One thing that fits in with the hideous designs is the equally ridiculous corporate naming rights of these venues. Guaranteed Rate Park? Smoothie King Center? Ugh!!!
One of Atlanta's old arenas, the Omni Coliseum, built in the 70s, had narrow concourses, tight, cramped concession areas, and it was difficult to walk amongst the mass when leaving the games because it was so narrow. However, it was unique. Most of the stadiums you have here are actually nice from my perspective, being 46 years old and growing up in a time with all the multi-purpose stadiums like Atlanta Fulton County Stadium, Riverfront, Three Rivers, Veterans, Candlestick, etc. To me, with the exception of Tropicana Field, all the baseball stadiums you have listed look nice to me.
Question,why should the tax payer pay for a new stadium when the NFL makes enough money in three years to build a new stadium for each team without a penny of tax dollars.
Sounds like you kind of answered your own question. That means it would take a 90+ year cycle for the entire league to build a stadium, with no capital directed toward any other purpose. Most people seem to consider these stadiums obsolete after 30-40 years, not 90, so people would need to tolerate century old stadiums, or the capital needs to come from elsewhere.
@@cbonilla10027 the NFL three years ago made a billion dollars just on the Super bowl. They have over 7 billion dollars in TV contacts a year oh that's a new stadium for each team
It’s all about maintenance and renovations. Arrowhead was built in the 70’s and that place is iconic in KC and looks great. Will likely have another massive renovation within the 2020’s
Also, with the renovation here, they did the exact opposite of what should have been done with the size of the playing field, made it smaller instead of bigger. Now, its field is too small for major league standards, if they really wanted to do something, they should have made it the same size as the old Comiskey Park, and the same shape field also.
@@willp.8120 why not, Chicago is the third largest city, it should have two teams. The Sox may not have the broad appeal the Cubs have but their fans make it up in their passion and loyalty. Besides Chicago is more fun than Charlotte
It's interesting you mentioned the newer stadiums which were built in the 1990's for both MLB and the NFL. Guaranteed Rate Park was the first of the modern stadium rebuilds which almost didn't happen because the owner threatened to leave Chicago and move to Tampa Bay, which was why Tropicana Field was built in the first place. Eventually the owner got his publicly financed stadium, yet when they gave the choice of architectural design, it was between the 1991 design and a design based on the old Comiskey Park but with modern amenities and club suites. They chose the crappy design, and the other design was taken to Baltimore and revised around Camden Yards. As for the difference between the MLB and NFL rebuilds, the MLB owners knew people were attending their games not just to root their teams on but for the whole experience, so they took extra care to make sure the aesthetics looked good. On the other hand, the NFL owners were only in to make as much money as possible, so they designed their stadiums to pack as much people in as possible, fan experience be damned.
New Comiskey would have been better if it was built in the same exact place and field orientation as the old park. But headed southeast looking at what looks like housing projects ruins it for me.
One of the big problems with the Trop and FedEx is that they're so far from the major population centers that renovating them is worthless. Plus the Trop was built 8 years before the tenant it was made for (literally any MLB team) came, so it was very dated.
I've been to the Trop-honestly, I don't see what's so bad about it. Normally I don't like domes, but in that area, there is absolutely no reason to build anything else.
FedEx isn't far from major population center. FedEx field has 1.6 million people living within 10 miles. The Ravens have slightly more than half a million people within 10 miles of the stadium, and most everyone in that stadium are coming from 10+ miles away from the stadium
As a pittsburgh native im always baffled that nobody mentions Heinz/Acrisure on these types of lists. The upper deck is massive and crazy steep, doesn't save you from the riverfront winds because of the orientation, bleacher bench seats in the end zone upper deck, and the bright yellow seats always shows how many drunkards dont even make it inside (especially bad for Pitt Panthers games, who only really sell out consistently for like ND, WV, and Penn State). Has no theme other than "tin can with mustard seats". Maybe we just get credit for PNC Park and Consol/PPG and everyone just ignores the odd one out
It helps to have a run of success. Fenway park is a dump, but the Red Sox getting hot and winning some titles kept the fond memories over the realistic ones
@@johnepants Fenway has history and character though. Heinz was built 20ish years ago and the only history/character it has is making it impossible to kick field goals into one end for years and the shit playing surface. I guess the punt that didn't bounce in the Miami MNF game but that just reinforces the previously stated.
