ESPN Radio/Fenway Park

Tear it down or keep it?

 

If they tear it down I will seriously reconsider my allegiance as a fan. The alternative is basically justa fucking copy of Fenway anyway, so why not redo it. Take some of the money from the Big Fucking Dig if you have to.

 

:applause:

 

There should be an old thread here somewhere where I've brought this up before . . . The previous owner (John Harrington & Co.) had secured City of Boston/Commonwealth of Taxachusetts funding to help fund FENWAY 2 (approximate cost: $500-600 million) . . . John Henry & Co. then bought the team . . They have been fixing up FENWAY 1 quite a bit in their brief time (i.e. right field upper corner seats, GREEN MONSTER SEATS, new ad signs, etc.) while they continue to study renovation vs. new Fenway Park option. I'm not sure when a final decision will be reached though, but eventually one needs to be made . .

 

Associated Press
BOSTON -- Red Sox owner John Henry is ready to discuss long-term renovations to Fenway Park, a step that makes it increasingly likely that baseball's oldest and smallest ballpark will be preserved.

The team would consider replacing Fenway only if renovation isn't feasible, Henry said Tuesday.

While tearing it down "is certainly an option," he said, "on my list, it's at the bottom."

"I love Fenway. I can't imagine us playing anywhere else," Henry said. "There's a magic that can't be replicated anywhere else."

While there is no official change in the team's stance on the ballpark, discussions this week will take on a new tone, Henry said. Instead of continuing to spruce the place up -- the Green Monster seats, for example -- the Red Sox will consider for the first time improvements that will take longer.

"I want to start looking at the end and work back from there," Henry said. "Let's look at where we want to end up and how we want to get there. Instead of going one thing at a time, let's look at the end game."

Red Sox architect Janet Marie Smith said the team feels no pressure to make a final decision on renovation or replacement.

"We don't have a gun to our heads; the place isn't falling down; our lease isn't running out," she said.

A major investment in the ballpark, which opened in 1912 and last saw large-scale improvements in the 1980s, would require a decision that the team plans to stay for 20-30 years.

Henry led a group that paid $660 million for the team, its ballpark and its TV network in 2002. The Red Sox got city approval for a package of improvements that included seats over the Green Monster, expanded concourses and closing Yawkey Way on game days.

"It's almost time for us to put together another package," Smith said.

Smith said some projects that could be in the next phase are a clubhouse expansion, and renovations to suites and the currently glassed-in .406 Club. The team also might move its offices out of the ballpark to make more room for concourses and concessions.

"The fans get the sexier places," she said.

The changes already in place have created more milling-around room and more restrooms -- "We now lead the league in restrooms," Smith said.

Although Fenway's legal capacity is now a little more than 36,298, the team only sells about 35,200 tickets. Legal capacity is determined by factors that include the restrooms, exits and the building's square footage.

The recent renovations could accommodate 10 percent more fans than the current capacity. But other improvements need to be made before the team can request an increase, Smith said.

On other matters, Henry said a brief Monday chat with Arn Tellem, the agent for Nomar Garciaparra, did not indicate any progress in negotiations over a contract. "The fact is, we just said 'Hello,'"Henry said.

Henry said he did not begrudge Garciaparra a chance at a big payday.

"I've never met a greedy player. Baseball players want to be treated fairly," he said. "It's not about how much money they're going to make. They want what they consider to be fair.

"What they consider fair is ridiculous," he joked.

Henry said his comments last spring about a salary cap in the wake of the New York Yankees' trade for Alex Rodriguez were misconstrued. He said the 2002 labor agreement did not solve baseball's revenue imbalance, an issue the NHL is facing this summer as it faces a work stoppage.

"It's not about a salary cap. It's about making changes in the economics of baseball," Henry said. "I can tell you right now, [NHL commissioner] Gary Bettman is looking forward to the strike more than he's looking forward to the Calgary-Tampa Bay series."

 

Burn the place to the ground.

 

Yep. I'm gonna jinx the shit out of your picks.

 

Once they burn it down, they should turn the site into a landfill.

 

You're just mean