Two new fields vie for Ballpark of the Year honor
SRP Park in North Augusta, S.C., features multiple group areas and unique lighting around the roof.
The 2018 season will be remembered for tight pennant races in the National League, an exhilarating Home Run Derby in Washington but not a lot of new pro ballparks.
The two parks that made their debuts this year, though, raised the bar in state-of-theart baseball facilities. And one of them is the Ballpark of the Year, as named by BaseballParks.com, an affiliate of USA TODAY Sports Digital Properties.
Going to the Dogs
The Village of Rosemont, Illinois, encompasses 2 square miles between O’Hare International Airport and Chicago’s city limits. When Mayor Brad Stephens urged the Cubs to leave Wrigley Field and build a brandnew stadium in his village, most found it a quaint but hardly feasible overture.
But Stephens was quite serious about bringing pro baseball to Rosemont, so the village provided the land and floated the bonds to build a $63 million ballpark. On May 25, Impact Field became the home of the expansion Chicago Dogs of the independent American Association.
With planes buzzing overhead and Interstate 294 traffic whizzing by the left-field fence, you might think attracting a crowd would be a challenge. Not so, team owner Shawn Hunter says. “We’re very happy with Year One. We’re right where we expected to be in a five-year building process to attract fans.” (The Dogs’ attendance was currently seventh best in the 12team league, averaging 2,831 a game.)
He added that the team’s biggest objective has been to persuade sports fans in Chicago to visit for the first time. When they do, they experience what he calls “the wow factor. We knew in a market like Chicago, it’s going to take time to rise above the noise and connect with our fans, and that’s exactly what’s happening.”
Fans especially enjoy the drink rails that are behind the last row of each seating section, as team research discovered that 15% to 20% of the crowd never takes its seat. At 24 inches wide and room for 160 fans, the drink rails can accommodate a lot of Chicago hot dogs.
The party decks are also a hit, especially one on field level that looks through the left-field wall. “Each has its own personality, and they’ve all been full almost every night,” Hunter explains.
Don’t confuse the team’s nickname with canines. The Chicago Dogs are meant to glorify hot dogs, and the team’s mascot is a bottle of mustard. You’ll find The Wiener’s Circle on the first-base concourse. It’s the first time the iconic hot dog stand has expanded beyond its original location on Clark Street.
Across the river
The Augusta GreenJackets are playing their first season in SRP Park, the $42 million stadium on the north shore of the Savannah River. For 23 years, the team competed on the other side of the river at Lake Olmstead Stadium. The move not only took them from Augusta to North Augusta, it also crossed the state line, from Georgia to South Carolina.
In a season full of highlights, July 3 stands out to Jeff Eiseman of Agon Sports & Entertainment, which owns and operates the GreenJackets.
“It was a packed house, beyond standing room, and right before the game started there was a huge storm,” he recalls. “I looked and there were people getting drenched at the box office, buying standing-room tickets. The 5,000 people here were under the overhang on the concourse, staying entertained.”
The game started 47 minutes late, the fireworks went off and the place stayed packed all eve- ning. “There isn’t anything better than being here, even on a rainy night, looking at this great park,” he added.
Besides the picturesque setting along the river, the park features a 360-degree concourse and upper-deck seats that are only 26 feet from the grass in foul territory. The elevated TaxSlayer Terrace in right field features its own bar, where fans can see the Savannah River over one shoulder and the game over the other.
Surrounding SRP Park is a rapidly growing mixed-use development called Riverside Village, complete with apartments, a hotel, shopping and eateries. Beyond the third-base side of the ballpark is Brick Pond Park, a 40-acre city park, full of ponds, trails and carefully managed wetlands.
History buffs will appreciate the South Carolina State Dispensary bar on the ballpark’s upper level. It honors the fact that over a century ago, the state operated a “dispensary” on the very site where the ballpark sits today. Back then, that was the only place where it was legal for liquor for be bottled and sold.
Ticket buyers are enjoying SRP Park’s amenities, as crowds averaging 4,076 (sixth in the 14team league) have allowed the GreenJackets to exceed last year’s attendance with 20 home games left on the schedule.
On the college scene
As construction of new pro parks has slowed, universities are spending enormous sums erecting palaces for their baseball programs. This year, rebuilt facilities opened on the campuses of Grand Canyon University, Virginia and Mississippi State (with more enhancements to come), while Boston College opened a completely new park. In the next two years, new stadiums at Kentucky, Florida, Oklahoma State and Boise State will be opened.
“It’s not so much a lull in pro- fessional venues as it is a booming collegiate market,” explains Jason Ford, senior associate at sports architecture firm Populous. “More and more players are using the college baseball path to get to the major leagues. Facilities have become increasingly important to top recruits when comparing programs, putting the collegiate baseball market in the heat of an arms race.”
And the winner is …
With its eye-popping architecture and anchor position of an ambitious commercial development along the riverfront, SRP Park is the winner of the 19th annual BaseballParks.com Ballpark of the Year.
Says Eiseman, “It’s affirmation of what we believed.”
Mock reported from North Augusta, South Carolina, and Rosemont, Illinois. He operates BaseballParks.com and has visited all 203 parks currently used for Major League, spring training and affiliated Minor League Baseball.