The Hillsboro Hops bring a new team and ballpark in 2013. Sadly however, this leaves Yakima without pro baseball

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Pretty much the only updating that takes place this month is from baseball’s short-season and summer-collegiate leagues. There is a brand new ballpark from this category as baseball returns to Portland, Oregon…well, kinda. Only three years after the Beavers left PGE Park to make room for MLS’ Timbers, the region took in the Yakima franchise from the Northwest League. A rapidly-built stadium in the suburb of Hillsboro is just about complete and the ballpark will debut on Monday. While there is quite a difference between a Triple-A team and a short-season Single-A squad that plays half an hour away from Portland, some people  are happy to see baseball come back. At the other end of this, is Yakima. Their ballpark sits empty and while big city Portland has other sports, the Heart of Central Washington loses it’s lone franchise. My feelings are for the latter.

Other news comes from summer-collegiate ball, starting with the Lake Erie Monarchs of the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League. I found out they play at Ned Skeldon Stadium, the old home for the Toledo Mud Hens. Nice to see an old park on The List. Some additional info on seating capacities found me adding Gastonia’s Sims Legion Park and removing the Duffy Fairgrounds in Watertown. I also added the home of the Holyoke Blue Sox, but I really have a hard time believing MacKenzie Stadium seats 4,000.

Lastly, an update from an independent league, United League Baseball. Did you know they are operating without a running website? Looking through websites for specific teams, games are being played, but amazingly there is no site for the league. An amazing world, this independent baseball.

The loaded hot dog has become the “it” stadium food option over the last few years

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With more than ten years of stadium visiting under my belt, there are certainly changes I have noticed since the start of this millennium. Some good, some bad, almost all of them geared towards the almighty dollar. Here are a few that stick out:

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……1.  Food Options - In the past, it was expected that an arena or ballpark had nachos, popcorn, peanuts, hot dogs and some sort of standard American beer. Now, go to any stadium of significant capacity and you are bound to find specialty items at many concession stands. This is a definitely a good thing as the options make for a better experience at the game. The minor leagues have got into it too and you can find surprisingly unique and occasionally decent food even at a small, local place. Things are great for the beer snobs as well with microbrews more common. One item that has really stuck out everywhere I have gone lately is the……

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……2.  Loaded Hot Dog - Maybe because this is the easiest thing to do and fool the customer into thinking its “special”, but everyone seems to be adding these hot dogs with a hundred topping options to the menu. Not sure how the hot dog took off as the food to do it with. From Akron’s huge and loaded dog to a hot dog in Toronto featuring maple syrup and baked beans, I feel like I’ve seen it all. But then the next stadium has something even zanier

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……3.  Home Plate Seats – I hate this one. This definitely has skyrocketed over the last ten years as MLB teams now have turned the seats closest to the infield into specialty seating, complete with food service and (in newer ballparks) clubs or lounges. It’s an awful trend again geared towards money and away from the casual fan. It also looks terrible on TV, where scores of these expensive seats sit embarrassingly empty. I hope it is shameful to these teams come playoff time as their ballpark doesn’t even look full since the most broadcasted seats are those behind home plate.

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……4.  Sponsoring of Everything - The VIST Financial Plaza, The Bud Light Bar, The Farmington Bank Fan Assistance Booth. We have all become accustomed to the ugly corporate names attached to stadiums, but now businesses are infesting our stadiums with their name plastered everywhere. From contests to lounges to even walkways, that old business model of name recognition rears it’s ugly head. Make it stop!

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……5.  HD Videoboards - This is one for the good (mostly). Teams and cities seem to have no problem lately spending the couple million to upgrade their scoreboard and make sure the video screen is of remarkable high quality. As a fan this means great things, like clear instant replays and live game video, more room for stats and a high-def look at Kiss Cam! (just kidding). I say it’s mostly good, because it can be a deterrent and distraction if operators aren’t careful in constantly utilizing it. This happens in Buffalo, where the First Niagara Center can be as quiet as a church because fans are gazingly staring up at the center scoreboard with jaws dropped at some silly production.
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Good bye old Veterans Stadium look-a-like and hello PNC Field in Scranton

