This sounds very cool and has originated a whole revitalization project.
PETCO Park worth the wait
Padres' new home is 'more than a ballpark'
San Diego's new ballpark
Throughout the November 1998 political campaign supporting Proposition C, a measure that would create a ballpark and redevelopment district in downtown San Diego, the message was repeated time and time again in speeches and on signs:
"More Than a Ballpark."
It turned out to be more than a slogan tying a new venue for the Padres with downtown revitalization. It became a promise when 60 percent of San Diego voters approved the initiative.
The passage of Proposition C set in motion what turned out to be a difficult and tumultuous journey of more than five years toward Thursday's grand opening of PETCO Park, new home of the Padres and centerpiece to a growing, vibrant corner of downtown San Diego. By the time the Padres meet the Giants to begin a much-anticipated season, $1.2 billion of planned development already has begun in the 26-block ballpark district.
More than a ballpark, indeed.
"Finally, a political slogan that has the added virtue of being true," said Larry Lucchino, the front man for the San Diego ballpark effort as president and CEO of the Padres who now holds those positions with the Boston Red Sox.
Now that the ballpark is completed, the slogan rings true in many ways.
More than a ballpark, this endeavor has been:
A lesson in civics, a shining example of how a public-private partnership can do great things, creating a win-win for the city and the baseball team bearing the city's name across its jerseys.
An exercise in patience and perseverance through 17 lawsuits against the project, none of which were successful. Still, the lawsuits caused a 14-month halt in construction that at one point threatened the entire effort.
The culmination of a dream that began not long after owner John Moores and Lucchino came to San Diego and took over the team in January 1995, a dream that evolved into a remarkable series of events in San Diego history.
The dream has become reality, and it's a wonderful thing.
Nestled between downtown's bustling Gaslamp Quarter and the expanding San Diego Convention Center, PETCO Park is ready for its first season of Padres baseball, ready to energize a new part of San Diego's downtown in a unique and beautiful way.
"This was a very high-risk but high-reward proposition," said Erik Judson, the Padres' vice president for development, and the first employee hired to work exclusively on the ballpark project back in 1996. "We were trying to do groundbreaking work, both with the establishment of a [design and development] team and with the approach to the design.
"The idea from the beginning was when you saw this ballpark there was no question what you were looking at: a ballpark that looks and feels like San Diego. We think we have accomplished that."
Oh, what a voyage it was to get to this point.
A lot of years, a lot of stress, and now, at last, the work has paid off in a unique San Diego landmark.
"A large number of people beat their brains out for years and years and years to make this thing happen," Moores said. "And they did it for all the right reasons. This was the right thing to do for this city and the ballclub."
A plan to succeed
Before he joined Moores in San Diego, Lucchino was with the Orioles and was the mastermind behind Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the project that started the renaissance of ballparks across America.
But San Diego's ballpark was not going to be Camden Yards Jr.
The difference between the two endeavors is like the difference between crab cakes and fish tacos -- similar in substance but simply not the same.
"They were very different, and that's a good thing," Lucchino said of his two ballpark-development experiences. "You shouldn't duplicate a previous experience in a completely different part of the country, in a completely different market with a completely different history."
The San Diego way had to start with a political process, which began with two citizens' task forces, made up of business and civic leaders from around San Diego. The first determined that the Padres couldn't survive in San Diego without a new ballpark, and the other worked on where it would be built and how it would be financed, preparing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the San Diego City Council to put on the November 1998 ballot.
An underdeveloped downtown neighborhood called East Village beat out the old Lane Field site -- where Ted Williams began his professional career -- and a Mission Valley site adjacent to Qualcomm.
The financing was a bit more complicated. The Padres and private investors would put up about one-third of the estimated $449 million to pay for the project, according to the MOU. (Recent estimates have the Padres contribution at close to $200 million and the total cost at $474 million.) The city's contribution would be capped at $205.9 million, with all the funds coming from transient occupancy taxes, which are taxes collected via tourism, not from San Diego residents. The Centre City Development Corporation ($76.4 million) and the Port of San Diego ($21 million) also were partners in the project.
Heading toward November 1998, the dream was gaining steam, and the Padres energized San Diego by running away with the NL West and reaching the World Series, though they lost to the Yankees in four games.