@@BHox01 and Fenway was very close to getting replaced. I can promise you, if the Red Sox were a mediocre or bad baseball team at the turn of the century, they would have replaced it. Heinz gets overlooked because the teams success still gives it a great atmosphere. Fed Ex Field is garbage, and because the team has been historically bad for 20 years, there is no fan atmosphere to prop it up
@@johnepants I get 1 (away) conf. championship appearance and 3 total playoff wins (only 1 at home) in a decade is better than a lot of teams but I dont really see how that can be anywhere near enough to compensate for the shortcomings. And I get what you're saying about fenway, but the fact is that baseball fans around the country and even world come to see a game in the stadium because of its pros, and despite its cons. Heinz as a venue has no pros, just neutrals & cons
Fedex was built on the cheap and paid for by The Redskins. A lot had to be "added in" as time progressed. Fedex is in Landover. It's a sea of parking lots connected to The DC Beltway. Ingress and egress is hellacious. Add the fact that maintenance seems an afterthought and Fedex aged rapidly.
Totally Correct! Then owner of the Washington Redskins, Jack Kent Cook, was so desprate to get a stadium build for his legacy, that what would become FedEx field was sort of 'thrown together' and that is one of the reasons that not only does it look so bland, but its also falling apart so quickly
90s NFL stadiums weren’t built with the fan experience in mind. They were built on the “cheap” to lure teams in with a publicly funded stadium. That is why Nissan Stadium is so bland
@@davidlafleche1142 as a titans fan, I have the right to crap on the stadium all I want, and it’s subpar. Upper deck seats are a mile away from the field, the grass field was never worth a damn, the food is bad, the design lets sound out, and it’s taking up too much prime real estate to only be used 15-20 total times a year. At least the new one I will be more functional, and the city isn’t on the hook for renovations like they would have been with keeping Nissan
Age like milk is a understatement. There must been a lot of drugs at the board meeting to figure out how they was going to Shell out millions of dollars for these ugly stadiums.😂😂😂
DG, I have no real interest in stadiums per se, but I remember when I was a kid I followed baseball statistics pretty closely. One of things that always intrigued me were the dimension of the old "Polo Grounds". It was 483 feet to the center field bleachers and only four people ever hit home runs into center field: Luke Easter in a Negro Leagues game, Hank Aaron and Lou Brock, on consecutive days, and Joe Adcock. I remember I was shocked to see that Lou Brock was one of those players. Wind must have been blowing out big time for Aaron and Brock?
I remember going to the upper deck at new Comiskey in the 90s. I felt it do do 2 things... 1. I could check the tire pressure of the planes landing at Midway/Miegs field because it was so high. 2. One trip on the top section and you'd be a goner.
New Comiskey would have been better if it was built in the same exact place and field orientation as the old park. But headed southeast looking at what looks like housing projects ruins it for me.
Seems like all new stadiums (10 or less years old) are nothing but corporate crap. I’d rather have an ugly stadium than a stadium that local fans can’t afford to go to.
I drove the family from Orlando down to Tampa Bay last year. When we passed the Trop, I explained to my kids that THAT thing was where the Tampa Bay Rays play. A mile later, we exited and passed a waste processing plant. My kids asked if the Rays played there too. It said, "Pretty much."
The Sox owners were huge Brooklyn Dodgers fans when they were younger, thats why the seats (and the fence, and the batters eye, and the scoreboard) in the new park were blue. They do look much better now that they are green.
Solider Field and old Comisky were Gorgeous stadiums and they ruined em! There was real opportunity there to keep something good going for yrs. It almost seems like some of these stadiums would of been better off being built in the 70s or early 80s. All that shit built in the 90's was steep, bland, tasteless, terrible designs and the future of them was not thought out well.
You can see the Trop all the way from the Howard Frankland Bridge (I-275) over Tampa Bay. It looks like the world's largest trash can with the lid on crooked.
Agreed Tropicana Field was dated from the beginning. Had it been built in the late 70s, we’d look back on it with more admiration. But similar to the GA Dome, they used a design language that was old from their inception.
Totally Correct! I actually read somewhere the Tropicana Field was actually built off of design plans that were drawn up in the early `80's and that the design plans were never updated becuase the city was too cheap to hire a new architecture firm to draw up new plans
@@kct1975 I'm pretty sure I've heard that same story before! The Trop was drab in the Rays first few seasons, and they've done a good job improving it. But they've run out of lipstick for that pig and it's time to move on (to Tampa proper).
@@willp.8120 The Trop was still state of the art in the early 90s, but that style stadium with the tarp roof was dated by 2000. The GA Dome also suffered from no natural light, poor interior flow of traffic in the concourses, and low ceilings in certain areas. The Edward Jones Dome had similar issues and the Rams partly left St. Louis because of them. I liked the GA Dome, even as a Bucs fan. Atlanta could have gotten another decade out of it with a renovation in 2013, but they'd be building their current stadium now had they gone that route. It was time for the GA Dome to be replaced and the Trop should have been replaced around the same time.
