Multi-purpose stadium

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007)

This article may contain original research or unverified claims.
Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (November 2007)

RFK Stadium, a multi-purpose stadium in Washington, D.C.

Multi-purpose stadiums are a type of stadium designed for use by multiple teams playing baseball, American football, soccer, and, in some cases, basketball and ice hockey. Some multi-purpose stadiums were initially built to accommodate one sport and subsequently renovated to accommodate multiple sports, while others were initially built to accommodate multiple sports.

In North America, multi-purpose stadiums were built primarily during the 1960s and 1970s as shared home stadiums for Major League Baseball and National Football League teams from the same city. Some stadiums were renovated into multi-purpose configurations during the 1980s.

It is important to note that several stadiums hosted multiple sports teams prior to the advent of multi-purpose stadiums. For example, the Polo Grounds hosted football teams as early as 1921, though the stadium was initially designed for baseball only. These stadiums, however, never had their seating configurations modified from their original design, and are not considered multi-purpose stadiums.

1 History in North America
2 References

[edit] History in North America

Multi-purpose stadiums began replacing their baseball-only and football-only predecessors, now known as "Classics" or "Jewel Box", in the 1960s. The advantage to a multi-purpose stadium is that a singular infrastructure and piece of real estate can support both teams in terms of transportation and playing area, and money (often public money) that would have been spent to support infrastructure for two stadiums could be spent elsewhere. Unlike their predecessors which were generally built in the middle of the cities, most multi-purpose stadiums were built in suburbs, away from the city centers but near freeways or highways, with large, expansive parking lots surrounding them.

A subset of the multipurpose stadiums were the so called "cookie-cutter stadiums" or "concrete donuts" which were all very similar in design. They featured a completely circular or nearly circular design, football fields that were placed home plate to center field over the baseball field, tall outer structures and often used artificial turf. The first of these stadiums was RFK Stadium. It was followed during the 1960s and 1970's by Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Astrodome, Riverfront Stadium, Busch Memorial Stadium, Three Rivers Stadium, and Veterans Stadium.

It should be noted that during the height of the multi-purpose stadium construction era of the 1960s and 1970s, three baseball-only stadiums were constructed: Dodger Stadium, Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium), and Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Anaheim Stadium was, however, renovated into a multi-purpose stadium in 1980 and renovated back into a baseball-only facility in 1997.

With some exceptions, most North American multi-purpose stadiums housed only NFL and MLB teams.

[edit] Field layout

Most multi-purpose stadiums still in use in North America (as well as many already replaced) overlay one sideline of the football field along one of the baseball foul lines, with one corner of the football field being located where home plate would be. McAfee Coliseum is unique in that its football sideline runs along a line drawn from first base to third base. This was done presumably to make the same coveted seats behind home plate at a baseball game also coveted 50-yard line seats at a football game. Different stadiums have different angles between the left and right field seats.

In stadiums that were primarily football stadiums that converted to baseball stadiums, the stands were at nearly right angles. This allowed the football field to be squared within the bleachers, but left the baseball field with less desirable views further away from home plate, such as at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Baseball stadiums that converted to football stadiums had more of an obtuse angle between the stands. This made the football viewing further away, and in some cases partially obscured as in Candlestick Park.

In the case of Qualcomm Stadium, the stadium was constructed with half of the Field-level seating permanent (built of concrete, in the southern quadrant of the stadium), and the other half portable (modular construction using aluminum or steel framing). When the stadium was configured for baseball, the portable sections would be placed in the western quadrant of the stadium and serve as the third-base half of the infield. In the football configuration, these are placed in the northern quadrant of the stadium (covering what is used as left field in the baseball configuration) to allow for the football field to be laid out east-west. This had the advantage of improving sightlines for both sports while keeping the baseball dimensions roughly symmetrical.

[edit] Criticisms

Many of these stadiums, when used for baseball, had many of the lower-level boxes set back far from the field because they swiveled into position for football and soccer, while the upper-level seats were as far as 600 feet from the plate. For football, the seats nearest the field were set farther back than at football-only stadiums to accommodate the larger baseball field. In general, spectator sightlines were not optimized for either sport, i.e., seats were angled towards the center of the field rather than towards the logical center of the gameplay action. Likewise, attempts to build stadiums without support columns to obstruct spectators' views, as was the case with jewel box stadiums, resulted in upper decks being placed very high above the field.

Many multi-purpose stadiums also had artificial turf playing surfaces, to ease the transition from baseball field to football field and vice-versa. In many cases, the turf was nothing more than carpet on top of concrete with little padding material, which caused frequent injuries to players.

In the baseball configuration, most had symmetrical field dimensions. This detracted from the unique, individual identity enjoyed by the Jewel Box stadiums with odd or asymmetrical field dimensions, and further supported the "cookie cutter stadium" nickname.

Fans also criticized the large parking lots surrounding the stadiums as well as their concrete or painted concrete façades as uninviting.

[edit] Replacement

During the 1990s and 2000s, most of the multipurpose stadiums used for Major League Baseball in the United States have been replaced (most, but not all, of those replaced have been demolished) with "retro-modern" style ballparks, which combine the design of the "classic" ballparks with the amenities of newer facilities. The first such park was Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, which opened in 1992. Many football teams that shared a stadium with a baseball team had their stadiums converted into football-only facilities shortly after the baseball tenant left (e.g., Qualcomm Stadium), while other football teams followed in the footsteps of their baseball counterparts and had new football-only stadiums constructed (e.g., the Kingdome).

The Washington Nationals debuted their new baseball-only stadium, Nationals Park, on March 30, 2008, leaving RFK Stadium, credited as being the first concrete donut, with only the D.C. United Major League Soccer team as a major professional sports tenant.

Additionally, the New York Mets will be moving to Citi Field for the 2009 season, making Shea Stadium the next multi-purpose stadium to be replaced (Though it is a true multi-purpose stadium, the Mets have been the only major sports tenants at Shea since 1983).

All three remaining MLB teams who share a multi-purpose stadium on a full-time basis with an NFL team currently have plans to relocate:

The Minnesota Twins have a new open-air stadium under construction and plan to begin playing there in the 2010 season.
The Oakland Athletics are currently planning to build a new stadium in nearby Fremont, California and plan to begin playing there as early as 2011.
The Florida Marlins currently have plans to build a new retractable roof stadium in Miami and plan to begin playing there in 2011. At that time, the team name will change to Miami Marlins.

The Toronto Blue Jays currently share Rogers Centre with the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL and will begin sharing the facility on a part-time basis with the Buffalo Bills of the NFL in August 2008.^[1] The Blue Jays presently do not have any plans to leave Rogers Centre.

An added benefit of single-sport stadiums that was impossible with the "concrete donut" design of the multi-purpose stadiums is improved panoramic views of areas outside the stadium, such as mountains, city skylines, etc. Examples include Qwest Field and Safeco Field, which replaced the Kingdome in Seattle, and Heinz Field and PNC Park, which replaced Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.