The Marlins unveiled new renderings of their planned $455 million stadium on the old Orange Bowl site yesterday, revealing a glass-encased ovoid with a Minute-Maid-esque sliding roof. To me it looks like it should be the latest scanner design from HP, but opinions vary; another friend suggested “bagel slicer.”
As for what it’d be like to watch baseball in, it’s tough to tell much from the renderings, other than that it’s a typical HOK design: big field level, and a set-back upper deck with a layer of club seats/luxury suites tucked underneath it. A commenter at Field of Schemes notes that in the sketch provided, a bunch of the right-field bleacher seats are stuck behind the giant pillars holding up the retractable roof; in the computer rendering further down the page, though, those sections are empty of seats, so either somebody belatedly noticed the problem, or the sketch illustrator just opened up an extra-large can of artistic license.
The timing of the new drawings coincided with the announcement that the city of Miami and Miami-Dade County have rescheduled their final votes on approving the stadium project for February 13. Dade County Manager George Burgess announced a bunch of concessions the Marlins agreed to yesterday (highlight, if you can call it that: indexing the team’s rent to inflation), but they’re unlikely to change the three-quarters public, one-quarter private cost split agreed to back in 2007. Of prime concern to Florida taxpayers, with the team attempting to build a retractable-roofed stadium for $60 million less than the Seattle Mariners spent on theirs ten years ago, should be that while the Marlins pay overruns for the stadium, the county is apparently on the hook for all overruns for “infrastructure.” They’d better make sure there’s a mechanism to ensure the Fish don’t start pushing items from the “stadium” column into the “infrastructure” column — because as we also saw this week, those things can add up.
Assuming, for the sake of argument, that the Marlins draw fans to this new stadium, are they going to park 15,000 cars in those four parking structures? Is public transportation that good in Miami? Looks like a huge traffic mess.
the parking situation in Little Havana is awesome, there's plenty of parking. You just have to pay someone $10 to park in their yard. More if you don't want to be blocked in aka "no blockie." Oh how I miss Hurricanes' games at the OB.
Another new stadium, another one with an asymetric outfield just for asymetry's sake. Such outfields are fine when the physical site dictates it but this is just a potential hazard to a right fielder running along the fence at full speed. No, it's not as stupid as the incline in Houston.
And of course, the site trots out all of the tired economic "benefits."
Simple question. If ballparks were such great investments, why don't the owners build them without taxpayer subsidy?
Much speculation, but nobody seems to know for sure. So far the main effects seem to be: 1) interest rates are up; 2) labor/steel costs are, maybe, down; 3) projects that depend on "ballpark village" development, like the A's in Fremont, are on life support; 4) owners are scurrying to recast their projects as "economic stimulus." I haven't heard anyone use the word "shovel-ready" yet, but I'm sure it's coming.
I like it actually. Relatively light on the faux-asymmetry, and a modern design. A brick and steel ballpark would look ridiculous in Miami, a place with neither a good baseball tradition nor an abundance of brick and steel buildings (at least from what I've seen). Some more art deco touches to echo South Beach would be cool though.
I have to say I like the idea of the well-marked "home plate entry". I'm a little disappointed though that too bad the renderning didn't show the "second base entry" instead, something I recall achieving as a sophomore in high school, IIRC.
21 comments have been left for this post.
count my vote for "Bagel Slicer" ... weak!!!