On Nov. 3, 1998, voters in the city of San Diego passed Proposition C, and the ballpark project was on.
In a departure from the norm, the ballpark plan was put together almost in its entirety prior to construction. The Padres teamed world-renowned design architect Antoine Predock with the ballpark experts at HOK Sport and the San Diego landscape architecture firm Spurlock Poirier. Their plans, along with plans for the redevelopment district, were presented to the public prior to the Proposition C vote.
"We had the unique opportunity because of the politics of San Diego to fully design and prepare construction drawings before the beginning of construction," Lucchino said. "That's almost unheard of in sports architecture."
Ironically, the greatest benefit of planning ahead was that the project was able to catch up when the lawsuits caused delays in funding of the city's portion of the ballpark's cost, mounting to the point of a 14-month construction shutdown.
"I think a lot of us had many points in time when we didn't know if it would ever get pulled off," Judson said.
Yet once the ballpark project got moving again, there was no stopping it, all the way to its completion this year -- two years later than originally planned, but worth the wait.
"You're seeing people walk in for the first time and touch and see and feel this place," Judson said. "Now all our hard work is paying off, because it's been so well received by our fans and the public in general."
A ballpark like no other
On March 11, PETCO Park hosted its first baseball game, matching all-time Padres hero Tony Gwynn's San Diego State University baseball team against the University of Houston, Moores' alma mater. The game drew 40,106 fans, shattering the previous collegiate baseball attendance record.
One other college game and two Padres-Mariners exhibition games served as dress rehearsals for Thursday's main event, and as a sneak preview for San Diego baseball fans.
The general reaction: Awe.
"The term that we've used is there's been this sense of wow," Padres director of fan services Tim Katzman said. "People literally stand there with their jaws agape and just stare."
The Padres can't wait to show PETCO Park to the world with Sunday night's nationally televised game against the Giants.
What fans on TV will see is a beautiful seating bowl that has a white steel structure reflecting the Navy's influence on the area and blue seats reflecting the influence of water on San Diego. Around the seating bowl are buildings of stucco and sandstone tiles, evocative of the beaches that line the coast of San Diego County.
Viewers will see shots of the downtown skyline, of the brick Western Metal Supply Co. building, and of the Park at the Park, the 2.8-acre grassy area where fans can sit for $5. They'll see images of nearby San Diego Bay, with its sailboats and Navy ships, and they'll see a perfectly manicured playing surface along with a garden atmosphere surrounding the buildings.
It has become, as promised, a ballpark that looks and feels like San Diego.
"This ballpark is San Diego appropriate," Moores said. "We have virtually unlimited sunshine here. The ballpark reflects that with its open concourses. People in San Diego not only like, but they expect to be outdoors a lot. So this reflects that view. It is singularly appropriate for this market and for this city."
While he'll be a continent away with his Red Sox on Thursday, Lucchino had the honor of christening PETCO Park with the first pitch at the inaugural collegiate game, marking a warm reunion with Moores after a few years during which miles weren't all that separated the former partners who made this ballpark happen.
"It was a cool thing, and it was especially cool that John and the San Diego folks remembered that I played a useful role in it all," Lucchino said.
And the pitch?
Well, let's just say as a pitcher, Lucchino is an excellent ballpark planner and club executive.
"It was a breaking ball, low and away, and Tony Gwynn had to short-hop it," Lucchino said. "I was actually a little more nervous than I thought I'd be. I was standing there in front of 40,000 people cheering, and it finally hit me: This is a special moment."
The first of many at PETCO Park, no doubt. After all, that's the whole idea.
Judson, a former minor league ballplayer himself, knows the product on the field will determine the success of the organization, not the product surrounding the field. Under the direction of GM Kevin Towers and manager Bruce Bochy, the Padres feel like they're headed in the right direction.
But now PETCO Park is ready to do its part.
"We've positioned ourselves for a long and sustained and positive impact on the organization," Judson said. "I really do believe that this ballpark will be, over time, looked at as not just one of the most immediately successful ballparks, but one with real staying power."