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On to baseball for updates on The List and after the opening of Marlins Park last year, all is quiet this season on the ballpark front in the Majors. Seems to be a stalemate with Oakland and San Jose as the Giants are being big babies and not allowing the move, thus the A’s are stuck in a football stadium for now. In the affiliated minors, there is one ballpark opening and it is a good one. Birmingham opened Regions Field and with a downtown location and a forthcoming Negro Leagues museum, the place looks great. The Barons move from the suburbs as the Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover will still host that town’s high school football games. It also will continue to host the SEC Baseball Championship this season. Meanwhile, up in Northeast PA, after a year of playing on the road, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre baseball team is back home in Moosic. A huge renovation essentially re-did the ballpark and a re-branding of the team to the RailRiders makes the return to PNC Field. When I make return here, I’m not sure yet if this will count as a new stadium or a re-visit (sorry for all the “re’s”). 

There were some notable name changes this year and the main one is a team name. Reading ridiculously changed their nickname to “Fighting Phils“. This is a team that plays in an old ballpark and should stick with tradition. I can’t stand the new moniker and accompanying team logo, which is based off their hot dog vendor. Elsewhere, we finally have a consistent name for Pensacola’s park that opened last year: Pensacola Bayfront Stadium. Ahhh, much better. In Jackson and Peoria, sponsors have dropped and a more generic stadium name is now being used, I’m guessing temporarily. Peoria was interesting, because I thought O’Brien Field was named for a person, but instead it was an Auto place sponsor. In the California League, one of the best ballpark names is sadly no more. The ballpark for the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes is now LoanMart Field instead of The Epicenter. Man, that was a great name. Good news is that just 70 miles away over the San Gabriel Mountains, the opposite happened in Lancaster, where that ballpark lost it’s sponsor and is back to being known as The Hangar, in reference to the team and city’s aviation history.

Switching sports to soccer and the lower divisions, Cary’s WakeMed Soccer Park was added to The List as a renovation brought the capacity to the stadium up to 10,000. It has always been a first-class place and I hope to visit at some point. Also, the New York Cosmos are back and they will play this season at Hofstra’s Shuart Stadium. This is a team that certainly has much bigger plans as they want the MLS and the MLS wants them. Plans are already in place for a proposed Queens stadium. Many of the teams in the NASL have aspirations for the big leagues and current teams FC Edmonton and Fort Lauderdale are looking into new stadiums. Pittsburgh has even moved into a small new pitch. The location and view is terrific, but I have no idea how they could have the room to expand that into an 18,000 seat stadium.

It was a rainy day along the Hudson for my visit to Army

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I don’t look at bad weather games as a badge of honor. For me, they are a huge obstacle and inconvenience in the world of stadium visiting. Trying to take pictures, writing some notes and protecting my souvenir program from precipitation can be a challenge. Not to mention the issue of getting to a stadium, where if I’m not familiar with the area, can suck in bad weather. Being a meteorologist, I have a deep passion for the weather, but I would rather enjoy it either forecasting from my office or watching from the comforts of home. With that said, here are the stadium visits that I had to bear down on:

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OUTDOOR EVENTS

1. Michie Stadium – This could have been worse as rain held off until a few minutes into the game, which allowed me to get some initial pictures. But once it started, a continuous wind-driven rain sullied one of the best settings for college football. Major tip of the cap to the wife, who sat thru this whole game. I guess rain is better than snow, as the high elevations around West Point had significant snow three days later.
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2. Sam Boyd Stadium - Early September is still quite hot in Vegas and this day was no exception. The high reached 103 degrees at McCarran Airport and when I got to Sam Boyd Stadium on the outskirts of the city, it was still 96. What an odd feeling to be sitting at a night football game sweating and feeling the need to consistently drink water.
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3. Notre Dame Stadium - Perhaps the most famous of my bad weather games…This was the only time Notre Dame has had a weather delay. A pretty nasty squall line moved through South Bend and lightning caused the game to be delayed 2 hours and 10 minutes. Though the wait was quite long, I didn’t mind the extra time to wander the famous stadium’s concourses. Plus, it was much more comfortable for the second half as we lost the oppressive heat.
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4. Coca-Cola Park – Hail is an exciting phenomena for a meteorologist (especially an East Coast one). We all desperately want to see it during a storm and this was the day I saw some bigger than dime-sized. One inch diameter hail fell earlier in the day as we were at Musikfest in nearby Bethlehem before the game. It set the stage for a wet, chilly evening in Allentown’s new ballpark…but the earlier success made it worth it.

