A picturesque view of a body of water, a well-seasoned concession snack, a home team that doesn’t make you question your life choices – all go into the rubric to determine our favorite ballparks.
Yet there are other factors that rarely are assessed but have become increasingly significant as major league stadiums’ shelf life continues shrinking and replacement costs soar: Timelessness and durability.
Sure, maybe you like your stadium to have that new car smell after 20 years, or however often your team can steamroll the local populace into lining the owner’s pockets with even more luxury seating. But there’s something to be said for staying power, for getting the most out of investments both private and (increasingly) public, establishing a sense of place for generations to return.
In short, better a ballpark last 115 seasons than 20.
Philadelphia Phillies owner John Middleton seems to understand that. In announcing the club’s plans to invest $600 million in renovating their 22-year-old Citizens Bank Park, Middleton told reporters, “There's no reason in my mind why this stadium shouldn't be operating in 100 years and operating really well.”
That’s hardly been the case in other municipalities, where public threats, audacious asks for taxpayer funding and constantly eyeing a shinier new toy can be the norm.
Which ballparks get the most, pound-for-pound, out of a team’s and a community’s investment in it? That do as little harm as possible to their environment?
Ranking MLB’s 30 ballparks by both aesthetics and generational durability:
(Note: Public money estimates may not fully reflect all franchise benefits, such as property tax breaks, land acquisition and infrastructure costs).
1. Fenway Park, Boston
Year opened: 1912
Seasons in use: 115
Original construction cost: $650,000
Recent renovation costs: $400 million since 2000
Public money used: $130 million for renovations (estimated)
Capacity: 37,755
Park factors: The oldest is arguably still the greatest. All the more amazing considering what previous owner John Harrington said in a 1999 letter to Red Sox fans: “Times have changed. It’s time for a new ballpark.” Harrington’s money grab is visible between the lines (“the need for 10,000 new seats,” he said) but he also sounded disinclined for the big dig of modernizing a Titanic-era yard. So while the current ownership group sometimes makes the Red Sox feel like another faceless cog in something called “Fenway Sports Group,” they still deserve credit for an exhaustive rebuild that makes it a must-visit and an aesthetically remarkable place to watch a ballgame.
2. Wrigley Field, Chicago
Original construction cost: $250,000
Seasons in use: 112
Recent renovation costs: $740 million since 2013
Capacity: 41,649
Park factors: Hard to imagine that the $175,000 sale of a seminary at the corner of Clark and Addison in 1909 would tip a series of dominoes that resulted in the construction of what would become Wrigley Field. Shout out to Charlie “Lucky Charlie” Weeghman for opting to invest $250,000 to build on this site – leasing it for 99 years - rather than the $500,000 Charles Comiskey wanted for a new South Side park. Weeghman parlayed his lunch counter empire into a ballyard and eventually, thanks to numerous investors, the Cubs after the Federal League folded in 1915. But Lucky Charlie’s hot run ran out, losing the team and his business after World War I. William Wrigley bought the club in 1921 and slapped his own name on the park in 1927. (Private equity bros would lose their minds if they found out a simple “lunch counter baron” and “chewing gum magnate” could control such prime property). Anyhow, it remains a jewel, even if current owner Tom Ricketts’ $740 million renovation choked even more of the charm out of Wrigleyville.
3. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
Year opened: 1962
Seasons in use: 66
Original construction cost: $23 million
Recent renovation costs: $300 million since 2013
Public money used: 300 acres of land, plus infrastructure, in exchange for Los Angeles’ Wrigley Field
Capacity: 56,000
Park factors: It is a gem that might live forever, evidenced by the 50,000-plus fans who show up almost as fervently for a game against the Rockies in April as they do for a World Series matchup. Its owners have consistently seen the value pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into its upkeep and modernization. No amount of World Series trophies can erase the ugly displacement of Mexican-Americans in Chavez Ravine during the decade prior to the Dodgers’ arrival. Yet the stadium almost certainly will join Fenway Park and Wrigley Field in the century club come the 2060s.
