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June 22, 2007

Tiger Stadium gets reprieve

Tiger Stadium, which was first declared obsolete by Detroit Tigers management back in the 1980s and which has stood empty since the Tigers left for Comerica Park after 1999, got another last-minute stay of execution yesterday. The Detroit city planning commission decided not to act on a proposal to tear down the 95-year-old ballpark, saying that the city had failed to come up with a realistic plan for what to do with the site once the stadium was demolished.

As noted here back in March, the city still hasn't found a developer for its proposed condo development, after several years of searching. It did get a proposal to convert the ballpark into a minor-league facility, but rejected that without comment.

At yesterday's hearing, though, commissioners took note not just of the haziness of the city's plans, but of the continued public support for trying to preserve Tiger Stadium, with commissioner David Cason saying, "There's a lot of sentiment you can't put a price tag on." For now, that sentiment has helped buy at least a bit of breathing room for preservation advocates: The planning commission now isn't expected to act until after a scheduled July 9 city council hearing on Tiger Stadium.

COMMENTS

They have a perfectly good stadium there. They replaced it with Camden Yards West with all of that goofy standing room area.

Michigan taxpayers! Renovate that stadium for a MLS soccer team. You know that will become an issue for Detroit sooner or later.

Posted by eddie on June 22, 2007 06:55 PM

No, Camden Yards is in Baltimore. Comerica Park is
the Tigers' new home.

Posted by CK on June 23, 2007 04:43 PM

I offer these ideas for Tiger Stadium's site:

1. a new arena for the Red Wings
2. a soccer venue, if MLS awards a team to Detroit
3. a post office or a mail processing center, if
it is needed
4. An outline of Tiger Stadium's field when the
facility is gone. Many years from now, maybe a
new ballpark can arise on this location.

Posted by CK on June 23, 2007 04:46 PM

Tiger Stadium would serve as the perfect venue for a Detroit MLS expansion team. The outfield stands are perfect for soccer.

Posted by Mark from NYC on June 24, 2007 07:36 PM

I'm not convinced MLS should want to be in that stadium. Isn't part of the infrastructure quite old? Take for instance RFK which worked well for the early years in MLS but isn't a long term solution (falling apart, team loses money compared to less successful teams like Dallas and Columbus).

Posted by Ric on June 25, 2007 04:17 PM

All you would need is the outfield stands, build a new stand where the infield was, and then obviously upgrade the existing infrastructure in stages.

It can be done and would be perfect for MLS in Detroit.

Posted by Mark from NYC on June 26, 2007 08:46 AM

I bet it would be cheaper to just build a 20,000 seat stadium for $120 million than trying to rebuild. How old are those outfield stands?

Posted by Ric on June 28, 2007 02:37 AM

Yea a new MLS facilities might cost $120 Mil, but that would also be a bare bones facilitiy these days. I am really curious as to how much rennovating tigers stadium into a MLS facility would cost.

Posted by Mark from NYC on June 29, 2007 05:29 PM

>>They replaced it with Camden Yards West with all >>of that goofy standing room area.

>>No, Camden Yards is in Baltimore. Comerica Park is
>>the Tigers' new home.

Note eddie said Camden Yards WEST, refering to a ballpark WEST of Baltimore (located somewhere in Detroit I imagine), that is similar in the current rage of balpark design (Camden Yards, Jacobs Field, Comerica Park, etc), one of the features being a goofy standing room area.

Posted by Danl L on July 17, 2007 09:54 AM

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