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Earl Santee, Senior Principal at HOK Sport, is flanked by Bill Blanski, Design Principal of HGA Architects (left) and former Twins President Jerry Bell. Photo by Jim Robins. Twins ballpark plans unveiled The Minnesota Twins' new ballpark design got its public unveiling Thursday. HOK Sport presented their idea for a ballpark to nestled on the west side of downtown Minneapolis. "It's a ballpark for the ages," said Earl Santee, the HOK executive who is spearheading the architectural effort. "We wanted it to be light, airy and outdoorsy." In other words, welcome to the anti-Metrodome. Twenty-five years years after Minnesotans first walked inside a tight, sterile facility that came in under budget, they got a look at a ballpark that manages to look wide open despite the fact it is encumbered by the smallest land area HOK has ever worked on for a major-league park. "That was part of the challenge and it is an ongoing one," Santee said.
The shovels aren't going to work just yet. The Hennepin County Board of Commissioners, which saw the design for the first time Thursday as well, is expected to sign off on the proposal. The Board recently voted to initiate eminent domain proceedings against Land Partners II, which owns a key parcel of the land needed for the stadium. Since the sides were several million dollars apart regarding the land's value, a three-judge panel will decide the case. The Twins have indicated they will help make up any differences in the final total awarded to Land Partners. After the Board reaches an expected agreement with Burlington Northern for a rail line near the site (and this is expected to be no problem), construction can start.
So what will the final product look like? "We're not done with the design," Santee admitted. "The idea is that you will only do this one time. We tried to look forward with the look."
The new park is expected to hold 40,000 seats. Most of those will be on the lower level from foul line to foul line. To get that look and keep a promise to have wide concourses (the main one is 40 feet and the upper ones will range from 26-44 feet), there are no center field seats. Left field has two levels to it but right field is one small bleacher section. As a result, the skyline of downtown Minneapolis will be very visible behind right field. Santee admitted they could have added more seats but that it wouldn't have been necessarily been a good thing. "What is the sense of adding 5,000 seats that aren't a very good view?" he asked. The Twins' current home provided some interesting comparisons to the new park. The lowest seat at the Metrodome is 12 feet off the field. The new park will have seats as low as six inches off the field. "If you sit in the fourth or fifth row behind home, you will probably be eyeball to eyeball with the batter and the pitcher," Santee said. There will definitely be more foul balls hit into the seats in the new place. Like at Wrigley, foul territory starts narrow and gets tighter as you head towards the foul pole. Oddly, the actual distances down the line are comparable (at 339 feet, left field will be four feet shorter than the Metrodome while right field is actually a foot longer at 328.) There is another area where the parks are nearly the same. The left field wall gains a foot in the new park (8 compared to 7) but right field stays at 23 feet.
The similarities end there. The Metrodome was built just off a major highway coming from St. Paul. Fans coming in from the west have several different ways to get in but none of them are easy. (A recently constructed trolley system has helped this problem slightly.) But there has never been enough parking nearby. The new park is on the edge of downtown Minneapolis. Driving there will have the usual difficulties one encounters in a downtown area but once you get in the neighborhood, things start looking up. Fans will be able to enter the park via two walking bridges (and a third one will be constructed). A total of 20,000 cars -- more than is probably needed -- can be parked within a five-minute walk of the park. Minneapolis' Skyway system and the aforementioned trolley will drop people off close to the park. If things go as planned, the Twins will lead the majors in one key category: most restrooms. The current plan calls for 667 to be installed with women holding a 401-266 edge in this critical race. (The Metrodome actually did well in this category. Their total of 480 fixtures is more than AT&T Park in San Francisco, which offers 333 for public use.) Like PNC Park, there will be plenty of club seating (3,000 planned). The Metrodome was erected before the Club Seat craze took place. As a result, there are just 243 suite seats available in a 55,300 seat facility. Although Twins exec Jerry Bell said no "significant" ticket price increases will occur in the new place, the new total of Club Seats amounts to found money for the team. There is one other significant revenue stream schedule. The plan calls for four retail stores onsite. The Metrodome has none. But what about the weather? It snowed three inches in Minneapolis Wednesday. Despite the fact there is a large canopy from foul line to foul line (and heated areas planned for the concession stands), snow is difficult to deal with. HOK's way around this is to heat the field at a permanent 65 degrees. This won't cure the problem totally (you couldn't have played last weekend in Cleveland under any circumstance) but it may give the Twins a chance to avert some postponements. At one time, it was mentioned the seats could be heated. Santee said the technology for that is "still being evaluated." As for the possibility of doming the place, Santee sighed. Although he didn't rule out the possibility, he said, "We weren't asked about a roof."
One thing really stood out upon a second look at the design. There is only one light standard, located in left center field. The rest of the lights are under the canopy that envelops the foul lines. "The lights in the canopy will be very bright," Santee insisted. "In fact, some folks wondered whether we needed that bank in left field. I think you do. But there will be no problem seeing the ball at night." The main scoreboard will be in center field. The right-field fence will be a video village of sorts with scores and highlights of other games running constantly. To do all this on an eight-acre lot wasn't easy. "This was a challenge," Santee admitted. "What we wanted to do was to have a park that has the feel and look of Minnesota. You won't see another park like this anywhere. That was intentional." Presuming the legal battles end in time, groundbreaking could come as early as July. The ballpark is scheduled to be ready for Opening Day, 2010. --April 12, 2007 |
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