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Rangers could be in new park by 2021

UPDATE 2:21 p.m. May 20, 2016  The announcement has been made.  Rangers owner Ray Davis and Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams held a joint press conference today at Arlington City Hall to announce a new retractable-roof ballpark will be built for the Rangers. Voters will be asked in November to approve the use of a half-cent sales tax, as well as taxes on hotels and rental cars, to build the stadium. The City’s outlay will be capped at $500 million, with the team paying the rest.  If voters approve the measure, construction could start as soon as next year, meaning the team could be playing in air-conditioned comfort as soon as 2021.

Davis and Williams also announced the location of the new stadium.  It will be built adjacent to Globe Life Park, in what is now parking lots A and B.  The site of the current park will be redeveloped as part of the already-approved entertainment district.  Here are details in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

(Image shows three Arlington landmarks:  a roller coaster from Six Flags theme park, Globe Life Park and in the distance, the retractable roof of AT&T Stadium)

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Another delay in Hartford means more games in Norwich

Dunkin’ Donuts Park in downtown Hartford was scheduled to open April 7.  Last winter, it was obvious that deadline wasn’t going to be met, so Opening Day was pushed back to May 31, with the requirement that the ballpark be “substantially complete” two weeks before that date.

With restrooms unfinished, a key elevator not complete, concession stands not ready to prepare food and a significant portion of protective railing needing to be replaced, the park failed to meet the definition of “substantially complete.” As a consequence, the Eastern League announced today that the Hartford Yard Goats will have to play an additional ten “home” games away from Connecticut’s capital city.

Their temporary home will continue to be Dodd Stadium (see photo), which is about a 45-minute drive away in Norwich, CT.   Read More

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Crunch time in Hartford

In preparation for my in-depth review of Hartford’s brand-new Dunkin’ Donuts Park, which is scheduled to open May 31, I interviewed its lead designer, Jonathan Cole, principal at Pendulum.

Yes, it’s over-budget and it’s opening a month and a half later than planned — and that assumes it will actually open on the 31st.  And the media in Hartford has been critical of just about every aspect of the project.  But that hasn’t dampened Cole’s enthusiasm about the park.

Calling right now “crunch time,” he is spending every weekday in Hartford.  “All of the bricks are in place. Read More

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2015 MLB Attendance Analysis now available

For years, I’ve relied on the statistical expertise of the brilliant David Kronheim. He is an absolute wizard with numbers and analysis, and luckily for baseball fans, he loves the National Pastime. Therefore, I greatly anticipate the arrival each spring of his detailed analysis of the previous year’s MLB attendance results. Done through David’s firm called Number Tamer, the report for 2015 just became available.

Whenever I’ve written an article where attendance figures are involved, I’ve turned to his analysis to shed a brilliant spotlight on the subject. Time and time again, his assessments have provided my pieces with great insight.

And his annual reports are anything but a dull recitation of how many fans attended a team’s games the previous year. Read More

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Zika nixes Puerto Rico games

The Marlins and Pirates were scheduled to play two games at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico on May 30 and 31. Not any more. After the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) consulted with players from the two teams about the danger of contracting the Zika virus, the players union and MLB jointly announced Friday that the two games would be played at Marlins Park in Miami instead. Read More

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Wow, everything looks different!

Welcome to the brand-new BaseballParks.com!  As our site was approaching its 20th year (and how many other websites can say that?), we felt that another set of renovations was in order.  We hired Altair Technology (the company that has expertly hosted our site since 2001) to change e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g about the format and look of the site.  And that’s exactly what they did.

I wanted the new look to emphasize two things … Read More

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