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INDOOR EVENTS

1. Bell Centre – Just a college kid who didn’t know any better. A very unusual April Ice Storm left Oswego, NY covered by an inch of ice the morning of April 4, 2003. Yet, unfazed, I spent an hour de-frosting my car and detoured our way through closed roads to make it up to Montreal. Probably not the smartest move. It wasn’t much better in Quebec as sleet pelted us on our journey through downtown. All was forgotten once inside to see the most famous team name in hockey.
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2. MAC Center – This also ranks up there in the list of dumb drives. Cancelling this Ohio trip may have been the right move, but somehow I made to all three Northeast Ohio venues during a 4-8 inch Lake Effect event that made the roads a mess. The short daytime trip from Canton to Kent was the worst and yet I even stopped in Akron during the inch per hour snowfall to ensure an outdoor photo of Rhodes Arena, a facility that would be visited at night.
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3. Louis Brown Athletic Center – I was not going to miss this game, even for a blizzard. Well, it wasn’t quite a blizzard, but a decent winter storm dropped six inches across North and Central Jersey. This guarantees a 12 hour work day, yet the hours were conducive for me to get to Piscataway for a 4 PM start between Rutgers and Syracuse. Best part of the stadium visit: This
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4. TD Bank Sports Center  - No wintry weather on this visit, instead rain and lots of it. A continuous downpour made driving on the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut for the first time not fun. As I watched the rain fall through the interior windows of Quinnipiac’s gym, a crappy ride home was inevitable. A night-time ride on I-95 with random flooding and giant puddles…not good times.
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Let’s start with indoor football and I will spare you with listing all of the franchise and league changes, instead jumping to the stadium effects on The List. Probably the most intriguing move takes place in Kansas City, where the AFL’s Brigade folded and the Sprint Center goes back to being tenant-less. There are plenty of events to keep that building busy, but it’s quite amazing how after nearly six years, there is still not a franchise to call this place home. The building that was replaced by the Sprint Center as Kansas City’s main indoor facility, Kemper Arena, returns to action. The Renegades of the CPIFL will play there this season, however the life of the historic arena looks to be fading as there are plans to tear it down. In Omaha, pretty much the same situation is taking place with the Civic Auditorium as that facility sadly looks to meet the wrecking ball in 2014 with the CenturyLink Center having taken center stage. Unlike KC, the Omaha Beef left the Auditorium for the new smaller arena in suburban Ralston. Staying on that same theme, Cincinnati Gardens finds itself off The List as the Cincinnati Commandos folded.

There are two arenas that now have a home team as opposed to just being a facility that calls basketball tournaments home. In Tulsa, the Oklahoma franchise in the CPIFL will play in the Convention Center (also home to the women’s C-USA basketball tourney). The Midwest seems to be a popular place for indoor football and we’ll stay there as the Lincoln (NE) Haymakers will now play at the Pershing Center. Lastly, the lone brand new venue making an appearance is in San Angelo, where the Foster Communications Center becomes more than a place to see the rodeo as the Bandits of the LSFL will play in that arena.

Madison is the place to check out sports stadiums

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We did this last year and I enjoyed reminiscing about the past year in Stadium visits, so we’ll do it again in 2012! A remarkable 20 stadiums were visited this year, which is a record high for me (up from 17 in 2011). No way I’ll be able to keep up that pace a few years down the road, but we can certainly try. Below is a “Best of” Stadium and Arena Visits in 2012. 

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Favorite Stadium: UW Field House……We will go a little outside of the box on this one. This is certainly not the most glamorous arena, but it is one of the most unique. It makes me happy to see old places preserved and the facility built in 1930 plays host to Wisconsin Badgers volleyball. With the exception of the new red paint, the amazing old interior seems untouched from the early 1900s.
………Honorable Mention: Coors Field, Camp Randall Stadium, Air Canada Centre

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Highest-Rated New Stadium: Camp Randall Stadium (83.5 Ranking)……We’ll stay in Wisconsin as nearly every category ranks high at Camp Randall for Badgers Football. College is known for great atmosphere’s and this place is near the top. Really incredible experience going to a game here and I won’t forget my first “Jump Around“

