Comerica Park Renovations

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

I really don't understand all the indignation either? It's a fucking business... not some lofty enshrined religious experience...

I work in the restaurant business. I have never designed a menu and thought, "Well, I could get $30 for that entree; let's charge $20." I'd like to see someone who is outraged at Ilitch sell their house to the lowest bidder. Never going to happen.

[Honky Tonk]

I work in the restaurant business. I have never designed a menu and thought, "Well, I could get $30 for that entree; let's charge $20." I'd like to see someone who is outraged at Ilitch sell their house to the lowest bidder. Never going to happen.

Have you ever stocked up on ingredients cheaply, let them sit and rot for a few years, then during a snowstorm, when everything else is closed, charged $30 for an entree made with those ingredients?

[401don]

I really don't understand all the indignation either? It's a fucking business... not some lofty enshrined religious experience...

True, but there it something to be said for being fair and reasonable also. Do you really think it's fair to charge 5 bucks extra for batting practice at spring training because "hell, if Dad brought his son 1500 miles and they showed up 3 hours before the game expecting to just stand out there in left field for free like the last 100 years."

[Downriviera]

I really don't understand all the indignation either? It's a fucking business... not some lofty enshrined religious experience...

Attending a game at the old Tiger Stadium was a lofty enshrined religious experience.

[Gistok]

Attending a game at the old Tiger Stadium was a lofty enshrined religious experience.

Hehehe... for me when ever I went to the bathrooms... it lost much of its' pilgrimage appeal!

[401don]

Hehehe... for me when ever I went to the bathrooms... it lost much of its' pilgrimage appeal!

Tiger Stadium's beautiful porcelain urinals were gold [[actually yellow) compared to Wrigley's stainless steel ones - talk about duck and cover!

[Lombaowski]

Comerica Park is showing it's age? Well, it is ELEVEN years old, which makes it downright crusty by Detroit standards. And all those obsolete dinosaur buildings in right-center field are just--distracting. Someone get George Jackson on the case....

IMHO, Fenway Park and Wrigley Field--both almost 90 years older than Commercialism Park, offer a far better fan experience. That is, for fans who show up for the baseball and not-so-much the rides.

One of the worst mistakes Detroit made in the past 100 years.

I've been to parks all across the country and grew up going to Tiger Stadium. Comerica is the single best investment the city of Detroit has made in forever and it's one of the best parks in baseball. Fenway is a dump, so was Yankee Stadium. "Atmosphere" and "experience" are subjective, some people just love sitting in 100-year-old parks because of some sort of reverence for history. I do like Dodger Stadium, but that place hasn't had to fight the Michigan or Boston winters and it was designed in a way that it could be renovated later.

Tigers Stadium was terrific and quaint, but it also had 20% of it's seats having an obstructed view and it would have cost way too much to renovate. Putting Comerica downtown has paid huge dividends to the city itself, another upside to Comerica.

[astongraham]

Forget the scoreboard, if they are going to do some renovations they should put some seats in that aren't so far away from the field. Maybe find a way to put some shade in the place so you don't have to bake in the sun.


Comerica Park is bland and lacks character. I have a hard time believing people actually like that place. I think people have just accepted the fact that they are stuck with this mediocre corporate piece of crap and trick themselves into thinking they enjoy it.

Well, everyone has an opinion, just bothers me that people get bent outta shape when they don't view things the same way they do. But I guess if you hate it sooo much, you don't have to torcher yourself by visiting.

[softailrider]

I've been to parks all across the country and grew up going to Tiger Stadium. Comerica is the single best investment the city of Detroit has made in forever and it's one of the best parks in baseball. Fenway is a dump, so was Yankee Stadium. "Atmosphere" and "experience" are subjective, some people just love sitting in 100-year-old parks because of some sort of reverence for history. I do like Dodger Stadium, but that place hasn't had to fight the Michigan or Boston winters and it was designed in a way that it could be renovated later.

Tigers Stadium was terrific and quaint, but it also had 20% of it's seats having an obstructed view and it would have cost way too much to renovate. Putting Comerica downtown has paid huge dividends to the city itself, another upside to Comerica.

At Tiger Stadium, the last row in the upper deck was closer to the field then the first row of the upper deck is at Comerica Park. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who thinks Comerica Park is a better place to watch a baseball game then Tiger Stadium was needs to get their head examined.

[GUSHI]

Best 2 Detroit Area sports expierence's Comerica park and the Big House.

[Lombaowski]

At Tiger Stadium, the last row in the upper deck was closer to the field then the first row of the upper deck is at Comerica Park. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who thinks Comerica Park is a better place to watch a baseball game then Tiger Stadium was needs to get their head examined.

