2024 – The Ballpark Year in Pictures

The feel-good event of the year wasn’t the All Star Game, Opening Day, the Home Run Derby or even the World Series. The clear winner was the universally acclaimed MLB event at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, AL. MLB pulled off an event for the ages in the 114-year-old park, with the most special aspect being the honors bestowed on the Negro Leagues and its players. Chief among them was hometown hero Willie Mays, who was playing pro games at Rickwood while he was still in high school down the street. Sadly, Mays passed away on the first day of the three-day extravaganza, but his presence was felt every minute of the event. I covered the proceedings for USATODAY.com, and afterwards compiled all of my photos and interviews into a long spread here on BaseballParks.com. Even if you watched every minute of the festivities and game on TV, you’ll have a great time reading all about the preparations for the event and the behind-the-scenes look at how MLB pulled it off.

For the second year in a row, there was only one truly new pro ballpark. Beautifully designed by Pendulum Studios, Meritus Park in downtown Hagerstown, Maryland opened May 4. It features wonderful amenities for players and fans. Check out our detailed review — and interview with lead architect Jonathan Cole — here. Hagerstown had been without pro baseball since the longstanding Suns franchise was contracted by Major League Baseball in 2021. Meritus Park is the home of the indy Atlantic League’s Flying Boxcars, but don’t be surprised if it moves up to an affiliated minor league at some point, because its features are that good.

The 2024 season was one of sadness in the East Bay of California. That’s because it was a lame-duck season for the A’s, as they played their final games at Oakland Coliseum. I attended a weekend series there to interview fans and provide perspective about the team’s upcoming move to Las Vegas. My article appeared in a USA TODAY publication as the final games were played there.

The Double-A team in Eastern Tennessee played near downtown Knoxville from 1963 until 1999. For 25 seasons starting in 2000, the Smokies had a successful run at Smokies Stadium in Sevierville, east of Knoxville. I made one last visit to the scenic park built into a hillside near the Smoky Mountains. In 2025, the team will be back in Knoxville at brand-new Covenant Health Park. Other parks being replaced for 2025 include Grainger Stadium in Kinston, NC (the team is moving to Spartanburg, SC), Smiths Ballpark in Salt Lake City (moving to a SLC suburb) and Trustmark Park in Pearl, MS (moving to Columbus, GA).

I started the 2024 season in Toronto. Rogers Centre had been a stadium in need of modernization, but because the location was perfect for the fans of Ontario, the team decided not to build a new park elsewhere. Instead, the Blue Jays ownership poured $400 million into renovations, and the results are remarkable. From new seats and lighting, to beautiful new group areas in the outfield, to a completely new field level, Rogers Centre is now one of MLB’s most modern and comfortable parks. Read all about the improvements.

The Modesto Nuts of the California League played most of the 2024 season thinking it was going to be the team’s last. A reprieve of sorts happened at the end of the year, but it is only extending the Nuts’ run at John Thurman Field (see photo) one more season. The juggernaut known as Diamond Baseball Holdings, which has been acquiring Minor League franchises at a dizzying clip, now owns three teams in the Cal League, and plans to play musical chairs with them in 2026: the Nuts will become the Inland Empire 66ers in San Bernardino, the current 66ers will become the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, and the current Quakes will move to a park that’s currently under construction in Ontario, CA.

Maybe the most interesting storyline of the 2024 World Series wasn’t the the acclaimed ballparks used, or the future Hall of Famers involved. It was probably the payrolls of the two teams! This is but one of the many comparisons I made about the Yankees and Dodgers in my annual Tale of the Tape, which has become an autumn tradition.

As 2023 was drawing to a close, it appeared a 16-year journey for a new ballpark for the Tampa Bay Rays was coming to a fruitful conclusion. In fact, in July 2024, both the city council of St. Petersburg and the county commission of Pinellas County voted to approve a formal plan for the Rays to develop an 85-acre tract that includes the current location of Tropicana Field and its parking lots. At the heart of the mixed-use development would be a new ballpark with a fixed roof (rendering above), to be ready for the 2028 season. All that was left to do was the mere formality of the two governmental entities voting to issue the construction bonds. Well, Hurricane Milton hit the area hard, and then the November elections changed the makeup of the city council and county commission. Both entities delayed votes on the bonds, which pushed back the construction timeline. The dismayed Rays stated that the delay was going to cost them hundreds of millions of dollars in additional construction costs and lost revenue. Even though both governments eventually approved the construction bonds, the year (2024) ended with the whole project up in the air (check out our FAQ about it), sparking rumors the team could move elsewhere.