The Stadium Collection
by tgirschSeptember 3rd, 2008
UPDATED 2 Sep 2008: Add West Tenn Diamond Jaxx (AA)
UPDATED 23 July 2008: Add Huntsville Stars (AA)
UPDATED 25 June 2008: Add Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, and New York Mets
UPDATED 27 April 2008: Add Kansas City Royals.
UPDATED 20 May 2007: Add Philadelphia Phillies.
I’m a sports fan, and I “collect” stadiums (stadia?). Especially major league baseball, NFL football, and NHL hockey. My goal, before I die, is to see a baseball game in the home stadium of every MLB team. It would be an added bonus if I could do the NHL and NFL venues, but right now, I’m focusing primarily on baseball.
Problem is, I keep forgetting where I’ve been, and losing count. Therefore, mostly for my own reference (and because I expect few others to be interested), I’m posting a list of venues attended below the fold. I’ve ordered them in roughly the order in which I first visited them, to the best of my ability to recall.
However, if you have comments concerning favorite (or least favorite) venues, feel free to leave them.
MLB: (20 venues in 15 cities for 17 home teams [one since moved]; 16 of current 30 teams, 53% complete)
- Milwaukee County Stadium, Milwaukee Brewers (Defunct)
- New Comiskey Park, Chicago White Sox
- Riverfront Stadium, Cincinnati Reds (Defunct)
- Bank One Ballpark, Arizona Diamondbacks
- Olympic Stadium, Montreal (Defunct)
- Miller Park, Milwaukee Brewers
- Coors Field, Colorado Rockies
- Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati Reds
- (Old) Busch Stadium, St. Louis Cardinals (Defunct)
- Wrigley Field, Chicago Cubs
- Tropicana Field, Tampa Bay Devil Rays (Shithole)
- Ameriquest Field, Texas Rangers
- (New) Busch Stadium, St. Louis Cardinals
- AT&T Park, San Francisco Giants
- McAfee Coliseum, Oakland A’s
- Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, Phillies
- Kaufman Stadium, Kansas City, Royals
- Fenway Park, Boston, Red Sox
- Yankees Stadium, New York (Bronx), Yankees
- Shea Stadium, New York (Queens), Mets
NHL: (6 venues in 6 cities, 6 home teams, 20% complete)
- The Arena, Carolina Hurricanes
- United Center, Chicago Blackhawks
- Fleet Center, Boston Bruins
- Gaylord Entertainment Center, Nashville Predators
- Air Canada Centre, Toronto Maple Leafs
- HP Pavilion, San Jose Sharks (Playoff game)
NFL: (6 venues in 5 cities, 4 home teams)
- Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans Saints (Pre-season)
- Milwaukee County Stadium, Green Bay Packers (Defunct)
- Tampa Stadium, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Defunct)
- Lambeau Field, Green Bay Packers
- Riverfront Stadium, Cincinnati Bengals (Defunct)
- Paul Brown Stadium, Cincinnati Bengals (Pre-season)
NBA: (1 venue)
- Bradley Center, Milwaukee Bucks
IHL/AHL: (2 venues in 2 cities)
- Bradley Center, Milwaukee Admirals
- Riverfront Coliseum, Cincinnati Cyclones
PCL (AAA): (1 venue)
- Autozone Park, Memphis Redbirds
Southern League (AA): (2 venues in 2 cities)
- Joe Davis Stadium, Huntsville Stars
- Pringles Park, West Tenn Diamond Jaxx (Southern League North Division playoffs)
NCAAF Div 1: (1 venue, 0 home teams)
- Liberty Bowl (Southern Miss vs. Utah, and Boise State vs. Louisville)
NCAAF Div 3: (1 venue, 1 home team)
- Van Male Field, Carroll Pioneers
Categories: I do too have a life, MLB/MiLB, NFL, NHL, Sports |
Very cool list - I use to coordinate stadium and arena events for Promise Keepers, so I got to see the underbellies of stadiums and arenas.
I’ve been to Neyland Stadium back in 1997, but have never seen a UT game.
My son & I are striving to see every NFL game/city.
My favorites? Bank One Ballpark & Gaylord Entertainment Center.
One that I like to visit: The Arizona Cardinals new stadium.
Just a quick note about the NHL list: the Devils will be playing in a new arena next season, in Newark. It will be an amazing facility, but rumors are it will be sold out for the entire season. (insert joke here)
Anyway, it will be MUCH MUCH easier to get to than the Meadowlands Arena, FYI. And don’t be afraid of Newark.
NEW Comisky isn’t defunct …
Sure it is. They have something called “US Cellular” now.
[Seriously, though, corrected.]
“They have something called “US Cellular” now.”
You will never speak those words again
I can’t believe my eyes. Virtually zero Brewers blogging on LL … 6 straight wins … best record in MLB … the hottest team in baseball … and LL has nothing? Shame!
I don’t want to jinx it!
Jinx?
C’mon! Sagan followers don’t believe in jinxes. That is pseudoscience at best and baloney at worst!
