MLB Stadiums that NEVER Got Built (Part 1)

MLB Stadiums that NEVER Got Built (Part 1)

Here’s Prody Brazil. You know, I’ve often made this joke over the years that we’ve seen so many different sports, stadium, and arena renderings across multiple decades that you could actually put up a museum, a display of all this beautiful art and all of these beautiful concepts that never actually got built. Well, guess what? My joke has now turned into a real life segment. This is part one of at least three that I’m going to start off doing here. MLB parks that never got built. I’m not necessarily going to tell you all the backstories of why they didn’t get built, but I want to showcase different ideas, different concepts, different renderings that never actually quite made it to fruition. And let’s actually start in Boston. They once discussed building what was going to be called New Finway Park. And if you’re looking at this to say, well, that’s old Finway Park. That’s current Fenway Park. No, no, no. They were basically like they did at Yankee Stadium. They were going to remake Finway Park. They were going to do it, as you can see here, kind of across the street from the old site. They were going to keep the green monster intact, the original one and the original diamond. But other than that, they were going to move just a block or two over and build this brand new Finway Park to look just like the old one. Now, if you’ve ever been to Finway Park, you can appreciate its history. You can appreciate the aesthetics of it, but logistically, like the cramming of the seats and the aisleways, it’s very hard to get around Fenway Park, but that is the charm. I think what they wanted was the best of both worlds. They wanted a ballpark with the green monster that looked like this, but that also had modern amenities and technology and concessions and all that stuff. Maybe even had a little bit more volume of seating. It does look like there’s like a whole second deck out there in right center field, but maybe dimensions would stay the same. Maybe pesky pole out there in right field. Maybe that would stay the same. They would try and recreate as many things possible at this new Finway Park to try and match the old one, but let’s be honest, you would never be able to match the old one. This was May of 1999. The Red Sox unveiled this concept to be built again right next door to current Finway Park, which has since been revitalized. They’re actually just starting off a multi-billion dollar project. Not necessarily for the stadium because that’s already been fixed up, but the neighborhood surrounding Fenway Park. So, they’re totally redoing the whole thing. Kind of like what they’ve done at Wrigley Field. But again, the Green Monster and the current infield, they were to be preserved, saved out there basically in left field, left field past what would be the new Green Monster. But fortunately, and I say fortunately because I never could have got behind this one. Yankee Stadium was really falling apart. It had to be replaced. They probably had to build a new one. But more on Yankee Stadium in just a second. Fortunately, Finway Park, fixable, upgradeable. This concept was abandoned in 2002. And further renovations to the Green Monster, to the entire ballpark uh in Boston, they were all complete by 2011. So, they decided to fix up Finway instead of replacing it. And again, here’s the here’s the overhead view. Maybe I’ll I’ll pick a green pen. Maybe that stands out better. There’s what it would have looked like overhead. You can really see just a block away. But this just would have felt wrong right here to keep to keep just that portion of the Green Monster and that little bit of Finway Park and then be right next door. Uh it just that that has a nice look, a classic look, a good ballpark look. But it’s just not Finway Park. There’s something about the original still standing. I’m so glad that the American League has Finway. The National League has Wrigley Field. These are the Cathedral Ballparks that in my opinion should stand the test of time. They should never be touched. Oh, but what about those Yankees? What about old Yankee Stadium? Now, I understand a lot of people talk about the history of going to Yankee Stadium right now. I hope you understand that’s certainly not even the original Yankee Stadium. And this one was the prior version of Yankee Stadium to the one that currently stands now. At one point, they talked about, I kid you not, this sounds crazy now, but about 25 years later, or 25 years ago, it was it was a serious consideration to put a dome a top Yankee Stadium. You know, the one that was built in the 20s. I’ve got the exact date here on the next slide, I’m pretty sure. But they wanted to take an 80 year old building, a 70s something year old building and put a dome over it. Like when did that seem like a good idea? Not just for baseball. I mean, yeah. Do