Minor league ballparks as downtown amenities

With downtowns coming back and more traditional baseball parks gaining popularity, a number of cities are combining the two trends. The new Regions Field, home of the Double-A Birmingham, Alabama, Barons is contributing to the city’s revival.

The $64 million, 8,500-seat stadium opened in April and two apartment projects with a total of 482 units are in the pipeline on nearby properties. One brew pub expanded adjacent to the park and another is slated to open in 2014. Birmingham-based apparel maker State Traditions recently moved its headquarters into the neighborhood. The stadium was financed by a 3.5 percent increase in the city’s hotel tax.

The facility is sited on a very large city block and includes only 250 parking spaces. The rest of the estimated 2,500 spaces needed are located in scattered hospital, university, and county parking lots — underutilized in the evenings and within a 5-or-10-minute walk on city streets. The design, by HKS Inc. of Dallas, and Hoskins Architecture and GA Studio of Birmingham, creates a pedestrian passage that goes through the block, helping connectivity. The stadium hugs the street on two sides and is designed in an industrial steel and brick style, evocative of Birmingham’s past.

The nearby development is not necessarily caused by Regions Field, but the ballpark is a catalyst. A feasibility study in 2009 estimated that the facility would bring $500 million in economic benefit over several decades.

The stadium, which has gotten good reviews from the baseball media, joins other downtown minor league ballparks built and proposed around the country.

Regions Field

Among them are a $40 million stadium to be built in downtown El Paso as part of $473 million in “quality of life” bonds approved by voters in 2012. The stadium, set to open next year, would move the Tuscon Padres to El Paso. As a result, the city estimates over 600 new jobs and annual spending upward $18 million from ballpark visitors.

In Columbia, South Carolina, Hughes Development Corporation recently acquired 165 acres near downtown for a mixed-use development plan, which includes a new ballpark. While Columbia has no current minor league baseball team, the city hopes that turning the former site of a South Carolina State Hospital mental ward into a bustling live/work/play environment with a state-of-the-art stadium will entice regional teams to consider relocation. A new urban plan was completed for this site in 2005 by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, although whether the developer will follow that plan is not clear.

Built models

Modern built downtown minor league stadiums include AT&T Field in Chattanooga, Tennessee, AutoZone Park in Memphis, Tennessee, and  Coca-Cola Field in Buffalo, New York.

AT&T Field opened in 2000 with a seating capacity of 6,300 for the Chattanooga Lookouts. Baseball writer Joel Mendelson describes the stadium and its impact: “It’s within walking distance to the very vibrant downtown district that’s home to the Tennessee Aquarium, an abundance of restaurants, parks along the river, and a host of other activities for people of all ages. I haven’t been to downtown Chattanooga since I was a kid, and to see the development that’s taken place over the last 15 years is astounding.”

AutoZone Park is imbedded in the downtown of Memphis, Tennessee, which has a metro population of 1.3 million. The stadium has a capacity 14, 300.  It opened in 2000, designed by HOK Sport (now Populous) and Looney Ricks Kiss for the Memphis Redbirds. The project was part of a larger mixed-use development plan that included civic spaces.

The Nashville City Paper in 2011 described AutoZone Park as: “A city-assisted investment that baseball and urban enthusiasts say provided a needed jolt to decaying downtown Memphis since its 2000 opening. Condos with spectacular field views flank the outfield walls. A hotel and restaurants occupy previously forgotten real estate. A retail center known as Peabody Place popped up just down the street.”

AutoZone Park

The granddaddy of old-style downtown ballparks is Coca-Cola Field (formerly Dunn Tire Park, North AmeriCare Park, Downtown Ballpark and Pilot Field), an 18,050-seat, 1988 facility in Buffalo, New York. This stadium is credited with starting the trend toward old-style ballparks with a site in the urban fabric of downtown. It is home to the Buffalo Bisons.

When the stadium was built, Buffalo was in the middle of one of the worst declines ever of US major cities. It lost 55 percent of its population. The stadium was built in a somewhat desolate area of downtown, adjacent to a freeway. For a long time, the stadium spurred little revitalization.

Yet Buffalo’s downtown has come back in the last 10 years, and the stadium was credited with contributing to that revival. In an article titled “Bisons, stadium remain diamonds for downtown,” Buffalo Business First, a business journal, said the stadium “has served as a cornerstone of a new wave of downtown development that has included such sports facilities as the Flickinger Center natatorium and HSBC Arena as well as residential units and new commercial properties.

Ballparks appeal to a wide demographic — from creative class types to working class families. Minor league stadiums offer less expensive tickets and concessions that are affordable to most families. These facilities add another layer to downtown culture, which also includes music, theater, food, fine arts, and architecture.

In the case of Birmingham, bringing the Barons downtown is a point of pride for a city that lost its baseball team to nearby Hoover, Alabama, in 1988. Although downtown has benefited from considerable development in the last few years, the city as a whole lost 37 percent of its population since 1960 — including a drain of 30,000 people in 2000-2010.

Although the aforementioned stadiums appear to have had a positive impact, that’s not always the case. “Generally, a lot of new ballparks aren’t all that great a stimulus because team owners have a singular vision,” and because the architects are often don’t follow design principles beyond profits for the owner, says Philip Bess, director of graduate studies at the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture and a baseball stadium expert. “They could actually [create more profit] if they were better urban designers,” he says.

Most of the best examples of urban ballparks are historic ones like Fenway in Boston that sit on constrained sites — essentially one typical city block in a dense, urban neighborhood.

While few architects are willing to design within such constraints today, a new ballpark still offers an opportunity to create a plan for the surrounding neighborhood that helps spur revitalization. The ballpark becomes one factor among many that bring energy to the area. One barrier, Bess says, is the parking required for a ballpark, which detracts from a walkable environment. From that standpoint, Single-A and Double-A parks, which require less parking, may offer urban design advantages — especially in cases where  parking is shared, like Regions Field.