4. Oracle Park, San Francisco
Year opened: 2000
Seasons in use: 27
Original construction cost: $357 million
Public money used: $80 million for infrastructure
Capacity: 40,260
Park factors: The Giants have long stuck their chest out for “saving” the franchise by - all together now - Building The First Privately Financed Ballpark in Major League Baseball Since Dodger Stadium. That no doubt earned them plenty of side-eye at owners’ meetings over the years, and they proved it was hardly ruinous as the stadium became a cash cow, the team a perennial contender and eventual three-time World Series champion. But Giants owners also had another equation in mind: That San Francisco itself was far more valuable than, say, St. Petersburg, Fla., one of their many stalking horses used in vain to get a replacement for Candlestick Park. Yet their investment in The City is paying off in an even bigger way: Their 28-acre “Mission Rock” development is a $3 billion public-private partnership that makes them land developers and theater impresarios as much as they are a baseball franchise. Perhaps that explains a few things.
5. Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City
Year opened: 1973
Seasons in use: 54
Original construction cost: $70 million
Recent renovation costs: $250 million from 2007-2010
Public money used: $43 million for original construction of Royals and Arrowhead Stadiums; $175 million for most recent Kauffman Stadium renovation
Capacity: 38,053
Park factors: The gem of the 1970s thanks to what looked like wretched excess at the time: Baseball and football stadiums built next to each other at a time multi-purpose monstrosities were all the rage. Yet Royals/Kauffman and Arrowhead have stood the test of time wonderfully, particularly once natural grass was installed for the Royals. A $250 million renovation modernized the place nicely enough that Major League Baseball saw fit to gift the club an All-Star Game in 2012. Cut scene, right? Ah, of course not. New-ish owner John Sherman, aided by pols in Kansas City, is aiming to construct a live-work-play downtown ballpark for the gentle sum of nearly $2 billion, with at least a half-billion dollars coming from public sources. The process has cleared several hurdles but many more remain in a very complex and typically opaque process. The city and ballclub are desperate to avoid a public referendum on the matter, since, in 2024, an overwhelming 58% of Kansas City voters rejected a sales tax measure for a Royals stadium plus renovations to Arrowhead. The Chiefs found willing marks in Kansas. The Royals play on at The K, which remains a virtually perfect ballpark constructed for a song more than a half-century ago.
6. Angel Stadium, Anaheim
Year opened: 1966
Seasons in use: 61
Original construction cost: $24 million
Recent renovation costs: $100 million in 1997-98
Public money used: $30 million for ’97 renovations
Capacity: 45,000
Park factors: This place has had several iterations, birthed, revamped and reborn several times within the same shell. The original Big A gave way to a well-outdated multi-purpose look when the city of Anaheim lured the Rams from the Coliseum to the banks of the 57 freeway, relegating the iconic “A” from just beyond the outfield to deep in the parking lots. And then the Rams turned tail again (it wouldn’t be the last time), suckering St. Louis into a stadium deal in 1994 and leaving the Angels with a 67,000-seat Price Club where 16,000 folks could gather to watch Chuck Finley get little run support. The new owner, Disney, did more than put cheerleaders on the dugout and attempt to violate the collective bargaining agreement: It spearheaded a renovation to knock the football out of the place, paying for most of a $100 million facelift in the late 1990s. And, well, that’s pretty much been it ever since, even as new owner Arte Moreno and the city of Anaheim have, shall we say, been through some things. The ballpark? Other than showing its age once in a while, it’s still a great place to catch a game, luring 2.6 million to 3 million fans in the decade-plus since Moreno’s club last made the playoffs.
7. Coors Field, Colorado
Year opened: 1995
Construction cost: $300 million
Public money used: $168 million
Capacity: 46,897
Park factors: Don’t look now, but this joint is fourth-oldest in the National League and still a real beauty, even if the baseball’s been bad for quite a while. And the Rockies appear to be fixtures in LoDo for quite a while – owner Dick Monfort’s company has signed a 99-year lease for a development adjacent to the park. You don’t hear this very often: The Metropolitan Baseball Stadium District was able to pay off 20-year bonds for ballpark construction eight years early, resulting in a refund to nearby municipalities.