you want to really cover Yankee Stadium? Does it have that many rains? Is the weather that hot, humid, or bad? This was unveiled with that model by the Yankees in late 2001. The roof structure, by the way, would have not only covered up the ballpark, but also another neighboring park out there in left field. Plans were scrapped, fortunately, just a couple years later. It was going to cost at the time about $200 million to build. And yes, original Yankee Stadium opened in 1923. Can you imagine the logistics, the difficulties, what it would have taken to put a roof over an old stadium and mesh the roof in with like a new roof with the old stadium. And oh my gosh, the old stadium was already falling apart. There were steel and concrete issues and second deck structural issues. I mean, we’re not talking about just uh cosmetic things that could be fixed. This Yankee Stadium, the one that was built in 1923, it had some issues. It probably needed to be scrapped and replaced and that’s eventually what they did. But could you imagine if they had put a dome on it? And they were quite serious about this. You don’t make this model. You don’t talk about this or pitch this unless you’re actually really thinking about it. So that could have been old but new but domed Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. And here’s that roof again, which kind of slid out to left field, but then when you needed it, it would come up and and cover the rest of the stadium. I I don’t know where they would have played in the interim. Like you can’t continue hosting games there in the summertimes while you’re building that roof and all that supporting structure. Gosh, that would have been a disaster on a lot of levels. Glad they didn’t do the Yankee Dome. Labat Park in Montreal. Shout out to the Expose. That’s another team which I should cover their story a little bit more here on the channel. We often talk recently a lot about how the A’s are the first team in a lot of decades to relocate in Major League Baseball. The only other team in like a 50 something year span is is the Expos. Expose going to DC to become the Nats. Obviously, the A’s are in the middle ground of Sacramento as I record this right now. So, uh, the Expos and A’s have very unfortunate history in terms of leaving their hometown, but Labat Park was an idea that was pitched. I mean, what’s not to like here? the skyline of Montreal and finally you’re out of Olympic Stadium. You’re playing on real grass in the real air. And I suppose there would be some complications at the beginning and end of baseball seasons with weather. That’s why there was and is a dome. They actually just recently fixed up Olympic Stadium in in Montreal. But it would have been appealing to see Expose Baseball outdoors for the first time ever. kind of like what the Tampa Rays are are figuring out here in 2025. Uh with the destruction of Tropicana Field and the rebuild of their roof, they’re they’re having to but getting to play outdoors their home games for the first time in franchise history. This was unveiled. Labat Park was unveiled by the Expos in the year 2000 following new ownership. They thought this was what was going to keep the team here. Turns out they only had a couple years left in Montreal before moving to Washington DC. And this design, you also understand, um, went away from the very popular brick and steel look that was made famous by Camden Yards and Kors Field and others of this era. So going to kind of the modern feel was definitely a change of pace and a breakaway from the current trends at that time in the year 2000. It would have seated 36,000. And some designs had a retractable roof. But this one, probably to save cost and probably for the fascination of maybe seeing Expose baseball outdoors, this one was outdoors with real grass, but it never got built. And I don’t know if there’s anything really like architecturally appealing or special. I do kind of like the light columns, how they face down like that. And at the time, you know, I don’t think we were doing LED lights like we are now in ballparks. So maybe this was more of a modern technology. And I don’t know, it just seems like kind of a boring shape there. Like there there wasn’t anything. It’s symmetrical, right? If you draw a line Oh, that’s a bad line. If you draw a line in the middle of that park, it’s the same on the left and on the right basically. So there there really wasn’t anything special about this. It’s just too bad this one didn’t get built because it would have saved the expose inevitably in Montreal. So, Labbat Park renderings from the time. I think that’s also another thing to point out here in these videos in this series. You know, you can tell like this is a mid 2000s design. It doesn’t have all the detail. It doesn’t have any like background. It’s just dark in the background. Renderings have gotten a lot better over time. This one