PETCO Park worth the wait
Padres' new home is 'more than a ballpark'
San Diego's new ballpark
Throughout the November 1998 political campaign supporting Proposition C, a measure that would create a ballpark and redevelopment district in downtown San Diego, the message was repeated time and time again in speeches and on signs:
"More Than a Ballpark."
It turned out to be more than a slogan tying a new venue for the Padres with downtown revitalization. It became a promise when 60 percent of San Diego voters approved the initiative.
The passage of Proposition C set in motion what turned out to be a difficult and tumultuous journey of more than five years toward Thursday's grand opening of PETCO Park, new home of the Padres and centerpiece to a growing, vibrant corner of downtown San Diego. By the time the Padres meet the Giants to begin a much-anticipated season, $1.2 billion of planned development already has begun in the 26-block ballpark district.
More than a ballpark, indeed.
"Finally, a political slogan that has the added virtue of being true," said Larry Lucchino, the front man for the San Diego ballpark effort as president and CEO of the Padres who now holds those positions with the Boston Red Sox.
Now that the ballpark is completed, the slogan rings true in many ways.
More than a ballpark, this endeavor has been:
A lesson in civics, a shining example of how a public-private partnership can do great things, creating a win-win for the city and the baseball team bearing the city's name across its jerseys.
An exercise in patience and perseverance through 17 lawsuits against the project, none of which were successful. Still, the lawsuits caused a 14-month halt in construction that at one point threatened the entire effort.
The culmination of a dream that began not long after owner John Moores and Lucchino came to San Diego and took over the team in January 1995, a dream that evolved into a remarkable series of events in San Diego history.
The dream has become reality, and it's a wonderful thing.
Nestled between downtown's bustling Gaslamp Quarter and the expanding San Diego Convention Center, PETCO Park is ready for its first season of Padres baseball, ready to energize a new part of San Diego's downtown in a unique and beautiful way.
"This was a very high-risk but high-reward proposition," said Erik Judson, the Padres' vice president for development, and the first employee hired to work exclusively on the ballpark project back in 1996. "We were trying to do groundbreaking work, both with the establishment of a [design and development] team and with the approach to the design.
"The idea from the beginning was when you saw this ballpark there was no question what you were looking at: a ballpark that looks and feels like San Diego. We think we have accomplished that."
Oh, what a voyage it was to get to this point.
A lot of years, a lot of stress, and now, at last, the work has paid off in a unique San Diego landmark.
"A large number of people beat their brains out for years and years and years to make this thing happen," Moores said. "And they did it for all the right reasons. This was the right thing to do for this city and the ballclub."
A plan to succeed
Before he joined Moores in San Diego, Lucchino was with the Orioles and was the mastermind behind Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the project that started the renaissance of ballparks across America.
But San Diego's ballpark was not going to be Camden Yards Jr.
The difference between the two endeavors is like the difference between crab cakes and fish tacos -- similar in substance but simply not the same.
"They were very different, and that's a good thing," Lucchino said of his two ballpark-development experiences. "You shouldn't duplicate a previous experience in a completely different part of the country, in a completely different market with a completely different history."
The San Diego way had to start with a political process, which began with two citizens' task forces, made up of business and civic leaders from around San Diego. The first determined that the Padres couldn't survive in San Diego without a new ballpark, and the other worked on where it would be built and how it would be financed, preparing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the San Diego City Council to put on the November 1998 ballot.
An underdeveloped downtown neighborhood called East Village beat out the old Lane Field site -- where Ted Williams began his professional career -- and a Mission Valley site adjacent to Qualcomm.
The financing was a bit more complicated. The Padres and private investors would put up about one-third of the estimated $449 million to pay for the project, according to the MOU. (Recent estimates have the Padres contribution at close to $200 million and the total cost at $474 million.) The city's contribution would be capped at $205.9 million, with all the funds coming from transient occupancy taxes, which are taxes collected via tourism, not from San Diego residents. The Centre City Development Corporation ($76.4 million) and the Port of San Diego ($21 million) also were partners in the project.
Heading toward November 1998, the dream was gaining steam, and the Padres energized San Diego by running away with the NL West and reaching the World Series, though they lost to the Yankees in four games.