8. PNC Park, Pittsburgh
Year opened: 2001
Seasons in use: 26
Original construction cost: $216 million
Public money used: $155 million
Capacity: 38,362
Park factors: Rarely will this park rank outside the top five – top three, even – of ballpark ratings. It is gorgeous, with a view of downtown and the Allegheny River, which rushes along just 456 feet from home plate. It’s a tight and intimate setting. And fans are paying for it, on the front and back end: Multiple ticket and family pricing indexes rank PNC fifth or sixth in average ticket price. Meanwhile, the state and area municipalities paid for more than half of the ballpark construction at the turn of the century. The team’s lease expires in 2030 and area officials are gearing up for significant renovation asks from the Pirates and Steelers.
9. Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia
Year opened: 2004
Seasons in use: 23
Original construction cost: $458 million
Public money used: $221 million
Capacity: 42,901
Outlook: Middleton’s unofficial 100-year pledge to keep this ballpark alive served to both confirm the Bank’s beauty as a ballpark, and also read the room for what’s best for his city. The Philadelphia 76ers earned city council approval for a $1.3 billion downtown arena, yet backed down in the face of intense civic disapproval. No, the South Philadelphia Stadium Complex is kind of perfect, with proximity to myriad forms of transportation and a prevailing collective vibe that says, “Meet us at the base of Broad Street, where we will kick your ass.” Someone should probably tell Jeffrey Lurie that.
10. Camden Yards, Baltimore
Year opened: 1992
Seasons in use: 34
Original construction cost: $110 million
Recent renovation costs: $600 million
Public money used: $112 million for construction, $600 million for renovations
Capacity: 42,455
Park factors: Yes, that’s a ton of public money, a grand total of $1.3 billion over time, as detailed in a 2023 Baltimore Sun analysis of the total public benefits the Orioles have received for Camden Yards. It was financed largely by state bonds and now the ballpark and its sister stadium for the Ravens each will receive $600 million from the Maryland State Authority for ongoing renovations. That’s birthed hangs such as the Coors Light Roof Deck and the Corona Flag Court and the Truist Club. Now, the more pleasing news: The ballpark remains a gem, still the greatest in the early 1990s retro renaissance, long before you couldn’t go five yards in a stadium without getting hit with exposed brick. The expanded luxury areas have not created a moat within the ballpark, which remains a free-flowing delight to explore from flag court to home plate.
11. Rogers Centre, Toronto
Year opened: 1989
Seasons in use: 38
Original construction cost: $650 million
Recent renovation costs: $300 million since 2022, privately financed
Public money used: $300 million (estimated) for construction
Capacity: 41,500
Park factors: As newer stadia come online, the Blue Jays and their Rogers Communications overlords taught us a key lesson: Renovation is the way. While the former SkyDome was always a gorgeous park with the roof open, less so with it closed, the major renovations done in the Vladdy Jr. Era turned out remarkably well. That goes for whether you want to get bujee with it in a club area or swig some Labatt’s with your pals in the upper reaches. The original construction was a bit of a boondoggle, as the project was dogged by debt and recession and spiraling costs. Yet the park is barreling toward its 50th birthday in what looks to be a golden era – and renovations were privately financed.
12. Comerica Park, Detroit
Year opened: 2000
Seasons in use: 27
Original construction cost: $300 million
Recent renovation costs: $30 million since 2024
Public money used: $115 million
Capacity: 41,083
Park factors: The cost of doing business was evident when the second wave of new ballparks opened up: Comerica was more than double the cost of Camden Yards, Jacobs Field and others. But Detroit certainly did it right the first time, with a sturdy facility featuring a nice downtown view, the iconic Tiger statues and a consistently decent product in the past 20 years. Alas, nothing lasts forever: Comerica Park, in name only, will be no more after this season, as Fifth Third Bancorp bought Comerica and is now workshopping corporate titles to re-brand the stadium.
