street. Petersburg – An outdoor baseball stadium in Florida does not operate in the summer. A retractable roof is expensive and can take up a lot of space and landscaping.
So where does that leave a potential St Pete football stadium?
If the Rays had their way, with a concept and design unlike anything else in Major League Baseball today.
A designer with Populous and a structural engineer with Walter P. Moore gave the Tampa Bay Times a glimpse of preliminary plans for a new stadium on the Tropicana Field site that is part of the Hines bid that is among the four stadium development St. Louis Blues. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch muses.
The idea is a football stadium that offers a more fluid experience for fans than the traditional seat you sit in for nine rounds. The stadium will have movable windows and entrances to promote the building’s exterior/interior or interior/exterior, and fans will be able to roam around the stadium.
While Tropicana Field’s central dining area has been transformed in recent years into a more food court concept, the new stadium design will enhance this by converting the back wall into windows and doorways that allow ticket holders to enter and exit the stadium. pitch.
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/6MJRTOX5SNH3RPP42ZX5PBTQTM.jpg "An artist's rendering of the proposed Rays stadium design for the Tropicana Field site.")
“It’s not so much about opening up to the sky,” said Zach Alley, the school’s principal. “We want to invest in our perspectives and engage the community.”
The plan is still in its early stages, so the design could change, but current renderings show several levels of seating that would include outdoor bleachers that fans could use before, during, or after games.
“Everyone would like to play baseball outdoors here in Tampa, but that’s not possible with the weather and the lightning. This will allow you to stay indoors and still be able to feel like you’re outdoors and experience a game,” said Dylan Richard, senior project manager for Walter B. Moore. baseball.”
Rays owner Stuart Sternberg insisted on a more intimate feel to the stadium, which meant that capacity would likely be in the 30,000 range, making it the smallest stadium in the majors.
But those 30,000 tickets won’t necessarily be traditional row seats with armrests or full levels of luxury suites. Instead, there will be different versions of table seating, living room-like chests, bar stools, and standing-room-only sections.
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/2HZZIP36CVEH7JJA6Z3W5SRUHY.jpg "Zach Alley, Principal Architect and Chief Engineer with Populous, left, and Dylan Richard, Principal and Senior Project Manager with Walter P. Moore, give a virtual tour through the Rays' proposed stadium design for Tropicana Field on Tuesday in St. Petersburg.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/OHWN3LXREVAXTK7ISU7VPPUBM4.jpg "Want more than just a score box?")
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The stadium will be built on the east side of the existing Tropicana Field property and is designed to integrate with the live/work/play concept of the mixed-use development.
“We were exploring ideas of third base being what we called the park/foyer,” Ally said. “We looked at designing the concourse, really, like a city sidewalk. So the Rays were open to being open on non-game days so people could walk around and get involved.
“On the one hand you’ll be able to look out and see the Booker Creek creek, the parks and the palm trees, and on the other hand you’ll be able to look out and see the field.”
The roof, at its peak, will be approximately 270 feet above the playing surface and will narrow to 135 feet at the edges above the seating areas. With StatCast cameras installed around each park, Richard said the designers were able to track the trajectory of every ball hit in MLB to avoid Trop pad problems.
While Tropicana Field was more like an island when it was built in the area of the historic gas plant in the late 1980s, the Rays envision a new stadium that will be the centerpiece of a new community and destination outside of downtown St. Pete.
“It’s really incredible to think of designing Wrigleyville at the same time as Wrigley Field,” Allee said. “How cool is that?”
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