Ilitch Parking empire expansion

[iheartthed]

I preferred the baseball stadium where it was at before.

[Gistok]

I preferred the baseball stadium where it was at before.

The best thing that ever happened to Corktown was the Tigers leaving. The neighborhood was horrible with all the empty residential dirt lots that were used on game days. It became more profitable to tear down houses and use the lots for Tigers days than to keep the neighborhood intact. Now the neighborhood has been infilled and is booming.

[LongGone06]

I preferred the baseball stadium where it was at before.

I agree. If Tiger Stadium truly was beyond the point of refurbishing, which it probably was, I would have liked to have seen something like the Yankees did with the new Yankee Stadium--a new facility with the basic design elements of Tiger Stadium in the same neighborhood. Aside from a gigantic outfield, Comerica Park is not particularly unique.

You have to remember, though, this was only a few years after the opening of Camden Yards, which was designed by the same architect, HOK Sport, and set the standard for designs of that era.

[Uncledave54]

You have to remember, though, this was only a few years after the opening of Camden Yards, which was designed by the same architect, HOK Sport, and set the standard for designs of that era.

However, Camden Yards was designed to look like an old time ball park. Copa is a simple design, imo.

[djtomt]

First off, Comerica Park is way better than Tiger Stadium...period. If you are debating this, you don't go to baseball games.

Second -https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2019/04/03/temple-detroit-development-cost-72-million-open-june-2020/3355211002/

This development is going to be ready in 1 year. The Illitches can't even make a parking lot that fast. District Detroit my ass...

[EastsideAl]

First off, Comerica Park is way better than Tiger Stadium...period. If you are debating this, you don't go to baseball games.

I know this is a lot of water way past a very old bridge, but I couldn't disagree more with this statement. I've been to a lot of MLB baseball games, not only in Detroit but around the country. Atmosphere and history aside [[although that does count for a lot), I have never been in a ballpark that was better for actually watching the game of baseball than Tiger Stadium. Every infield seat, upper and lower deck, in front of the posts was closer to the game and had a better view than practically any seat in Comerica Park. Sitting in the upper deck at Comerica you may as well be a block away from the game. It is an entirely different experience of baseball than sitting in the upper deck at Tiger Stadium.

Now Comerica isn't a bad ballpark, and certainly has much greater creature comforts in terms of concessions, rest rooms, whirligigs, etc. [[although not in terms of comfort and shade from the summer sun). But Tiger Stadium it ain't, and another ballpark with that level of intimacy with the game will never be built again.

[Bliebs77]

I know this is a lot of water way past a very old bridge, but I couldn't disagree more with this statement. I've been to a lot of MLB baseball games, not only in Detroit but around the country. Atmosphere and history aside [[although that does count for a lot), I have never been in a ballpark that was better for actually watching the game of baseball than Tiger Stadium. Every infield seat, upper and lower deck, in front of the posts was closer to the game and had a better view than practically any seat in Comerica Park. Sitting in the upper deck at Comerica you may as well be a block away from the game. It is an entirely different experience of baseball than sitting in the upper deck at Tiger Stadium.

Now Comerica isn't a bad ballpark, and certainly has much greater creature comforts in terms of concessions, rest rooms, whirligigs, etc. [[although not in terms of comfort and shade from the summer sun). But Tiger Stadium it ain't, and another ballpark with that level of intimacy with the game will never be built again.

Upper deck yes; but don't you remember those ridiculous obstructed view seats and the 'troff' urinals that the men had to use? I think we are looking back on T.S. with some rose colored glasses.

[EastsideAl]

Upper deck yes; but don't you remember those ridiculous obstructed view seats and the 'troff' urinals that the men had to use? I think we are looking back on T.S. with some rose colored glasses.

The trough urinals didn't particularly bother me. They were the same kind that were in my grandpa's bar!

EGrant is right though, a trip to Wrigley Field or to Fenway Park will show one the ways in which an old ballpark can be both preserved and modernized. And a trip to the new Yankee Stadium will show how a new stadium can be built to respect and update the past.

Part of my problem with Comerica has always been that, outside of the added on sculptures, there's no feeling at all there that the city has a baseball history that predates 2000. It's long struck me as kind of sad that the Texas Rangers' gimcrack of a ballpark [[soon to be replaced now) contains a direct swipe from Tiger Stadium, but the Tigers' ballpark was built as if Tiger/Briggs/Navin/Bennett Stadium/Field/Park never existed.