13. Daikin Park, Houston
Year opened: 2000
Seasons in use: 27
Original construction cost: $250 million
Recent renovation costs: $50 million
Public money used: $180 million
Park factors: It opened at the height of the steroid era, which was appropriate, given that then-Minute Maid Park was Retro Ballpark on Steroids. A flagpole in center field was viewed as a faux bridge too far and “Tal’s Hill” was removed after the 2016 season. The Astros don’t often open the roof – they should try that more often, schvitz be damned – but this remains a functional park and a great place to watch a game, with the club’s decade of consistent winning providing a raucous atmosphere. Houston taxpayers footed way too much of the bill, but hey, that was the Enron era and at least they got something tangible out of this.
14. Petco Park, San Diego
Year opened: 2004
Seasons in use: 23
Original construction cost: $450 million
Public money used: $300 million
Park factors: Nowadays, franchises are typically craven enough to simply ask for stadium handouts, regardless of how terrible their on-field products are. Back in the day, though, clubs would go for broke on the field to drum up support at the ballot box, a nominal one-year investment that could pay billions of dollars in dividends. So it was for the 1998 Padres. They traded for ace and pending free agent Kevin Brown - who would lead the majors in pitching WAR - won 98 games and didn’t stop campaigning even after the Yankees swept them in the World Series. The city threw them a parade, anyway, which largely served as a pep rally for Proposition C, which would fund a new downtown ballpark. “Don’t forget, Nov. 3 is coming quickly,” franchise legend Tony Gwynn told the crowd and a live TV audience. “You know what you need to do.” Prop C passed with nearly 60% of the vote. A beautiful ballpark was born, yet publicly financing two-thirds of the cost would sow regret. Barely a decade after Petco opened, referendum backers echoed typical buyer’s remorse: The park was supposed to pay for itself. While the area has freshened up nicely, that whole “ballpark transformation” shtick might not be so apt here. It’s freaking San Diego, for Pete’s sake.
15. Rate Field, Chicago
Year opened: 1991
Seasons in use: 36
Original construction cost: $137 million
Recent renovation costs: $130 million (estimated) since 2001
Public money used: $200 million
Capacity: 40,615
Park factors: It opened a year before Camden Yards and featured none of the “retro modern charms” of the ballpark renaissance to come. Rough timing, kind of like Edward Everett’s stultifying two-hour speech at Gettsyburg, just before Abraham Lincoln rocked the world with a crisp two-minute oration. That’s life, eh? But the White Sox didn’t just take the L, if you will; years of renovations have turned it into an actual ballpark, one with excellent food, access to public transportation and for now a serviceable ballclub. Of course, eventual majority owner Justin Ishbia has designs on a massive riverfront stadium project that’s for now a logistical maze involving rail yards and Amtrak and many moving parts. If he threads the needle, it’d mean uprooting more than a century of Sox Park tradition from the Bridgeport neighborhood for the promise of splash hits and probably a Tom’s Watch Bar. For now, “New Comiskey” and its tenant can stick their proverbial chest out.
16. Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg
Year opened: 1990
Seasons in use: 28
Original construction cost: $138 million
Recent renovation costs: $37 million since 2005, not including hurricane-related repairs.
Capacity: 25,025
Park factors: Look, there’s no rain delays and the total cost of construction would barely get you a new scoreboard these days. That’s efficiency, baby. Trop lovers – and there are a few – know it’s a low-key lovely place to catch a ballgame, and the baseball is consistently good. Sadly, Tampa Bay remains the lone franchise to never host an All-Star Game, which is more an MLB problem: If the league doesn’t see fit to hold a jewel event there, it shouldn’t have rewarded Tampa Bay a franchise in the first place. Besides, they always need a cudgel to leverage new facilities out of municipalities. So perhaps the proposed new park in Tampa will get a Midsummer Classic, surrounded by the cookie-cutter live, work and play development that Rays officials will have you believe is Battery South. Someday, there may be a Yardhouse or a Cheesecake Factory or whatever at the new crib, but there’s no original Ferg’s.
