final game of the 2019 World Series, no one could’ve guessed that the next time a Major League game would be played at a full stadium would be April 5, 2021! That was the home opener for the Texas Rangers, and the State permitted them to sell all of the tickets at Globe Life Field. Other teams played for weeks or months with limitations on their capacity, but the Rangers came out of the gate at full speed. Well, their ticket-sales department did, but the team finished dead last. |
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One MLB team didn’t just face limited capacities, they weren’t allowed to play in their home park at all until almost August! That’s because Rogers Centre in Toronto is in Canada (duh!), and the Blue Jays players weren’t allowed to go back and forth across the border. So they were stuck in the U.S., first playing their home games in Dunedin, FL and then at Sahlen Field in Buffalo, shown here. The team returned to Toronto on July 30.
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After being ready for a year, Atrium Health Ballpark was the first of the new parks to host a game that counted in 2021. It’s remarkable for a city as small as Kannapolis, NC to have such an impressive park. It is anchoring an incredible renovation of the city’s center. Read all about it in our in-depth review. |
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A positively spectacular new park in the Minors is Polar Park in Worcester, MA. It’s the biggest and most expensive of 2021’s new parks, and it ushered in an incredible array of innovations. Read about them in our review. |
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A very impressive new park with a gorgeous color scheme is Toyota Field in Madison, AL. It’s the home of the Rocket City Trash Pandas, well known for the stratospheric sales of their merchandise. Yes, the logo is adorable, but the ballpark design is first-rate, too. |
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The market of Wichita, KS had long deserved a new affiliated Minor League team. That was supposed to happen in 2020 in the form of a Triple-A franchise in a new park on the city’s riverfront. Well, COVID wiped out the season, plus MLB reorganized the Minors, leaving Wichita with a Double-A team. Regardless, the Wichita Wind Surge brought spacious Riverfront Stadium online in May. It might be a tad too large (it was designed for Triple-A after all), but its abundant artwork makes it a winner. |
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Fredericksburg, VA welcomed affiliated baseball to town at the same time as FredNats Ballpark opened its doors in May. Since the team footed the entire bill for design and construction, it didn’t have the huge budget of some of the other new parks this year. It still managed to incorporate quite a few fan-friendly features, though, particularly in the outfield. |
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Gastonia, NC’s new ballpark for its expansion team in the indy Atlantic League isn’t nearly as large as this year’s new facilities in the affiliated Minors, but it represents the ultimate in flexibility and functionality. In addition to baseball, local residents can enjoy soccer, football, concerts, festivals and banquets here. Yes, Caromont Health Park can do it all. |
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It’s not an overstatement to say that ABC Supply Stadium saved organized baseball in Beloit, WI. The market was on the list to be eliminated when MLB started thinking about streamlining the Minors. The pledge to pay for the new park by local businesswoman Diane Hendricks caused MLB to rethink things, and the Beloit Snappers are still in business to this day. Read all about this heartwarming story. |
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And to finish off our wild ballpark year, we were at Minute Maid Park to witness the first World Series championship for Atlanta since 1995. Thousands of Braves fans made the trip to Houston in hopes of witnessing the feat, and they weren’t disappointed. |
Visit our Ballpark Year In Review page here.
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