Stadium

[southsider2k5]

I've said this a few times on this site but when I was a kid I really didn't care how it looked but taking a look back on it now, that was one ugly f***in place before the renovations. Love it now though.

 

Ugly? I wouldn't say that. Sterile and boring would be very accurate though. The 2003 renovations went a long way towards making it a great place to see a game and one of the better stadiums in baseball. I know it never rates very high nationally, but I also like the fact that it doesn't have some of the dumber gimmicks in it, such as the roller coaster in Comerica Park or the train in Houston.

 

The sight lines are great. There is not any obstructed seating. The concourses are wide. There is food and drink everywhere. I love the murals in the upper deck.

 

My biggest complaint about the stadium is that you walk in to the very lowest level of the stadium, and you have to go up to even get to the first level of seating. It would have been so much better to walk in at the top of the 100 level, instead of below it.

[IlliniKrush]

You're splitting hairs. Ugly, sterile, boring, any amount of words could be used to describe it, and would be accurate. With the concrete, lack of color everywhere besides the terrible blue seats? Ugly.

 

The sight lines in the upper deck aren't great once you get down the lines, but that's something that can't be fixed. They messed that up not wanting any sort of overhang, and jamming all suites and a club level between it. Compared to other new parks, I don't think the sight lines are any better in other parts of the park, it lays out similarly. The best thing it has going for it is the open concourse, so you can somewhat monitor/hear the game while walking around.

 

I'll completely disagree that the concourses are wide (until the outfield), at least compared to a lot of other new parks. You have the built-ins on the outside, and the movable stands on the inside. And lines stack from both ways. It's not very wide and gets really tough to navigate with a halfway decent crowd.

[ewokpelts]

In the City of Chicago, they were completely intermingled and run by Daley's cronies and loyalists.

Patrick Ryan ran that bid. He's part of the bears ownership. Not exactly a crony.

There were quite a few old money and powerbrokers on that bid. Yes, richie had a hand in some of the staff selections, but it was mostly out of his hands. (It has to pass the usoc and ioc sniff test).

 

[ewokpelts]

Disagreed. They got a cookie cutter stadium that was built and is pretty easy to renovate. They just built Bacardi at the Park(whatever they're calling it these days), and the neighborhood is improving(more so, the good areas are slowly expanding). The city also won't let them move, especially considering the Rock Island stop at 35th was built specifically for them.

 

I would personally love them to move along the river just south of Roosevelt and Clark as you can have the skyline, lake and feature the Chicago River which no one has done. Another site I would look at is where they were going to build the Spire just off of the top of my head.

park borrow more from dodger stadium and kaufman stadium than any multipurpose stadium. la and kc are in baseball only parks.

[Rowand44]

Ugly? I wouldn't say that.

I'd definitely say ugly. It was pretty gross looking imo.

[ewokpelts]

My question is...how well is this structure going to hold up? If there are going to need to be major repairs and renovations in 10-20 years, then that's going to fundamentally change the calculus about whether this stadium gets replaced. Anyone know how the bones of the ballpark are?

structurally, it's in great shape. the ramps have a small shelf life, but teh main facility is just fine.

 

[southsider2k5]

Patrick Ryan ran that bid. He's part of the bears ownership. Not exactly a crony.

There were quite a few old money and powerbrokers on that bid. Yes, richie had a hand in some of the staff selections, but it was mostly out of his hands. (It has to pass the usoc and ioc sniff test).

 

Mayor Daley appointed Patrick Ryan to that position. There isn't a chance on God's green earth that he would appoint anyone to a post like that who wasn't an ally of the administration. Ritchie didn't do business like that.