Maybe it's because I've been in stadiums outside of North America, but the only stadium that I would consider a dump that you discussed here is FedEx Field. Also, Chase Field is still a pretty good ballpark. It just needs a bit of rehab to plug some leaky areas.
Nissan Stadium, Raymond James Stadium, and Gillette Stadium all have the same look. Gillette has been renovated multiple times and is going through like its 3rd renovation. Raymond James has the pirate ship
Thank God the Bucs put a ship in the damn stadium it’s the same as Nissan really. we are lucky that our renovations went so well and quick because it was only 178 million to build originally 😅
As a Titans fan, I knew Nissan would be on here! This might be an incredibly wild take but I genuinely think the Astrodome was nicer than Nissan, Bud Adams was fucking tripping when he started complaining about a new stadium and then was satisfied when Nissan went up after moving the team through years of poor support and agony. They probably could have spent a quarter of the money just renovating the Astrodome.
Have you ever actually been to Bank of America Stadium? It’s not that bad. It does have a problem with drainage when it rains real hard, especially if a tropical storm is in the area.
Basically... if it doesn't look like a parked UFO, it aged like Milk? Throw a VERY traditional NFL stadium on the list and hardly anyone is saying anything about it in the comments.
I have a soft spot for the trop… it was the first mlb game I ever went to back in 1998 as a 12 year old. I was just in amazement, I had never been inside a building that big before. But my second stadium I had been to was Tiger stadium in 99’ which sadly was in its final season. I was spoiled by going to Tiger stadium, that park was an absolute gem. Fuck comerica
New Comisky Park temporarily called Guaranteed Rate has improved drastically. The seats are a lot nicer. They took most of the scary upper deck seats out. They've added a lot to it to make it feel like an old time ball park. I really enjoy the stadium now especially when I'm on the first floor. It's pretty comparable to most MLB stadium's now and I've been to most of them.
They were talking about building a new arena in New Orleans but top golf just bought the site. The only thing the SKC has going for it is it’s extremely loud. 5K fans can sound like 30K and you know it’s always a party in New Orleans
I agree with Bank of America stadium except for one thing..... There's a small town in Wyoming, called Lander and it has a bronze foundry that I worked at for about a year. In my first week on the job, we were finishing up the heads of the bronze panthers you see outside the stadium. Since then, everytime you see a Panthers on TV, they usually show a shot of one of the bronze Panthers. Makes me really proud, because they were a BITCH to work on and they came out beautifully! Literally EVERY PROJECT I was involved in after that was a piece of cake compared to that.
Nissan Stadium, despite its picturesque location from Nashville’s riverfront, it’s played second fiddle _pun intended_ to Bridgestone Arena. 🎻😴 The Arena literally has the Sirius XM Music Theatre and overlooks the Ryman. This list proves size isn’t the hallmark of great venues.
New Comiskey would have been better if it was built in the same exact place and field orientation as the old park. But headed southeast looking at what looks like housing projects ruins it for me.
Right. I just want an exact, bigger replica of the Trop In tampa, just more outfield seats and no catwalk. No retractable roof. And maybe a leaning and drinking area around the entire stadium, instead of just in the outfield
Nissan Stadium also hosts Tennessee State University’s football team on Saturdays (which is why the natural grass turf has to get replaced mid-season every football season), the Music City Bowl, and also hosts numerous concerts (because Music City) and the CMA Music Festival every June. So maybe not a lot of NFL usage, and certainly not as much usage as Bridgestone Arena which is seemingly always booked up, but it does get a fair bit of general usage. And, of course, they recently had a Taylor Swift concert, because it’s commuting distance for her!
New Comiskey really hasn’t aged like milk then, since it’s gotten better since opening. The overall aesthetic and surrounding area is pretty lackluster but as long as you stay out of the upper deck (pretty easy for most games) it’s a pretty convenient and has good food and amenities. Soldier field is pretty much the opposite in that only redeemable quality is design/history. Terrible in terms of amenities, parking, price, food etc…
The Trop was outdated as soon as it opened. Add in the fact that Camden Yards and Ballpark in Arlington opened, and several new ones were being built, in the eight years from it being completed to the (Devil) Rays moving in, and it never had a chance. At least it has good weather every game.
There is absolutely no reason to consider anything BUT a dome in that area. I was there a couple years ago: 90+ degrees, steambath humidity, and thunderstorms. EVERY DAY.
@@Johnny96ri I know, I live in the area. Unpredictably awful summertime weather. I’d be down for big glass windows and natural light though. And if they use the Battery model from Atlanta, St. Pete might work.
@@aaronscarpa7469 no, it's quite predictable. Between June 1 and September 1, it's a steambath. I'd say no windows except maybe facing north-they'll make cooling harder. Cover the roof with solar panels to run the A/C.
