Baseball Stadiums by Class:
What baseball stadiums had in common,
and what set them apart

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Top ~ Early 20th century ~ Modern 20th century ~ Doughnuts ~ Neoclassical ~ Temporary: ~ Football

Top ~ Early 20th century ~ Modern 20th century ~ Doughnuts ~ Neoclassical ~ Temporary: ~ Football

Early 20th century baseball stadiums

a	b	c	d	e	f
Baker Bowl	Shibe Park*	Forbes Field	Sportsman's Park*	League Park*	Comiskey Park*
Polo Grounds	Griffith Stadium	Fenway Park	Tiger Stadium*	Crosley Field*	Ebbets Field
Wrigley Field*	Braves Field*

Generalizations:

• Average distance to city center: 2.5 miles. Contrary to stereotype, NONE of them were really located "downtown."
• All of these stadiums had roofs supported by steel beams.
• Only one (Comiskey Park) was perfectly symmetrical, though two others were nearly symmetrical, at least in terms of outfield dimensions.
• In five of them the right and left field walls were long, straight, and perpendicular to the foul lines; in a sixth (Tiger Stadium) they were nearly so.
• In only five of the 14 cases does one find the irregularly angled outfield walls that fit the stereotype of these "golden era" stadiums.
• In eight of them there were odd "nooks and crannies" or other peculiarities in the outfield walls.
• All but four of them originally had double-decked grandstands; upper decks were later added to Tiger Stadium (1923), Wrigley Field (1927), and Forbes Field (1938).
• All but two of them underwent major expansion in the 1920s and/or 1930s.
• None of them had curved outfield fences until modifications were made in 1928 (Braves Field) and 1938 (Wrigley Field).
• All but two of these stadiums were originally named either "Field" or "Park."

See notes at the bottom of this page.

Top ~ Early 20th century ~ Modern 20th century ~ Doughnuts ~ Neoclassical ~ Temporary: ~ Football

Modern 20th century baseball stadiums

a	b	c	d	e	f
Yankee Stadium	Cleveland Stadium*	Milwaukee County Stadium	Memorial Stadium*	Municipal Stadium* (K.C.)	Candlestick Park*
Metropolitan Stadium	Dodger Stadium	Angels Stadium of Anaheim	Kauffman Stadium*	U.S. Cellular Field*

Generalizations:

• Average distance to city center: 3.3 miles.
• The upper decks in the first six of these stadiums were supported by steel beams or (in Memorial Stadium) concrete columns. Four of those had large roofs with structural supports.
• In all of them the grandstand behind home plate was curved and symmetrical, at least as far as first and third bases.
• In all but three of them the two wings of the grandstand were straight, forming an acute angle.
• Except for Yankee Stadium and Cleveland Municipal Stadium, lights were installed when they were first built.
• Except for Yankee Stadium and K.C. Municipal Stadium, the outfield dimensions were symmetrical.
• In all of them, the outfield fences included large arcs or curved bends.
• All but two of these stadiums are/were named "Stadium."

See notes at the bottom of this page.

Top ~ Early 20th century ~ Modern 20th century ~ Doughnuts ~ Neoclassical ~ Temporary: ~ Football

Dual-use "cookie-cutter" cloned stadiums, domes, etc.

a	b	c	d	e	f
RFK Stadium*	Shea Stadium	Astrodome	Busch Stadium II	Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium*	Oakland Coliseum*
Jack Murphy Stadium*	Three Rivers Stadium	Riverfront Stadium*	Veterans Stadium	Arlington Stadium	Kingdome
Olympic Stadium	H.H.H. Metrodome	Rogers Centre (ex-Skydome)	Tropicana Field*

Generalizations:

• Average distance to city center: 3.38 miles. Contrary to stereotype, only four of them were located in the suburbs.
• Eight out of the 15 doughnut stadiums had artificial (Astroturf) surfaces during most of their lifetime; Busch Stadium had Astroturf for 26 years.
• Ten of them were circular, though two of those were not complete circles.
• Four of them underwent major expansions; one of them (Jack Murphy Stadium) underwent TWO major expansions.
• All of them except the Metrodome originally had symmetrical outfield dimensions; three of them later became slightly asymmetrical.
• All but two of them (Arlington Stadium and Tropicana Field) were shared with pro football teams.
• All but two of these stadiums are/were named either "Stadium" or "Dome."
• The last five of them were domed stadiums.

See notes at the bottom of this page.