I think a post on a lifelong Brewers fan struggling with the success of the Brewers would make a compelling human interest story.
Take a break from bashing evangelical Christian republican conservatives and give us your thoughts on how to cope with the fear of the Brewers success.
Arrowhead Stadium in K.C. and Kaufman are hard to beat. And Yankee Stadium is unsurpassed.
Also….is anyone else turned off by the increasingly of loud, numbing rock music between at bats and after each inning. The endless attempts to appeal to younger fans is ridiculous. This would not have appealed to me when I was 20 and running a record store. It is just annoying and greatly detracts from the game. St. Louis Cardinals are the worst offenders from what I have seen. N.Y. Mets are close behind. But the Cardinals will never see me again unless someone gives me a free ticket. Just blasting crap over and over. Isn’t enough just to have the best player in baseball (Pujois) to attract fans? Thank heavens Fenway and and Yankee Stadium limit the amount of loud droning music. It certainly doesn’t hurt the attendance of these two great franchises.
Wonder how long the Astros will keep the annoying “Crawford boxes” in leftfield now that little Georgie has proved to be the worst President in American history? Since the Astros owner is a big Repub and religious fanatic he will probably never change. He is probably already planning a Falwell pavillion.
The history of Yankee Stadium is great, but the place is an utter dump. I know it’s blasphemous to say that, but having been there countless times, and being completely secure in my baseball historian credentials, I feel comfortable calling out the elephant in the room. It’s the only stadium that has no open air on the concourse whatsoever - terrible for smokers. I fully appreciate the significance of the stadium, but in all honesty, being able to tell you who all the retired numbers represent, and knowing that Melky is combing the same CF as Dimaggio (well, 75% of it, [and then 75% of that], anyway) doesn’t actually increase my enjoyment of the game at hand. Once the novelty wears off, it’s just a dumpy stadium.
Will Leitch, editor of Deadspin has a hilarious article in his book, God Save the Fan cataloging a typical journey to Yankee Stadium.
I wish I could say better about Shea. The Mets are close to my heart, and the stadium close to my house. During the summers of my teenage years, Shea was like a second home for me - and it was kept just as clean as my room… Shea is a dump too, the seating arrangement at Yankee Stadium is steeper, so in the upper seats, you’re closer to the field at YS, than at Shea. If New Busch is worse than Shea when it comes to blaring music and gimmicky scoreboard nonsense, that is an accomplishment. The irony is that St. Louis and NY are known as two of the premier, pure baseball cities in the country.
The history of Yankee Stadium is great, but the place is an utter dump
You don’t usually have a gift for understatement, but in this case, I’ll have to give you credit. It’s awful. Then again, my experience wasn’t exactly fair: I had to sit in the bleachers, which means I could look at the backs of heads in Monument Park, but I couldn’t actually go there, nor could I see what the sight lines looked like from other parts of the stadium. Very disappointing.
What surprised me was Shea. Yeah, it’s old and kind of run down, but it’s nowhere near the bottom of the list of those I’ve attended; and in terms of sight lines — actually sitting in your seat and watching a game — Shea beat out both Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park. Sadly, Shea also won the “worst fans” award. They booed virtually everything, but cheered when the opposing pitcher was injured. To his credit, the guy behind me shouted out “Come on, this isn’t Philadelphia!” I didn’t have the heart to tell him that the fans in Philly weren’t nearly as bad when I was there — and in Philly, I was in the cheap outfield seats, wearing the road team’s stuff, and actively cheering for the road team (my Brewers), who won the game.
Ha - missed it by one day, TG.
I actually strung the data for the Carolina/West Tenn game last night.
You weren’t there, were you?
No. I actually did the game off radio from the MLB office.
Ah. I was at the game, along with about 15 or 20 other people. In total.
I believe the attendance reported last night was 1,314.
Minor League baseball is cool though - for anybody who finds these things particularly important in their sports entertainment, minor leauge baseball is for them:
1. Fireworks
2. Cheap food and beer (not always, but lotsa promototions)
3. Minimal traffic to and fro stadium
……
8. Ensuring you see loads walks and errant throws by the catcher
…
24. Seeing lots of guys named Martinez and/or Garcia
…
40. Events that get delay by power outages
…
76. sports played at a high level.
I’m guessing that was paid attendance rather than actual attendance. I was kidding when I said 15 or 20 people, but I’m betting the crowd was something like a few hundred. The weather (on and off rain, but no rain delays) was a huge deterrent, as was the fact that the Diamond Jaxx have been playing terrible baseball lately — they only made the playoffs because of the quirky Southern League format, in which being the “first half of the season” division champion gets you a playoff berth. They won their division the first half, sure, but were dead last in the league in the second half, with a .426 winning percentage.
My friend and I went to the game because of persistent rumors that the Diamond Jaxx would leave Jackson, TN for somewhere in South Carolina next season — rumors which people at the stadium assured us were false (new ownership apparently intends to expand the team’s presence in Jackson).