17. Busch Stadium, St. Louis
Year opened: 2006
Seasons in use: 22
Original construction cost: $400 million
Public money used: $80 million
Capacity: 43,769
Park factors: The Cardinals won a World Series title in their first year playing in the third iteration of Busch Stadium and drew 3.4 million fans, beginning a streak of 14 seasons over the 3 million mark. It’s a vibrant place when it’s full. Yet as the team’s fortunes sagged, the streak ended after the 2023 season and St. Louis drew just 2.25 million fans last year. The club also rolled out a “Ballpark Village” in three phases beginning in 2014, something of a forerunner to future projects elsewhere. Yet it also exemplified the extractive nature of such developments, merely relocating economic impact away from older businesses. The Cardinals are dipping their toes in the water for significant Busch Stadium upgrades, possibly taking advantage of state legislation passed in service of funding Royals and Chiefs stadiums on the other side of Missouri.
18. Citi Field, New York
Year opened: 2009
Seasons in use: 18
Original construction cost: $830 million
Public money used: $614 million
Capacity: 41,922
Park factors: It’s almost impossible for anything in New York to be underrated, but Citi Field is a quiet gem, with a lively atmosphere and fantastic food. It’d be much higher on this list if not for the massive public tab to build it. While less expensive and more pleasing than its fraternal twin brother in the Bronx, it nonetheless continues New York’s fascination with gifting millions to billions of dollars to franchise owners. Still cheaper than the Bills’ boondoggle, we guess.
19. T-Mobile Park, Seattle
Year opened: 1999
Seasons in use: 28
Original construction cost: $517 million
Recent renovation costs: $138 million in 2018
Public money used: $372 million for original construction; $135 million for 2018 renovations
Capacity: 47,943
Park factors: As far as aesthetics, this place ranks near the top, even factoring our significant quibble that it went from “Safeco Field” to “T-Mobile Park” in a rebrand. (Simply, a stadium is a field or park, and so it shall remain forever.) Anyhow, T-Mobile has a unique feel to it, largely because the Mariners did not use ballpark giant HOK (now Populous) in its design, setting it apart from its late ‘90s brethren. Unfortunately, and perhaps because of that, construction costs skyrocketed (more than double Houston’s Minute Maid Park, which opened a year later) and the public ended up funding a whopping $372 million of the bill. An aesthetic triumph but a public bloodbath. A lease extension ensures the club will play there into the 2040s, giving it an appropriate shelf life.
20. Progressive Field, Cleveland
Year opened: 1994
Seasons in use: 33
Original construction cost: $175 million
Recent renovation costs: $202 million since 2022
Public money used: $84 million for construction, $135 million for recent renovations
Capacity: 34,820
Park factors: While it lacked the natural beauty of Camden Yards, the former Jacobs Field might have been the most juiced joint of the 1990s parks to open – simply because of the massive leap in energy replacing the Mistake By The Lake, 80,000-seat Municipal/Cleveland Stadium. And Cleveland had an insanely charismatic team ready-made to move in, greeting baseball’s offensive era with a devastating lineup that sent it to two World Series in the first three full seasons and launching a 455-game sellout streak. The 2000s weren’t as kind, but the first of a handful of renovations freshened the place up in time for a 2016 World Series run and the team has been Pretty Good since. The park’s even better: Reduced in capacity, opened up to the city, far more “experiential” for the kids these days. Probably should have locked in a lease longer than 15 years for the most recent refurbishments, as the drumbeat for a new stadium should begin a bit before the 2036 expiration (If area municipalities were foolish enough to do it for the Browns, might as well try, right?)
21. Target Field, Minneapolis
Year opened: 2010
Seasons in use: 17
Original construction cost: $555 million
Public money used: $350 million
Capacity: 38,544
Park factors: A modern gem in a nearly ideal location nestled near the Minnesota Timberwolves’ arena, Target Field has proven the naysayers wrong, playing outdoor baseball on the prairie after years amid the Hefty bags of the Metrodome. The Twins and Hennepin County did not have the stomach for the retractable roof so trendy among modern, climate-challenged ballparks. Yet the public still foot more than half the bill to construct Target Field and the club can likely count on annual $10 million maintenance handouts through extension of a sales tax that would keep the Twins at Target through 2059 (the state considered attaching the tax to save a medical center, too).