kind of fits the era of the early mid 2000s. Coliseum City. Now, this one hits close to home here in Northern California. There were so many different ideas of what to do with the Oakland Alama County Coliseum Complex. This one is interesting because what you’re looking at here, first off, is the Nimtts uh freeway. This is Interstate 880. And currently, the Coliseum Complex is only this area over here. I should probably undo that. I’ll I’ll do that in a different color here. The current coliseum complex is like this. thing is it seems like this idea was to also maybe yellow build in this area across from the estuary and the bay. This is San Francisco Bay out here or or the entrance to San Francisco Bay. But it looks like they wanted to build Gosh, my colors are all over the place here. Let me undo that. Let’s go back to red. It looks like they wanted to build the Warriors a new arena there, the Raiders, a football stadium there, and the A’s a new baseball stadium there. If you’re asking me, was there was there still there is there enough land to do all of this? Yes, but I’m really not sure about all of this over here on the I guess western side of 880. Who owns that land? I think the port used to own it. I think they sold it away. I don’t know if all this was possible. Like this part was very ambitious. All of this part over here probably very doable because the coliseum owned that land. But that would have meant tearing down where Oracle Arena current Oracle the Oakland Arena formerly Oracle Arena currently sits and obviously slimming down on some parking to put a baseball stadium here and a football stadium there. But this was an idea. I should I should also give the details of this. There were many ideas over the decades. This was specifically a concept from 2011. It was presented by and pushed by the city of Oakland. It never really had team endorsement by any one of the three teams. The Raiders were kind of non-committal. Uh the Warriors, by the way, I’ll point this out. They had just met with San Francisco. Like when this came out in 2011, the Warriors had their initial meetings in San Francisco first off to try and build a new arena on the waterfront. Now, they kind of moved a few blocks south of that and and a block or so inland from that. But this was the Warriors time to initially explore going to San Francisco. Like I said, the Raiders were all over the place, but mostly this was pushed because largely the A’s were pursuing San Jose during these years. There was an early San Jose push and then there was a second San Jose push. This was kind of during that second San Jose push. People in Oakland thought it was serious, thought this could be it. If baseball allowed the A’s to go to San Jose, then they might be leaving Oakland. And so that’s why this was pitched as kind of a catchall solution. And again, there were a couple different modifications. Like this version of it here has 880 right there. Now we’ve got a baseball stadium, a football stadium, and the arena all right there. If you’re asking me, was there like these are renderings. I don’t know if that’s truly to scale. Could you do all of that in that in that space? Probably. I think you’d be limited on some of it. There was also the problem of well the coliseum still stands right there as I draw it here on on this rendering stands right there. Like how would you do this in sequence? You’re going to keep you’re going to keep the arena but you’d have to tear this down while at the same time starting construction on this and this. You would have displaced basically two if not all three teams to do this coliseum city project. But could you imagine had this been what exists today? I don’t know about the Warriors. I think the Warriors were pretty much going to leave no matter what. But had the city of Oakland and the county of Alama, had they finally given the Raiders what they want, which was authority to have their own stadium, do what they want with it, and I’m not, this is not the video about was it the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do. I’m just saying could you imagine if it had played out this way, the Raiders staying, the A’s staying. Even if the Warriors ultimately, it felt like they were going to leave and go to San Francisco because they were kind of separately ambitious. This would have been the complex uh that would have been unmatched in the Bay Area and the land is still there and the opportunity is still there. So, what are the reasons that this didn’t happen? We can save that for a different time, but this was Coliseum City. Again, a bunch of beautiful renderings of something that never got built. Now, to be fair, the current Tropicana Field, which is being fixed up and the roof being repaired as I record this video, it was actually built before the Rays even existed. Tropicana Field was built to try and entice other major league teams like the