I think most fans think Comerica is better, it is a top 5 ballpark in baseball. PNC in Pittsburgh and Camden Yards might be slightly better, but the sightlines at Comerica are 200 times better than they were at Tiger Stadium. You can walk around the park, stand, look at the skyline and take in any number of things beyond the game.

I also don't sit in the upperdeck.

[drjeff]

At Tiger Stadium, the last row in the upper deck was closer to the field then the first row of the upper deck is at Comerica Park. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who thinks Comerica Park is a better place to watch a baseball game then Tiger Stadium was needs to get their head examined.

The upper deck at Tiger Stadium, in front of the pillars, was the best place to watch a game anywhere I've seen and I've been to 15 stadiums. But the lower deck there was nothing special and actually if you were sitting in the seats below the upper deck you couldn't see any balls hit in the air. Comerica Park has great sight lines anywhere you sit and you can see the field from anywhere on the lower concourse. I've also been to over 50 games at Camden Yards. Apart from the quaintness of having the B and O warehouse in right field, Comerica Park is better. The upper deck at CY is actually further from the field than at CP.

[softailrider]

The upper deck at Tiger Stadium, in front of the pillars, was the best place to watch a game anywhere I've seen and I've been to 15 stadiums. But the lower deck there was nothing special and actually if you were sitting in the seats below the upper deck you couldn't see any balls hit in the air. Comerica Park has great sight lines anywhere you sit and you can see the field from anywhere on the lower concourse. I've also been to over 50 games at Camden Yards. Apart from the quaintness of having the B and O warehouse in right field, Comerica Park is better. The upper deck at CY is actually further from the field than at CP.

I wasn't aware of that fly ball problem sitting in the lower deck at Tiger Stadium. I'm sure you're correct, I just don't remember it being a problem. Usually, I try and get seats between home and first at Comerica, they're usually upper deck seats due to price. I don't like the left field seats below or near the statues at all.
I don't like Comerica but I enjoy going to baseball games. I think the current version of the Tigers are really great, my dislike of the stadium doesn't change that. A wise person on this board once said, you can fall in love with the past all you want, but the past isn't going to love you back. Anyway, Comerica could be worse- could have been built with a dome.

[EastsideAl]

Like drjeff said, Tiger Stadium had a "sweet spot" of seats in the upper deck, in front of the posts from first base to third base, which were better than any seats in MLB anywhere. Much the same could be said of the sweep of lower deck boxes around the field, which were so close to the action that you could often hear the conversations of players, coaches, and umpires. But the lower deck behind the posts was much worse, which is why I always preferred to sit in the upper deck.

And then there was my old spot in the upper deck bleachers [[the only ones in baseball) in straight away center field. It was a long way from home plate, but if you sat on the center aisle the angle made it possible to call every pitch as you could look straight over the pitcher's shoulder into the plate. At a buck or two it was a great bargain for a kid, and helped to make me a lifelong fan. Something I think today's universally high ticket prices make much more difficult.

[EastsideAl]

As for Comerica, it may be quite bland and generic, but it certainly is not a bad place at all to catch a game [[save for the ticket prices, but that's a problem throughout the American sports world now). The wider aisles and corridors, the bigger bathrooms, and the sometimes very nice views are quite welcome to be sure. However, it suffers from the same set of problems as pretty much all of the new stadia in baseball: an upper deck set way too far back behind the lower deck with no overhang, a 'rake' that isn't steep enough particularly in the lower deck, no cover from the weather [[making all seats essentially 'bleachers'), and an often distorted and 'hot' blaringly loud sound system. Oh, and the tiger sculptures and carny rides are embarrassingly silly and ludicrously ugly.

But compared to some of the other newer ballparks I've been to: Citifield in NYC, Citizens Bank Park in Philly, the Nationals Stadium in DC, the not-so-Great American Ballpark in Cincy, that horrifying monstrosity the Marlins scammed in Miami, and certainly anyplace with a dome, Comerica is definitely better. In fact, the only newer parks I've liked better than Comerica are the new Yankee Stadium [[liked the old one much better though), Camden Yards, AT&T in San Francisco, and the beautiful [[if stupidly named) Petco Park in San Diego.

Comerica also has the potential to be in a truly great and exciting location, but at least for now it's hurt by far too many dustbowl parking lots nearby. Most especially, that ugly space between Woodward and the ballpark where Illitch promised long ago to build something but nothing but sun-baked asphalt and high-priced parking for luxury cars has ever appeared.

[Pickford-Bentler]

We used to call that upper deck overhang in right field of the Tiger Stadium, the Norm Cash seats. He seemed to hit a lot of those towering fly balls that either drifted into the first rows or brushed off the facing, much to the chagrin of a pitcher who had thought he had got an easy out . On the score sheet, that homer counts the same as Reggie Jackson nailing the light towers with a ball still climbing.