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Favorite New City: Grand Junction……I don’t want this list to become too Madison-centric, so I’ll put Grand Junction as my favorite. The scenery alone driving from Denver makes this place worth a visit. The surrounding mesas are beautiful, as is the trip to the nearby Colorado National Monument. We came into town when the farmers market was ongoing and this small city had a vibe that makes it feel like home.
………Honorable Mention: Madison, Denver, Kent

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Weather Ranking: 3 out of 10…….I can’t complain too much in that planned, out of region trips to outdoor sporting events went off without a postponement. But aside from that, not a fun weather year with these visits. Given that snow constitutes a big part of my job, it’s surprising that the first three visits of the year started by seeing the white stuff. It was just some flurries when visiting nearby Lafayette in January. Then it was the monster lake effect snow event in Northeast Ohio that I battled through to visit Akron and Kent. I wrote at length about that earlier in the year, a venture I won’t do again. Some nuisance snow then fell on our trip to Toronto. At the other end of the spectrum, the heat was on in the summer. Game time temperatures were hot: 93 at Yankee Stadium, 95 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park and 90 in Sam Suplizio Field. In the Fall, Sandy delayed my visit to Newark, DE a couple weeks.

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Best Restaurant: Tocabe…..Though Guy Fieri annoys me at times, I have really gotten into Diners, Drive-ins and Dives this year. I’ve started looking into places that have made an appearance on the show while visiting a new city and that plan got off to a terrific start after we visited Tocabe in Denver, CO. It is a Native American eatery with the Indian Taco being the main highlight. It looks messy, but emm-emmm was it so good!
………Honorable Mention: The Old Fashioned in Madison, WI; Bin 707 in Grand Junction, CO; Hershey Farm Smorgasborg, Lancaster, PA; Modern Apizza, Yale, CT

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Best Game: Yale vs Harvard…….An Ivy League baseball game where Yale came in 0-8 in the conference didn’t exactly spark my enthusiasm, but sometimes you get surprised and that’s the beauty of sports. A great game played out after Harvard took the lead 2-1 in the top half of the last inning (7th), the Bulldogs rallied to tie the game at 2. Then in the 8th inning, Joe Lubanski ripped a triple and then was sacrificed in to give Yale the win as they broke a 12 game losing streak. The jubilation Yale showed when they won was awesome and just goes to show that there are some places where they just play for pride. It was a special win to watch.
………Honorable Mention: Columbia vs Marist, Lancaster vs Somerset

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Favorite Playing Surface: Kent State……It’s hard to see in the picture, but that floor is parquet and I like that look for basketball. The team’s logo isn’t obnoxiously big and a simple Kent State is written at the ends. No ads on the court and this basketball surface at the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center was my favorite.
………Honorable Mention: UW Field House, Bob Carpenter Center

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Unique Seats: Canton Memorial Civic Center…..Special thanks to Sean Wyatt on this one. My first NBDL game was up close and personal as I had courtside seats behind the basket. When I visit a new stadium, I do not like sitting close because I don’t get a good perspective on the interior during the game (I prefer upper-level seats). However, this opportunity was well worth it as I’ve never seen a game like that. It’s a really cool experience that should be done once. Plus, I saw guys that I followed in college like Antoine Aguido and Frank Hasell.

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Home Record: 14-6…..The presence of Rowland turned things around this year after a dismal home team showing in 2011. There were no long winning streaks, but a number of teams got a much needed W while we were in attendance.

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Championships: None…..There were a couple of close calls, namely the Toronto Marlies reaching the Calder Cup Finals, but no championships. When we visited the Ricoh Coliseum, the Marlies looked legit up close with Nazem Kadri and Phillipe Dupois leading the way. They would steamroll my team (Rochester) in the first round, but eventually fell just short of the AHL title, losing to Norfolk. Also, Wisconsin won the Big Ten football championship, but I don’t count that since they were behind two ineligible teams in their division.

