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Saturday, February 19, 2011

OH JOY - Fenway Park will be around for another 40-50 years...

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Red Sox ownership met with the press today in Ft. Myers and Larry Lucchino said that Fenway Park is going to outlive many of us.

The Red Sox have finished 10 years of improvements to Fenway Park, spending $285 million to renovate, improve and in some areas rebuild the old ballpark.

Team president Larry Lucchino said the major projects are done. Engineers have told the ownership group that the structure has 40-50 years of life remaining.

In other words, if you're waiting for a new ballpark you're going to be waiting for a long time. "There is nothing in the plans," Lucchino said.
I must admit I have mixed emotions about this. On one hand the place that I went to games with my late Dad and brother will survive. My son who is 19 may live to see the end of Fenway but I doubt I will make it to 2051. I will be spared seeing Fenway torn down and I know how it hurt to see Boston Garden fall in 1998.



In 1991 I remember gasping when I drove by Comiskey Park in Chicago as it was being torn down.


So Fenway survives....BUT


Saying all the major projects are done means the team has no plans to improve the 'cheap seats', especially the upper grandstand and right field areas.

The grandstand seats are a challenge to sit in....they may have been fine in 1934 when they were installed but not now. I would love to see John Henry, Tom Werner or Larry Lucchino watch ONE game from these seats. JUST ONE



The view from the RF seats are perhaps the worst of any seats in any MLB park....


Much of the $285 million was spent building seats on the roof and those seats are among the most expensive in the park.



To be fair, Fenway Park is not a dump like Wrigley Field in Chicago is. That ballpark is in horrible shape, but at least a few years ago they replaced all the seats so it is not uncomfortable to sit in them.

Long Live Fenway...









2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great, Red Sox fans will have to pay through the nose to watch major league baseball in a rundown, open sewer for the next 50 years.

Everybody thank John Henry, Tom Werner, and Larry Lucchino for allowing you, the Red Sox fans, to view baseball at a park that resembles a dump, sea gulls, rats and all!

Mark B. said...

A run down open sewer? You must mean Boston City Hall. At Fenway, you can watch a game where Babe Ruth once played. Current ownership tried to build a new park - and Boston shut them down. They could always build a new ballpark out on I-495 somewhere - plenty of land out there, and the seats would be nice and comfy.