Top ~ Early 20th century ~ Modern 20th century ~ Doughnuts ~ Neoclassical ~ Temporary: ~ Football

"Neoclassical" late 20th century baseball stadiums

a	b	c	d	e	f
Oriole Park at Camden Yards	Rangers Ballpark in Arlington*	Progressive Field*	Coors Field	Turner Field*	Chase Field*
Safeco Field	AT&T Park*	Minute Maid Park*	Comerica Park	PNC Park	Great American Ballpark
Miller Park	Citizens Bank Park	PETCO Park	Busch Stadium III	Nationals Park	Yankee Stadium II
		.	.	.	.
Citi Field	Target Field	.	.	.	.

Generalizations:

• Average distance to city center: 1.6 miles. Excluding the "outlier" Rangers' Ballpark in Arlingon, the average would be 0.57 miles! Ten of the 14 neoclassical stadiums are located downtown, a far greater proportion than in any other era.
• All of them have natural grass surfaces.
• All but one of them (Chase Field) have asymmetrical outfields.
• All but one of them (Turner Field) has at least three corners in the outfield wall.
• In at least six of them there are odd "nooks and crannies" or other peculiarities in the outfield walls.
• Only two of them have fewer than three main decks.
• In only three of them are the outfield walls mostly perpendicular to the foul lines.
• In all but three of them the seating capacity shrank at least 10,000 compared to the team's previous stadium (if any).
• In only five of them do the outfield walls clearly conform to surrounding streets or bodies of water.
• Four of them are (retractable) domed stadiums.
• In all but three of them (AT&T Park, New Yankee Stadium, and Citi Field) the taxpayers provided over 60 percent of the funds for construction.
• Except for New Yankee Stadium, all of these stadiums are named either "Field" or "Park."

See notes at the bottom of this page.

Top ~ Early 20th century ~ Modern 20th century ~ Doughnuts ~ Neoclassical ~ Temporary: ~ Football

Temporary stadiums (full time, not elsewhere classified)

a	b	c	d	e
Seals Stadium	Wrigley Field (L.A.)	Colt Stadium	Sick's Stadium	Jarry Park

See notes at the bottom of this page.

Generalizations:

• Average distance to city center: 2.8 miles.
• All but one of them (Jarry Park) were used by an MLB team for three years or less.
• All of them were formerly used by minor league baseball teams.
• Four of the five temporary stadiums had only one deck, and three of them had no roof.
• All but one of them (Colt Stadium) had a capacity of less than 30,000.
• All of them were were symmetrical, or nearly so.

Top ~ Early 20th century ~ Modern 20th century ~ Doughnuts ~ Neoclassical ~ Temporary: ~ Football

Football stadiums used for baseball (mass rollover effect)

a	b	c	d	e
Memorial Stadium *	Memorial Coliseum	Exhibition Stadium	Mile High Stadium *	"Sun Life" (Dolphin) Stadium *

Generalizations:

• Average distance to city center: 4.4 miles. The "outlier" Pro Player Stadium throws this way off.
• There are no similarities that I can think of; each of these stadiums handled the football-to-baseball dilemma in a different way, and the results varied widely.
• Two of them (Memorial Coliseum and Mile High Stadium) were only used on a temporary basis, pending construction of new baseball-only stadiums.
• One of them (Mile High Stadium) was once expanded in hopes of making it the permanent home of a major league team.

NOTES: An asterisk indicates that the name of the stadium changed at least once.
Table values with a yellow green background are exceptionally low, and those with a dark olive background are exceptionally high.
In the "Location" column, "Urban" generally means at least a mile from the city's business district, but no more than five miles away, depending on how big the city is.
In the "Decks" column, decimal quantities refer to the number of skybox levels.
In the "Outfield corners" column, "arc" refers to a long curved fence, and numbers in parentheses refer to abruptly curved bends.
Except for the Neoclassical stadium section, "Original cost" figures are estimates from various sources and are not necessarily comparable. Furthermore, the long-term effects of inflation make it almost impossible to compare dollar figures across many decades.
The "Surface" column pertains to the majority of the stadium's MLB lifetime; see the Turf page for more details.
Items listed under the "Features" column are what distinguish the stadium from others.
To see which team(s) played at each stadium, and when, roll the mouse cursor over the name.

SOURCES: Lowry (1992); ESPN Sports Almanac 1999; Washington Post, Mar. 19, 2003 (data on cost and public sector funding)

Updated:
(First posted: January, 2003)

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