22. Great American Ballpark, Cincinnati
Year opened: 2003
Seasons in use: 24
Original construction cost: $337 million
Public money used: $280 million
Capacity: 43,500
Park factors: First, the ballpark: It’s nice! Friendly and egalitarian and durable, it might rank higher if it somehow more significantly integrated the mighty Ohio River beyond center field, much like its cousin upstream in Pittsburgh. But financing the yard proved a cautionary tale. In 1996, Hamilton County voters, fearful the Bengals might follow the Browns’ lead out of Ohio, approved by 61% a half-cent sales tax to fund stadiums for the Reds and Bengals. Is it a bad sign when the elected official tasked with negotiating with the franchises gets voted out of office and subsequently hired by the football team as “director of stadium development?” Indeed, the public’s deal blew up badly when sales tax receipts fell well short of projections, creating a “revenue bomb” that left the county on the hook and unable to direct revenue to schools and homeowners, as the ballot measure promised. The stadiums also shot past their construction budgets by around $300 million. Now? The Bengals just got $350 million more from the county – yet are only locked into their lease through 2036 – while Great American Ballpark will undergo an “assessment,” for which the county will pay $464,000.
23. American Family Field, Milwaukee
Year opened: 2001
Seasons in use: 26
Original construction cost: $400 million
Public money used: $300 million for construction, $522 million for future renovations
Capacity: 41,900
Park factors: The tradition of the Brewers shaking down Wisconsin for cash dates to the 20th century. This was former commissioner Bud Selig’s white whale, ensuring a retractable-roof stadium for his Brewers got constructed and thus setting an example his fellow owners would follow for years to come. But oh, what a price tag. A 2015 analysis by the state’s Legislative Audit Bureau estimated the cost of building and maintaining the former Miller Park through 2030 would cost taxpayers $1 billion, thanks largely to interest payments on debt. With current owner Mark Attanasio bucking for renovations in recent years while vaguely pondering the future of the Brewers, Gov. Tony Evers signed a 2023 bill ensuring the state and county will funnel more than $500 million to the franchise. It’s a nice park and Brewers fans are a passionate, tailgating bunch that come out 30,000 strong most nights. They’re also paying much more than the cost of tickets.
24. Chase Field, Phoenix
Year opened: 1998
Seasons in use: 29
Original construction cost: $354 million
Recent renovations: $400 to $500 million since 2021
Public money used: $240 million for construction, up to $400 million for post-2021 renovations
Park factors: A perfectly good place to catch a game, particularly if you yearn for late-‘90s trappings and using someone else’s AC in the dead of a desert summer. The Diamondbacks were laughed down pretty quickly when they kicked the tires on a new ballpark in Maricopa County – with retractable roof, that’s a multi-billion dollar concept in the 21st century – but it was sufficient enough that the state legislature cut them a pretty sweetheart deal for renovations: An 80/20 public/private split. Some of which will go toward, yes, a new HVAC system.
25. Yankee Stadium, New York
Year opened: 2009
Seasons in use: 18
Original construction cost: $2.3 billion
Public money used: $1.2 billion
Capacity: 46,543
Park factors: It’s an adequate place to watch a game. The atmosphere can be good, even if it threatens hearing loss. The costs are also prohibitive, both to build the edifice and to order a steak sandwich. Any Yankees fan older than 21 will tell you there’s simply no recreating the electricity of Yankee Stadium II, home to four championships in five years three decades ago, even if George Steinbrenner seized on the chances to say the sky was falling, sometimes semi-literally. Now? If you let your mind wander it’s possible to imagine you’re in the old joint, watching O’Neill or Reggie out in right field instead of Aaron Judge. They did OK honoring the franchise’s history. It’s fine.