I used to live in Florida and used to go to Devil Rays games they hadn’t dropped the Devil part yet, it’s a dreadful park. I also don’t think the Rays will get another either at least not there. They will have to move.
@@davidlafleche1142 yeah they don’t deserve the team, I remember when they went to the alcs first time and they couldn’t sell out the games. They need to move to a city that would want to support them. Maybe Charlotte?
The park isn't going to win a beauty contest, but the primary problem is its location. St. Pete is the Oakland of the Tampa Bay metro area and most Rays fans have to cross the bay to get to it. Ugly as the trop is, if you could pick it up and set it down on the other side of the bay, Rays attendance would improve dramatically.
honestly everything about Bank of America Stadium can be said of Raymond James Stadium, they're basically the same stadium from this point of view. they also have a lot of the same annoying "features" internally.
I think it is because he is young, he doesn't realize that these parks when they were built were considered to be very nice. Tropicana, at best, however, was considered mediocre. It became obsolete very quickly.
@@willp.8120 Comiskey was outdated the day it was built. It's the last of the concrete donuts. It would have been "nice" had it opened 20 years earlier.
The Chicago White Sox in 2028 likely going to ask for a new stadium. Unless they overhaul the existing structure and build something new, they need changes.
Amway Center is another one that has aged like milk. I know a ton of people who have been there to watch Magic games and other events, and it's layout is pretty bad, maybe even worse then Smoothie King Center. At least the sponder of Smoothie King is a place you want to go and enjoy, Amway is just...depressing and scams you.
New Comiskey’s taxes renovations are still paid by Chicago residents I’m most certain. I really wish that ballpark had more to it. The Fundamentals Deck now known as The Kids Zone isn’t much if I remember either. They flopped on this ballpark. You can thank The Great Uncle Jerry for that.
New Comiskey would have been better if it was built in the same exact place and field orientation as the old park. But headed southeast looking at what looks like housing projects ruins it for me.
Interesting fact but the stadium trend of taxpayers footing the bill is coming to a close. Sofi Stadium and Allegiant Stadium did not take taxpayer money to build.
I'd prefer the new Commanders stadium to go up where RFK was but Oxon Hill wouldn't be bad either because you got National Harbor which is a shopping and entertainment village which is pretty much what pro sports venues are going for these days. All they need is to purchase the land around It.
Guaranteed Rate Field looks way better since it was renovated. Tropicana Field is not that bad for a dome stadium. Olympic Stadium and Skydome (pre-Rogers Centre) was hideous.
I've lived outside of Chicago phoenix and tampa in my life and I've found the mlb stadiums are looked down on more when the fans in an area don't give a crap about the team or the owner never spends money on a decent team. If chase field and guaranteed rate field were full more often the stadiums would be better received, but going to a Sox game or a diamondbacks game is like sitting in a library most of the time because of the lack of fan support. Wrigley was a huge dump before its renovations. There were literally rats and cement falling on people, but it was loved because of how much support the cubs get in Chicago.
Charlotte is not a bad town. Charlotte surrounds the stadium. It is in the mountains. The Panthers represent two states. It is not a bad place to see a game. I will be a Panthers fan before I would be a Falcons fan.
If you did another list of stadiums not active, RCA Dome, Georgia Dome, Hump Dome, whatever the STL Rams place is called now actually all those old style domes did not last long. Izod Center, XL Center... But another current TD Garden in Boston, way too small. Upper decks are awful. But I completely agree with FedEx Field, checked it off the list this past December. It might be the worst stadium in all four major sports. For being "DC" that stadium is embarrassing. Nothing around it, everything is outdated and dingy. The upper decks felt like I was in the next county and you cant see the game going to the concessions/bathroom. RFK today is probably better, at least it had character.
Tropicana Field broke ground in 1986 in the hope of attracting MLB which they did not get until 1998 when the Rays began play. Have you been to the stadiums? How many stadiums have you designed. Your spewing hot air without really knowing.
I honestly don't understand why so many people dislike football stadiums that are completely enclosed. I think that seeing fans all around you must be a pretty cool effect on the players - not to mention, the bowl is going to keep the sound in better and improves the atmosphere. I'd rather see more bowls than say Gillette Stadium types where there was a lot of gaps in the seating (some of that is changing because of the renovations, but not enough for my taste.)
@@Johnny96ri Football stadiums shouldn't be about "beautiful views". I have yet to see one that had such. The Coliseum doesn't count because it's the last of the multipurpose ashtrays. Even before the Mt. Davis seats were added, it was a dump.
Chase field looks god awful on tv but in real life its not that bad. The upper dexk is gigantic bit i mean cut off 20 rows of upper deck and put in some windows thats all it needs
