Worcester Ballpark & Redev

Looking around at other recent AAA ballparks, I agree that this isn't the best (I love red brick) and it's the most expensive, but a lot of these don't have Polar Park's street presence.

Charlotte (looks like a high school football stadium):

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Nashville (looks like a small convention center):

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St. Paul (not built for AAA but hosting it now):

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Oklahoma City (it's famous for being "bricktown", but the massing looks like it should be adobe).

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There are, of course, great ones. El Paso has a really nice red brick ballpark with industrial chic. Dunkin Park is nice. Memphis is legendarily good... but Polar Park looks cool both conceptually and colorwise. It doesn't sink into its surroundings even though it, too, is built into a hill. It creates a streetwall that matches the tone of the neighborhood and may come to be a valuable contrast to red brick and terra cotta 1+5 apartment buildings and blue glass labs in the years to come. CHS Field and Bricktown Ballpark are legends for being "neighborhood catalysts" and neither looks as good as Polar Park, IMO.
 
I think the Las Vegas ballpark is gorgeous and I believe it was the most expensive minor league stadium until Worcester eclipsed it. Some people may say it would have felt out of place in Worcester, but would that have necessarily been a bad thing?

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LinkedIn
 
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cubalibre said:
I think the Las Vegas ballpark is gorgeous and I believe it was the most expensive minor league stadium until until Worcester eclipsed it. Some people may say it would have felt out of place in Worcester, but would that have necessarily been a bad thing?
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I'd argue that "out of place" is rarely a good thing, and maybe that the whole point of the Vegas ballpark (which isn't actually in Las Vegas but the City literally bought the naming rights to it) is that it couldn't exist anywhere else. One thing to note about Las Vegas Ballpark is that while it's very nice looking, it's in the middle of a suburban strip mall.
 
I think one of the things we are missing with the "most expensive minor league ball park" is the timing of the construction. This was built over the pandemic when materials prices soared. Sheets of CDX ply were up to almost $100 a sheet for a while. Yes, it was more expensive than it should have been but part of that was way out of the hands of the people involved. I'm excited to see how it looks in person and how it ends up playing with the surrounding area.
 
Also worth noting: according to an article in today's Globe, land acquisition was about a quarter of the $158 million price tag we are seeing. Controlling for that, construction and materials, at $118 million might not make it the most expensive minor league park.
 
HenryAlan said:
Also worth noting: according to an article in today's Globe, land acquisition was about a quarter of the $158 million price tag we are seeing. Controlling for that, construction and materials, at $118 million might not make it the most expensive minor league park.
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www.bostonglobe.com

Brand-new Polar Park is ready to go, but will it be a good deal for Worcester? - The Boston Globe

Development around the new Triple A ballpark will be key for the city, which ponied up 55 percent of the construction costs.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com
 
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I do not have an electronic subscription, but I'm sure you can find it by googling.
 
shmessy said:
Peruse these 60 minor league baseball stadiums. Ask yourself, "Where does Worcester's highest ever priced, corrugated siding stadium rank in this list?"

Best Minor League Baseball Ballparks

They may not be Wrigley or Fenway, but these charming parks offer memorable experiences that go far beyond the action on the field.
www.stadiumtalk.com www.stadiumtalk.com

Look, I am all for having the highest priced minor league ballpark in Worcester, in an area that will be a dynamic upgrade over what was before, and I am ok with Worcester and the state putting up all the money if this is truly an economic engine driving exponential growth from it.

But FUKKING corrugated storage container siding with only 6,000 seats for THAT MONEY????????

Worcester got pantsed by Lucchino.
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Just shy of 10K seating ... get your facts straight. https://www.polarpark.com/worcester-red-sox-faqs

The façade / appearance looks much better than the photos. Take a look for yourself.

I suspect the ballpark amenities, sightlines, seating will be first-rate and far more affordable than Fenway. My only grip is lack of parking though you can walk under the railway bridge to parking lots closer to downtown.
 
citydweller said:
pointer to the article?
Click to expand...
www.bostonglobe.com

Brand-new Polar Park is ready to go, but will it be a good deal for Worcester? - The Boston Globe

Development around the new Triple A ballpark will be key for the city, which ponied up 55 percent of the construction costs.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com
Boston Globe said:
Both the city and the team pegged the total construction and design costs at approximately $118 million. The $159.5 million total cost, according to the city, includes $41.3 million for land acquisition.
Click to expand...
 
citydweller said:
Just shy of 10K seating ... get your facts straight. https://www.polarpark.com/worcester-red-sox-faqs

The façade / appearance looks much better than the photos. Take a look for yourself.