26. Nationals Park
Year opened: 2008
Seasons in use: 19
Original construction cost: $693 million
Public money used: $670 million
Capacity: 41,373
Park factors: It won’t make almost anyone’s top 10 ballparks – it’s sufficient, in a generic, Baseballtown, USA kind of way – and then you zoom in a bit and realize how much the District of Columbia coughed up for the joint. Such was life when MLB was running the Montreal Expos like an orphanage, biding its time until DC got desperate enough to make a deal. And a bad one it is, just like their unseemly $1.1 billion outlay for the Commanders’ proposed palace up the Anacostia, or their $515 million tossed at Ted Leonsis after his bumbling bluff to move to Northern Virginia, which pols across the Potomac laughed at. Ah, well. At least the stadium view of the Capitol is now obscured by apartment buildings.
27. loanDepot Park, Miami
Year opened: 2012
Seasons in use: 15
Original construction cost: $634 million
Public money used: $515 million
Capacity: 37,442
Park factors: There’s no way to measure if the Marlins’ terrible attendance numbers are a result of enduringly mediocre baseball or Miamians’ enduring distaste over getting their pockets picked. They keep running the numbers in South Florida and it keeps getting worse: Marlins Park, as it was known, will end up costing taxpayers more than $2.5 billion, thanks partly to a bond deal gone bad. All this for a ballpark that rarely thumps save for the years the World Baseball Classic comes to town, Miami’s glorious multi-cultural vibes overflowing before it all disappears when the home team shows up. They ripped out the Home Run Structure. It’s pretty bland on a good day. Overall, a bad situation save for the deal’s architects, who either turned a nice profit selling the team or went on to podcasting glory.
28. Truist Park, Atlanta
Year opened: 2017
Seasons in use: 10
Original construction cost: $672 million
Public money used: $400 million
Capacity: 41,147
Park factors: Here it is, folks: The platonic ideal for ballpark waste and back-room deals involving taxpayer money. Turner Field, Truist’s downtown predecessor, lasted 20 seasons. It was barely a teenager when the Braves and a thirsty outer-suburban county concocted a replacement that would cost taxpayers $400 million. The public was so enraged they trucked the mastermind behind the project at the ballot box as soon as they could. The good news for the Braves is the sprawling development, the Battery, produces revenue the club doesn’t have to toss in MLB’s money-sharing pot. Which makes the earnings calls a happy place to be. The park itself? Totally fine, if Modern Unremarkable. There’s a restaurant that absorbs home run balls and massive TV monitors for the folks behind home, almost like they’re sitting in their media room at home in Vinings. By Turner Field math, Truist Park has already reached the halfway point of its shelf life.
29. Globe Life Field, Texas
Year opened: 2020
Seasons in use: Seven
Original construction cost: $1.2 billion
Public money used: $500 million
Capacity: 40,300
Park factors: The ultimate gateway to the shortened shelf life of the modern stadium: Globe Life’s predecessor across the street lasted just 26 years, an outdoor jewel that once stood shoulder to shoulder with other great parks of that era. Yet North Texas loves its stadium subsidies and air conditioning almost as much as it hates public transportation – Arlington, home of Jerry World and the Rangers’ crib, is the USA’s largest city without mass transit. Nah, this place requires fields of parking lots, which is appropriate given that the ballpark feels like walking into a Costco. Everything’s bigger in Texas, but the sheer vastness – even the dugouts are huge – creates a sterile atmosphere and a forgettable experience relative to other ballparks. The cautionary tale for the modern mixed-use stadium hellscape.
404 error: Sutter Health Park, West Sacramento
Sorry, but a 10,000-seat minor league stopover in Yolo County wrecked the algorithms. The $47 million, 27-year-old yard seems like a great place to catch a game, and that’s a pretty daily occurrence in West Sacramento, what with the Athletics killing three years there and the Giants’ Class AAA team occupying it when John Fisher’s itinerant band of ballplayers are out of town. Fisher has $350 million of Nevada’s public awaiting him in Las Vegas, the team settled, presumably, by 2029.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Best MLB stadiums: All 30 ballparks ranked by staying power