Since Bruce Ratner hatched the idea of a pro arena in Brooklyn eight years ago, there have been been 17 new stadiums across the four major pro sports leagues. After countless problems and controversies, the Barclays Center finally opened this Fall and Brooklyn is once again home to professional sports as the Nets move in. That is the main story across the landscape of basketball arenas. In the NBDL, the Dakota franchise moves to Santa Cruz, CA so that Golden State is closer to their minor league team. The baby warriors will play in a temporary facility this season. Meanwhile, in Bismarck, we’ll keep the Bismarck Civic Center on The List as it hosts the State Basketball Tournament each March. Also in that league, the Tulsa 66ers can’t figure out where to play as this season finds them in nearby Bixby at the SpiritBank Event Center. I think I’ve talked about this before, but the greater Tulsa area has an insane seven indoor arenas with a capacity of at least 3,500.

In the college game, we have a couple new arenas. Down in Troy, AL, the university closed out Sartain Hall and opened Trojan Arena, which was christened beautifully with a thrilling 56-53 win over Mississippi State earlier in the month. The RTC Center located in Conway, SC is Coastal Carolina’s new home, however like Asheville last year, the building’s seating capacity isn’t enough to make The List, but it does look like a nice building. Georgia Tech could also count as a “new” arena as they completely gutted Alexander Coliseum and the brand new interior includes a new name; McCamish Pavilion. A couple other notes: Tulane renames Fogelman Arena to Devlin Fieldhouse as renovations were completed there. Wisconsin-Milwaukee leaves downtown and the US Cellular Arena to head back to campus for a return to the cozy Klotsche Center. Lastly, the PAC-12 moved from the only home it’s conference tournament has seen in Los Angeles, to the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas. That city now will host it’s fourth conference tournament in March (to go along with the WCC, WAC and Mountain West).

Not much change at all in the world of Stadiums this month as Summer Collegiate Baseball leagues are the main focus. I’ve never been to a Summer Collegiate game, but would love to soon as it seems to have such a nice community appeal and it is also a way where many old ballparks are preserved. Anyway, before touching on that, there’s only one change to the Short-Season leagues and that comes out in the Rockies, as the Rockies baseball team bought the Casper Ghosts and have moved the team to Grand Junction, in the western half of the state (I plan on being there July 17!). Suplizio Field has been renovated and now will host a minor league team, in addition to the JUCO World Series and Colorado Mesa University.

Some franchise notes from the aforementioned wood-bat leagues: North Shore and Old Orchard Beach both moved from the NECBL to the Futures League, which has more markets and ballparks their size, since Pittsfield and Brockton dropped from the independent world down to summer collegiate ball. That league is growing in the Northeast as it went from 4 teams to 9. The other changes don’t affect The List as these ballparks are too small to make it: The Outer Banks Daredevils of the Coastal Plain League folded, as did Dubois County and Nashville in the Prospect League. Meanwhile, in the upper Midwest, the Lakeshore Chinooks were born in the Northwoods League.

Welcome to Northeast Delta Dental Stadium! The New Hampshire Fisher Cats seem to have penchant for awful names as the stadium was called "Merchantsauto.com Stadium" during my visit

As I have maintained The List for the last 15 years or so, there are tendencies I have picked up with stadium names. My favorites tend to be the simple two worded ones like Tiger Stadium or Haas Pavilion. Naming a facility after a person can be a good thing (especially when just the last name is used), but when facilities use the middle initial, the name gets a little excessive (Joseph P. Riley, Jr Park is a bit much). I also appreciate when the sponsor has a name that doesn’t sound too corporate, like Philips Arena. Then there are some corporate-sponsered stadium names that are just so downright atrocious, its laughable. And here are some of the worst:

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• KFC Yum! Center – Louisville, KY – Louisville Cardinals
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• Whataburger Field – Corpus Christi, TX – Corpus Christi Hooks
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• Big Sandy Superstore Arena – Huntington, WV – Huntington Hammers
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• University of Phoenix Stadium – Glendale, AZ – Arizona Cardinals
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• Cooley Law School Stadium – Lansing, MI – Lansing Lugnuts
  (Just like the University of Phoenix, a school that doesn’t even play in the stadium…but at least it has a real physical campus)
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• Time Warner Cable Arena – Charlotte, NC – Charlotte Bobcats
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• Northeast Delta Dental Stadium – Manchester, NH – New Hampshire Fisher Cats
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• O.co Coliseum – Oakland, CA – Oakland Raiders
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• Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre – Victoria, BC – Victoria Royals