TORONTO BLUE JAYS STADIUM

TORONTO

Originally known as the SkyDome, the stadium was renamed the Rogers Centre in February 2005. Located in Toronto , Ontario , Canada , adjacent to the CN Tower near the shores of Lake Ontario , the Rogers Center is the world's most advanced and luxurious ballpark. It is a huge ballpark with a power-driven retractable roof that houses the Toronto Blue Jays, a Major League Baseball team and the Toronto Argonauts, a Canadian football team. The stadium features all leading edge technologies in terms of design and function. Rogers Stadium was the world's first multi-purpose retractable domed stadium that was the first of its kind in any sport. The stadium also hosts scores of other special events that require very large venues. In the 1992-93 season, Joltin' Joe Carter smacked the "Shot Heard Round the World II" to give the Blue Jays their second-straight World Series victory. In 1991, the stadium hosted Major League Baseball All-Star game. Construction on the Rogers Centre started in April 1986. Designed by Rod Robbie and Michael Allan and constructed by Ellis-Don Construction of Toronto, the construction of the stadium completed in May 1989. Built at the cost of $600 million, the funds for the construction were provided by the Canadian federal government, Ontario provincial government, and a large association of corporations.

The Blue Jays played their home opening game on June 5, 1989 . The stadium has the seating capacity of 53,506 for football and 50,516 for baseball. The Rogers Centre has the distinction for being the first major team sports arena in North America to sport a fully retractable roof, allowing any sport to be played indoors or outdoors. The roof moves at a rate of 71 feet per minute and takes approximately 20 minutes to open or close. When the roof is open, 100% of the field and 91% of the seats are uncovered. Blue Jays management has all the discretionary power to decide whether the roof will be open or closed for regular-season games. The retractable roof is made up of four independent panels and weighs over 21 million pounds. The idea of having a new stadium in the Toronto area began in 1923, but it took almost 63 years for the idea to materialize. Meanwhile, Toronto tried to allure a major league baseball team. They first tried to lure the San Francisco Giants to Toronto , and then tried to get MLB to expand to Toronto . Eventually, in 1976, the city was awarded a franchise, when MLB expanded. The new team called the Toronto Blue Jays started playing professional baseball 1977 in Exhibition Stadium, which was primarily a football stadium, but was remodeled to accommodate baseball. In 1983, the site was chosen for the construction of the new stadium.

Ground breaking ceremonies for the domed stadium were held on October 3, 1986 . For the naming of the stadium, over 12,879 fans submitted their suggestions. The name chosen for the stadium was announced on May 11, 1987 . The stadium was originally named SkyDome. However, in 2004, Rogers Communications, the parent company of the Blue Jays held the rights for possessing the team from Sportco International, LP for about $25 million CAD. On February 2, 2005 Ted Rogers, President and CEO of Rogers Communications declared an increase in the payroll of the team to 210 million over the next three seasons w.e.f. 2005 and contracted to change the name of the stadium from SkyDome to the Rogers Centre. After the purchase, Rogers backed the renovation of the stadium by erecting a new state of the art, incorporated scoring and display system.

In May 2005, the Toronto Argonauts also agreed pay three 5 years leases at Rogers Centre. The Rogers Centre features a new artificial playing surface called FieldTurf which was installed after the 2004 season. The Rogers Centre has five levels of seats that stretch from right centerfield to homeplate and to left centerfield. The Rogers Centre also has a hotel. It has 350 rooms, 70 of which overlook the playing field. The stadium also has 161 private Skyboxes. The bullpens are located just behind the ten-foot-high outfield wall. Rogers Centre consists of enough concrete to build a sidewalk from Toronto to St. Louis . A new main video/scoreboard was put up along with the addition of video/scoreboards before the start of 2005 season. Jumbotron scoreboard is 33-feet by 115-feet and has 420,000 light bulbs, the largest in the world. On April 12, 2001 , a game in Rogers Centre history was postponed due to fault in the roof during a routine test that caused two of the three panels to collide. The wreckage directly fell onto the outfield.

YANKEE STADIUM

Yankee Stadium
New York, NY



Throughout the world there are buildings or structures, that over time have become famous, legendary and popular for a variety of reasons. The 2008 baseball season marks the end of one of the most famous stadiums in the world, Yankee Stadium. Since its opening more than eight decades ago, the stadium has been the home of one of the greatest teams in sports, the New York Yankees with legendary players such as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe Dimaggio, Mickey Mantle and today's stars of Alex Rodriquez and Derek Jeter. The Yankees have a long history that dates back to Baltimore at the turn of the 20th century. They moved to New York in 1903, were known as the New York Highlanders and played at Hilltop Park until 1912 when their lease expired. They accepted an invitation to play at the New York Giants home, Polo Grounds and changed their name to the Yankees. They signed a ten year lease at the Polo Grounds in 1913 and began to outdraw the Giants at the end of the decade with the acquisition of Babe Ruth. By 1920 the Yankees became the first team to attract more than one million fans. The Giants evicted the Yankees after the 1922 season hoping that the Yankees would have to move to a borough far away so the Giants could attract more fans.




