re: Where does Camden Yards rank among best pro sports stadiums?

I’ve been to 25 of the current MLB parks and rank OP@CY #3 behind Pittsburgh and San Diego.

Dodger Stadium was a total dump until the new ownership poured money into it

But it was a total shite hole with amazing views for my entire child hood

quote:

---

Dodger stadium is not a shite hole. I doubt you've been if you think that.

---

It is a shite hole. Old concourses. Shitty seats. A country mile away from the parking to the stadium. It’s full of cholos. It just sucks. Not a single redeeming quality.

Petco and Angel Stadium are both way way nicer.

I love Camden. I've been to 13 MLB parks, and my two favorites are Camden and San Francisco/Oracle with Wrigley in third.

I think Camden is more important than Oracle bc it kicked off the whole retro movement. Oracle's waterfront location is more spectacular. Both are great.

I haven't been to Fenway, PNC/Pittsburgh, or Petco, all of which i want to visit.

I've been to 29 MLB parks...

Camden is nice. It was cool seeing the original retro design that almost every park tries to emulate these days. Progressive in Cleveland is pretty much a mirror image of Camden Yards.

I think this is my top tier:

Pittsburgh
St. Louis
San Francisco
San Diego

I'd put Camden in tier 2 with Colorado, Cleveland, Seattle.

Hard to rank Wrigley and Fenway on the same scale as they are so old, have the cramped concourses and things like that.

quote:

---

Yankee Stadium is a distant last place. It's unbelievable how bad it is for a new stadium

---

Almost a 20 year old stadium

quote:

---

Yankee Stadium is a distant last place. It's unbelievable how bad it is for a new stadium

---

It's one of my least favorite stadiums.

I grew up not far from there and went to many games at the stadium of all the great 90s//early 2000s teams. It wasn't the greatest but it had character. New Yankee stadium is terrible and bottom tier.

That said, Tropicana field is way worse and it's not even close.

I've been to nearly every actively used stadium, besides the A's since they are no longer using the coliseum moving forward (though went there in 2010), and I'd rate Camden Yards behind PNC.

1. PNC
2. Camden Yards
3. Petco
4. Coors Field
5. White Sox stadium (sentimental reasons. Went to a game there with my dad and he caught a foul ball for the first time after many decades of attending MLB games..but actually pretty a nice stadium too despite the team sucking and it being in a sketchy part of town)

quote:

---

White Sox stadium

---

This one is unfairly crapped on. It’s fine as a stadium, and pretty soon it’ll be a classic in its own way. I hate that American culture is hell bent on building new stadiums every 20 years, especially at the expense of taxpayers. I’ve always claimed that I never need the fancy bells and whistles, concession stands, etc.

Also, I think Old Comiskey was a great one. Wish I could have been to a game there. It’s up there with Tiger Stadium in Detroit, where at least they have a small park in place and nice tributes to The Corner. True neighborhood parks are nice and can work, see Fenway and Wrigley. I heard Tigers ownership allowed the stadium to deteriorate so they had leverage for a new stadium, and the neighborhood is mostly run down buildings and vacant lots. Comerica is nice and should be added to my tier 2.

I have a weird way of classifying my parks. You have parks downtown, parks not downtown, and parks not close to the action. Philly and Citi Field are nice, but they’re so far away from the excitement of the city, as were their predecessors.

Then I have a few that just seem sort of soulless to me: New Yankee, Chase Field in Phoenix, Great American in Cincy, and even Minute Maid (seems like they tried to be too gimmicky).

quote:

---

and even Minute Maid (seems like they tried to be too gimmicky).

---

I get that sentiment, but losing Tal's Hill helped. I am biased as I live in Houston, but if it were in a city that didn't require a roof, it would be a lot better. It is a different place with the roof open and a nice evening in Houston.

Same for Atlanta, I loved The Battery and Truist in Atlanta, but I went to a night game in early summer and before it got dark it was unbearably hot along the 3rd base line and outfield. No breeze at all. It does have one of the best pre-game atmospheres in MLB for a new park.

it's a cool park that opened in the early 90's trying to look like a classic ballpark that had been there for 100 years.

that's not really a knock at it, because if anything, they deserve props for trying to make the place look classic instead of all of these new-age, modern looking disasters ...

just saying, it's hard to rank it very highly, but it's definitely above 90% of all the newer stadiums that have been built over the last twenty years or so.