I suspect the ballpark amenities, sightlines, seating will be first-rate and far more affordable than Fenway. My only grip is lack of parking though you can walk under the railway bridge to parking lots closer to downtown.
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Total capacity is 9,508, but only about 6,000 of that is seated. The remaining 3,500 capacity is standing room, on the grass beyond the outfield, etc.

The Polar Park website renders it in brick, yes, but it's actually built with corrugated siding.

Render:
Ballpark%20Illustration%20Behind%20Home%20Plate.webp


Actual:
5EJJYUVARRNPGJY45NCGG5STXM.jpg
 
citydweller said:
Just shy of 10K seating ... get your facts straight. https://www.polarpark.com/worcester-red-sox-faqs

The façade / appearance looks much better than the photos. Take a look for yourself.

I suspect the ballpark amenities, sightlines, seating will be first-rate and far more affordable than Fenway. My only grip is lack of parking though you can walk under the railway bridge to parking lots closer to downtown.
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Get YOUR facts right:

Fixed Seating:
6,000.

Capacity (including people allowed to bring their blankets to the hillside in the outfield):
9,318.

There is no “seating just shy of 10k”.

According to your logic, my backyard has “seating for 4,000”.
 
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The corrugated sheet metal and exposed beam look is growing on me... honestly it is very contextual for the area - very contextual for Worcester's 20th century light industrial in that area

A retro-park would have been nice, but it wouldn't feel very Worcester at all.

It's growing on me. I'm looking forward to attending some games at some point.
 
JumboBuc said:
Total capacity is 9,508, but only about 6,000 of that is seated. The remaining 3,500 capacity is standing room, on the grass beyond the outfield, etc.

The Polar Park website renders it in brick, yes, but it's actually built with corrugated siding.

Render:
Ballpark%20Illustration%20Behind%20Home%20Plate.webp


Actual:
5EJJYUVARRNPGJY45NCGG5STXM.jpg
Click to expand...

The official website that Citydweller linked in a post (old link to use, by the way- polar park.com long since been updated) which also pegged the cost between $86-100 million actually had THAT render just a year ago? Yikes.

Talk about a bait and switch VE Job.......
 
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They're completely different designs... :(
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I don't mind the exposed beam + corrugated look. But the broken up singular canopies are disappointing compared to the single swooping roof. And that rooftop restaurant got nixed.
 
Hopefully what we got will aid in Worcester's renaissance, whereas I can easily see the ditched version becoming a debt chain that holds back the city. It's a real gamble either way, but I love to see this and the whole Canal District change.
 
Bananarama said:
They're completely different designs... :(

I don't mind the exposed beam + corrugated look. But the broken up singular canopies are disappointing compared to the single swooping roof. And that rooftop restaurant got nixed.
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The roof change is VE, yes, but the older render was literally a mini-Fenway. I doubt that was ever seriously proposed - it was just to get people excited about the concept of the "Worcester Red Sox".

It's true that the Polar Park website was not well maintained, so those massing/hypothetical drawings stayed up a lot longer than they should have.
 
All the early renderings show stands with seats in the outfield, and reality is just a grassy hillside? That's more than V.E., that's Potemkin in reverse. I can hear the trade-off now: a 100 pounds of grass seed is cheaper than a single seatback.
 
stellarfun said:
All the early renderings show stands with seats in the outfield, and reality is just a grassy hillside? That's more than V.E., that's Potemkin in reverse. I can hear the trade-off now: a 100 pounds of grass seed is cheaper than a single seatback.
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Did they make this stadium so it can be expanded? What is the logic with only having 6k for actual seating when McCoy stadium was bigger. I get the whole luxury seating but just seems th capacity is really small for AAA.
 
citydweller said:
Just shy of 10K seating ... get your facts straight. https://www.polarpark.com/worcester-red-sox-faqs

The façade / appearance looks much better than the photos. Take a look for yourself.

I suspect the ballpark amenities, sightlines, seating will be first-rate and far more affordable than Fenway. My only grip is lack of parking though you can walk under the railway bridge to parking lots closer to downtown.
Click to expand...
There is a parking garage that’s going up as we speak, crane is up and assembly is underway. It’s just south of the stadium and is going to be used, if I have this right, for both event parking and in part for some of the private development associated with the overall plan.
 
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