Mariners, like the White Sox, and like the San Francisco Giants, who basically committed to moving. Uh they agreed to moving before it was blocked and denied. uh they built the stadium before they even had a team. So for many years, even before Tropicana Field, they were out there pitching ideas of something to build. Now, I just want to point out here, this is Tropicana. Well, this is on the side of Tropicana Field, but this is where they would eventually build it. But look at this. It’s it’s kind of like a tent, right? It’s an open air canopy. It’s got like these structures here. And by the way, these renderings, this is a rendering from the 80s. So this is what you get. You get black and white. This was probably done by hand. I mean, I don’t mean like an artist rendition. I think they took an actual photograph and then somebody literally drew like I’m drawing on it right now. They they drew the canvas or they drew on a canvas on a photo like it was a canvas to make these renderings. So, not the prettiest of renderings, maybe not the most accurate of renderings. Man, they love their parking lots in the 80s and they love those circular walkways back in the day. That was a that was a stadium design of of years gone by. But again, an outdoor/ indoor but outdoor stadium. Real quick, how do you think this thing would have fared in Hurricane Milton? I I’m not laughing to make a joke about that. I’m not pointing any fun at Hurricane Milton. I’m saying that if you can see the damage done to a a permanently enclosed structure like Tropicana Field. Imagine some winds getting under that tent, getting under that sail right there. That thing stood no chance of surviving a lot of different weather events. So, for that reason alone, I’m glad that it never got built. We don’t have a ton of information on this one, but it appears to be at the site of current Tropicana Field. It was rejected by local officials. They didn’t like the canopy. They wanted the full enclosure. The Tampa Bay Times, as a caption to that photo right there, when they published this back in ‘ 83, they said that that model was quote a hit at winter meetings. So, baseball executives, they really liked the idea in 1983. By the way, that’s the year, 1983. But local officials didn’t, so they never built it. Eventually, they built Tropicana Field. And after about a decade of playing there with the Rays, there was an idea of, well, can we make this a retractable roof stadium? Can we take this enclosed stadium, do something with the roof, keep the entire structure, but basically put a lid on it that slides on and off, and have this be outdoors when the situation warrants it? And I don’t know how often honestly the situation would actually warrant it, like cost versus value of doing something like this, but I’m about to show you some rare images here of what an idea was to convert Tropicana Field to be a retractable roof stadium. This is obviously when it’s closed. This is when it’s open. How much effort would it have taken to make this dome stadium a retractable roof option? Uh quite a bit of everything. Effort and money. But also, take a look at this design. And I mean, it’s kind of weird, but if you do this shape right here, it kind of looks like kind of looks like a toilet bowl almost. They were going to put a toilet bowl by building this structure right here, this structure, and then everything around it to cover Tropicana Field and then, yeah, have this roof slide open and stack open when they wanted it. And again, just the cost of this, I think it was at that time $500 million. This was pitched. It was proposed. It was quickly denied. So, it was a enclosed stadium where the roof eventually got ripped ripped off. Now, they’re replacing it. But that’s episode one of I think a three-part series I’m doing here of MLB parks that never got built. And again, it’s fascinating here in the present when we see renderings come out and we buy into the fact that, oh, well, we’ve seen the renderings and it looks beautiful and it’s probably going to happen. There are dozens and dozens of ideas and concepts and things that just never panned out. So, you need to see them built before they’re a reality. Until then, renderings are nice. They’re getting better over decades. There’s something to marvel at, but we have so many of them that never got built. You could actually make probably a whole art exhibit of them. Let me know what you think about this video, this series down in the comments below. I appreciate you for checking this out. Also, thumbs up down below helps me the video of the channel. Don’t forget to subscribe so you can check out part two when it comes out next time.

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Topics:
0:00 INTRO
0:41 NEW FENWAY PARK
3:47 YANKEE DOME
6:13 LABATT DOME
9:23 OAKLAND COLISEUM CITY
13:48 ST. PETERSBURG CANOPY

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