It’s been a while since Tampa Bay Rays officials released any stadium renderings, and with talks on getting almost $2 billion in cash and tax breaks from the city and county seemingly on hold, no time like the present to drum up any excitement possible from some images of what a new building may or may not look like one day, so fire up the vaportecture cannons:
As is by now cliche in the genre, fans here show their appreciation for a Rays two-out rally in a blowout of the Cubs by standing, thrusting their fists in the air, and waving the team flags that baseball fans everywhere bring to games on the regular. Though it’s possible they’re actually cheering the passing lightning storm visible through the part-see-through roof, or just high on the thrill of watching a game with no backstop or netting, so that any of them may be killed by a foul ball at any time. There’s nothing more exhilarating than being reminded of the preciousness of life while watching (squints at the scoreboard, recognizes Jonny DeLuca and Chandler Simpson for starters) the same lineup your team fielded three years earlier.
A view of the same game (see the scoreboard and accompanying video screenshot) hours earlier during the daytime, though still in the bottom of the 5th inning with the same batter up, time will clearly work differently in the 2030s! The fans in the upper deck in their vintage Evan Longoria and Carl Crawford jerseys are just as excited to throw their fists in the air, though, even the ones at the bar who are only following the game by looking over their shoulders at the sky.
Fans stream into the park via center-field escalators, and back out of the park at the same time via escalators on the opposite side of the entry plaza. All the better to see the partly shaded, partly transparent roof, which lets fans view the airplanes pulling “GO RAYS!” banners that fly by whenever there isn’t a lightning storm.
But is there anywhere fans can go to drink any entirely ignore the game, you ask? Is there ever! They can also ignore the overhead plantings supported by nothing at all and the video boards with advanced stats on them, though one guy nearby is still raising his fist in the air, just to let everyone know they’re at a baseball game.
This is all very silly, as these kinds of renderings always are, but the release of the pretty pictures did manage to get Marc Topkin to write a whole article in the Tampa Bay Times about it, so mission accomplished, probably. One hopes that the Tampa city councimembers and Hillsborough County commissioners set to debate that $2 billion subsidy won’t be too swayed by levitating planters, but sports funding bills have passed for dumber reasons.
Color me confused – is it an open-air stadium (the flags in the third image look pretty wind blown)? Wouldn’t that be a bit steamy in Tampa in August? And are the center field seats sitting under clear glass? Bet those are pretty reasonably priced (LOL).
It is not open air, or retractable, but what has me confused is this:
They tried the whole clear roof bit in Houston (fly balls became a challenge, so they painted the glass, which killed the grass, which is why we have Astroturf). Is that not a problem anymore?
I mean, if there’s NO roof at all, fly balls go up against the sky, so I’ve never understood why a clear roof is any different from no roof. But maybe it’s just me.
I also presume that’s Hillsborough College visible through the center field glass, which is what you want to see. (You’re not going to see Tampa’s downtown in a ballpark that is supposed to be oriented toward the northeast.)
But all that is trivial. The pictures are pretty, blah blah blah.
The bigger issue is there are knuckleheads there who insist that 10 million people a year (27 thousand people A DAY, every day) are going to visit this mixed-use development and spend money they totally wouldn’t have spent anywhere else in town, you guys, so it’s an investment!
IIRC it was the ‘contrast’ from the dark panels to the backlit translucent ones at the Astrodome that made the fly balls hard to track… it gave a bit of a ‘strobe’ effect for the outfielders, which I can understand would be an issue.
Maybe they think it won’t be with more clear glass, don’t know. I would suspect it would still be an issue with evening games and the glass panels/supports reflecting the setting sun.
Perhaps the new $2bn baseball palace will have a local ground rule that requires play to stop for 40 minutes while the sun sets (sort of like Jarry Park used to…)
It’s not glass, it’s intended to be ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE), which, as you can see, is not actually clear enough to see airplanes or lightning through:
https://static.clubs.nfl.com/image/private/t_editorial_landscape_mobile/vikings/if3mosvb9mbzwof8e10e.jpg
Wait a minute… one of the pictures shows lightning outside/above the stadium… you’re not saying that they are being dishonest about this are you???
I assumed it wasn’t actual glass (which is heavy), but yes, thanks for the clarification. The petroleum industry wins again.
I am going to guess that ETFE is not the most environmentally friendly substance in the world as well, yeah?
ETFE reportedly has a low carbon footprint to produce and is recyclable, so could be worse. It also involves fluorine, which is crazily toxic, but probably okay so long as you don’t climb up and lick it.
Of all the whacky things in these renderings (wind inside, frozen time, flags waving), the most unrealistic aspect is the drastically over-optimistic crowd size.
Yeah. From the size of the sections/fans in seats, I’d say the place could hold almost 70,000 fans. So lots of room for the 12,000 who will turn up most nights.
I think they’re assuming the Rays will play the Cubs in the World Series.
to the left of the concession stand, looks like china terracotta army
To their credit, pic four perfectly captures an awkward first date at the bottom left corner.
Why are they both holding the same beer glass?
If it’s similar to my life, she’s complaining he ordered four drinks for himself, then selfishly purporting that she also has thirsty needs yet got no beverage, and tries to abscond with one of them while I apply a death grip and put up a valiant struggle.
Aren’t those overhead plants in picture 4 supported at corners by 2 poles coming down from the ceiling in the front right corner above the TV with the guy in the white jersey swinging and by (at least) 1 pole directly across from that on the other side of those plants? That’s what it looks like to me. I don’t think $2 billion can (yet) buy a way to defy gravity and levitate, but it might buy a way to get the magic-trick levitating secret from Penn and Teller amongst others….
Oh, I see, the entire thing is suspended from the roof beams? That seems like a bad idea when you need to support that much soil, not to mention I don’t know how you would water them without getting water all over the bar, but it is a less challenging engineering trick than levitation, yes.
I doubt they would use real plants.
In the day and age of so much AI slop, this looks pretty good. It looks like a human made put it together.
That human probably has never been to an MLB game, but it’s not a bad start.
In pic 3 why are the people on the second level, standing under the “welcome to Rays ballpark” sign, facing the entry plaza and cheering while the game is going on behind them?
I think at least in pic 3here the game hasn’t started yet, or at least there’s no evidence that it has on the video boards. So the fans must be cheering the arrival of their fellow fans, as one does.
Oh yes, that makes perfect sense. :)
The reason everyone has their hands in the air is because they are being robbed with all of the tax payer finanaced subsidies for the stadium. You know: “This is robbery. Hands in the air where I can see them.”