On Nov. 3, 1998, voters in the city of San Diego passed Proposition C, and the ballpark project was on.
In a departure from the norm, the ballpark plan was put together almost in its entirety prior to construction. The Padres teamed world-renowned design architect Antoine Predock with the ballpark experts at HOK Sport and the San Diego landscape architecture firm Spurlock Poirier. Their plans, along with plans for the redevelopment district, were presented to the public prior to the Proposition C vote.
"We had the unique opportunity because of the politics of San Diego to fully design and prepare construction drawings before the beginning of construction," Lucchino said. "That's almost unheard of in sports architecture."
Ironically, the greatest benefit of planning ahead was that the project was able to catch up when the lawsuits caused delays in funding of the city's portion of the ballpark's cost, mounting to the point of a 14-month construction shutdown.
"I think a lot of us had many points in time when we didn't know if it would ever get pulled off," Judson said.
Yet once the ballpark project got moving again, there was no stopping it, all the way to its completion this year -- two years later than originally planned, but worth the wait.
"You're seeing people walk in for the first time and touch and see and feel this place," Judson said. "Now all our hard work is paying off, because it's been so well received by our fans and the public in general."
A ballpark like no other
On March 11, PETCO Park hosted its first baseball game, matching all-time Padres hero Tony Gwynn's San Diego State University baseball team against the University of Houston, Moores' alma mater. The game drew 40,106 fans, shattering the previous collegiate baseball attendance record.
One other college game and two Padres-Mariners exhibition games served as dress rehearsals for Thursday's main event, and as a sneak preview for San Diego baseball fans.
The general reaction: Awe.
"The term that we've used is there's been this sense of wow," Padres director of fan services Tim Katzman said. "People literally stand there with their jaws agape and just stare."
The Padres can't wait to show PETCO Park to the world with Sunday night's nationally televised game against the Giants.
What fans on TV will see is a beautiful seating bowl that has a white steel structure reflecting the Navy's influence on the area and blue seats reflecting the influence of water on San Diego. Around the seating bowl are buildings of stucco and sandstone tiles, evocative of the beaches that line the coast of San Diego County.
Viewers will see shots of the downtown skyline, of the brick Western Metal Supply Co. building, and of the Park at the Park, the 2.8-acre grassy area where fans can sit for $5. They'll see images of nearby San Diego Bay, with its sailboats and Navy ships, and they'll see a perfectly manicured playing surface along with a garden atmosphere surrounding the buildings.
It has become, as promised, a ballpark that looks and feels like San Diego.
"This ballpark is San Diego appropriate," Moores said. "We have virtually unlimited sunshine here. The ballpark reflects that with its open concourses. People in San Diego not only like, but they expect to be outdoors a lot. So this reflects that view. It is singularly appropriate for this market and for this city."
While he'll be a continent away with his Red Sox on Thursday, Lucchino had the honor of christening PETCO Park with the first pitch at the inaugural collegiate game, marking a warm reunion with Moores after a few years during which miles weren't all that separated the former partners who made this ballpark happen.
"It was a cool thing, and it was especially cool that John and the San Diego folks remembered that I played a useful role in it all," Lucchino said.
And the pitch?
Well, let's just say as a pitcher, Lucchino is an excellent ballpark planner and club executive.
"It was a breaking ball, low and away, and Tony Gwynn had to short-hop it," Lucchino said. "I was actually a little more nervous than I thought I'd be. I was standing there in front of 40,000 people cheering, and it finally hit me: This is a special moment."
The first of many at PETCO Park, no doubt. After all, that's the whole idea.
Judson, a former minor league ballplayer himself, knows the product on the field will determine the success of the organization, not the product surrounding the field. Under the direction of GM Kevin Towers and manager Bruce Bochy, the Padres feel like they're headed in the right direction.
But now PETCO Park is ready to do its part.
"We've positioned ourselves for a long and sustained and positive impact on the organization," Judson said. "I really do believe that this ballpark will be, over time, looked at as not just one of the most immediately successful ballparks, but one with real staying power."
"Brooks Robinson is not a fast man, but his arms and legs move very quickly."
-Curt Gowdy during World Series coverage.
-Curt Gowdy during World Series coverage.