The Yankees looked at several locations across the city to construct a new stadium. Various sites were explored including in Queens, upper Manhattan and along 5th Avenue and 32nd Street. Yankees co-owners Colonel Jacobs Ruppert and Colonel T.L. Huston paid $600,000 for land in the Bronx, less than a mile from Polo Grounds to build the stadium on. Designed by Osborn Engineering, original plans called for a triple-decked stadium with grandstands circling the entire field. However, because the stadium seemed to foreboding the original plans were scaled back. Instead, the ballpark became the first to have three tiers of seating consisting of 58,000 seats. It was also the first ballpark to be called a stadium because of its enormous size. Construction of the stadium began on May 5, 1922 and completed in just 284 days. The stadium was built of mainly steel and concrete. The triple decked grandstand extended behind homeplate and up the base lines. The lower deck continued until it met the wooden bleachers behind the outfield fence. A 15-foot copper facade was erected to adorn the stadium's third deck that became one of its most recognized and grandest features. The scoreboard was located beyond the bleachers in right field. Given the name Yankee Stadium, it was completed in only 284 days, opening on April 18, 1923. Original dimensions at Yankee Stadium were 295 ft. (right), 490 ft. (center), and 281 ft. (left). Centerfield became known as "Death Valley" because of its distance from homeplate.

Because of the Yankees success in attracting fans at Yankee Stadium, it was not long before the stadium was expanded after its opening. The triple decked grandstand was extended into left field in 1928 and the same extension was completed down the right field line in 1937. Concrete bleachers replaced the wooden bleachers beyond the outfield fence. With the addition of the grandstands, the capacity of Yankee Stadium grew to nearly 80,000, depending on the amount of people that stood while watching games. The first of many monuments and plaques was added in 1932. This area became known as "Monument Park" in fair territory in dead center field when a monument to former manager Miller Huggins was erected. Monuments of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and others were erected in years following 1932. Night baseball came to Yankee Stadium on May 28, 1946 and a new scoreboard was installed in 1959. Other sports, such as boxing and football were played at Yankee Stadium until the early 1970s.

In the early 1970s Yankee Stadium began showing its age. In 1971, Yankees owner Mike Burke began exploring the possibility of building a new stadium in New Jersey. However New York City Mayor John Lindsay announced that the city would buy and renovate Yankee Stadium, purchasing it for $24 million in 1972. The same year George Steinbrenner bought the team. The Yankees played in Yankee Stadium one more year before drastic changes were made.

Renovations to Yankee Stadium began immediately after the 1973 season. While Yankee Stadium was renovated the Yankees played at Shea Stadium, home of the New York Mets. Parts of Yankee Stadium were completely demolished. Changes were made to eliminate posts and columns that supported the upper deck. The copper facade atop the upper deck was removed and replicated at the top of the scoreboard that runs from center field to right field. New 22 inch blue plastic seats replaced the old 18 inch wooden green seats reducing the capacity to 54,000. New luxury suites and concessions were added along with the remodeling of the press box and restrooms. To eliminate climbs to the third level, escalators and elevators were added to parts of the exterior of the stadium. The facade of Yankee Stadium was repainted and a 138 foot tall replica of a Louisville Slugger baseball bat was placed near the entrance of the stadium.

After two years of renovations Yankee Stadium reopened on April 15, 1976. The stadium went from being known as "The House that Ruth Built" to "The House Steinbrenner Rebuilt". One thing that most people noticed was that the monuments in centerfield were no longer there. They had been moved to Monument Park behind the centerfield wall. Since the late 1970s very few changes have occurred at Yankee Stadium. It still remains the home to many great ballplayers and an excellent place to see a game. Since its opening in 1923, Yankee Stadium has been home to 26 World Championship teams. Over the past five years, the Yankees have been looking to build a new ballpark to replace Yankee Stadium. In June 2005, the team announced plans to construct a new Yankee Stadium adjacent to the current one that will open in April 2009. Yankee Stadium will be demolished in spring 2009 and converted into a public park area featuring a baseball and softball field. Nearly 12,000 trees will be planted in the shape of the stadium. For more than eight decades Yankee Stadium has been the home to some of the greatest players in baseball. The Yankees played their last regular season game at Yankee Stadium on September 21, 2008.