Whither old Tiger Stadium?

[Mr. Laser Beam]

They showed a picture of Tiger Stadium during tonight's Yankees/Tigers game. The announcers mentioned the effort to preserve the portion of the stadium that's still left standing (basically the dugout-to-dugout portion - all the rest is gone) but they didn't say anything more. Does anyone know the latest on this? What do they want to do with the place? Turn it into a public park, a minor league field, what?

 

[Nobody]

Everything has been suggested -- a mall, a school, a park, Michigan Sports Hall of Fame was floated at one point. No head way has been made on any idea, last I checked.



-nobody

 

[SmoothieX]

I think its basically a white elephant from what I've heard. They want to keep it but have no use for it.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Looks like it will be completely demolished now. The group that wants to preserve it, can't raise the money for it, and the plan they did raise has been rejected. So Tiger Stadium is going bye bye. Linky

 

[Scout101]

This is the other side of your huge excitement to get every team a brand new stadium; the old stadiums have to go. Cost money to keep up, become dangerous, etc. Can't keep building new stadiums without losing the old ones, they're sitting on a pretty big real estate footprint, and that equals money...

 

[bigdaddy]

Plus the old stadium is just ugly. I'm sorry it's not a Fenway park or Wrigley's Field, it's just an ugly white ballpark. Knock the damn thing down.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

This is the other side of your huge excitement to get every team a brand new stadium; the old stadiums have to go.

Only when they need to go, of course. Not all of them do.

As for Tiger Stadium, that is a special case, since it was already being demolished anyway. You can't have a half demolished pile of junk just sitting there. Once they started, they should have finished it. I don't know if Tiger Stadium needed to be replaced (I've never been there, or to Comerica Park), but the fact remains, they already started tearing it down, and once they did that, there's no going back. They shouldn't have just left it there for as long as they did. That way, blight lays.

(Ever heard of the Dixie Square Mall, for example?)

 

[Astraea]

I've been to both old Tiger Stadium and Comerica Park, and Tiger Stadium did need replacing. Comerica's quite nice, although it lacks shade; the design is extremely similar to the Pittsburgh Pirates' stadium.

And I'm glad they're finally demolishing Tiger Stadium; I don't think that saving the dugout-to-dugout is really feasible any more. (The remnants of the stadium are just kind of ugly and sad; they should've just taken everything down at once. Between Tiger Stadium and the train depot, there's a bunch of Corktown that needs demolition and renovation.)

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Not so fast. A judge has issued a temporary restraining order. Linky

(And no, I'm not pissed that this happened. If something can be done with the remnants, then I'm all for it. Just do something. ANYTHING.. At this stage, I don't really care. Don't leave the partially demolished hulk. That just looks bad, and pisses all over the memories of the place in its prime.)

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Addendum: The restraining order has been denied. Demolition is continuing. They expect to have the site cleared within a couple of months.

 

[Scout101]

about time. It's been sitting there rotting for a decade...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Bump: The last bits of the stadium came down. Although, interestingly enough, the FIELD itself is still there. I wonder if they plan on doing anything with it, or if they just are waiting till they clean out all the debris first.