Very utilitarian, but lacking in any element of ballpark charm. The entire seating bowl was comprised of cheap-feeling blue plastic seats, and the structure and concourses were - in many places - unadorned poured concrete. The upper deck was steep, closed, and, by all accounts, a very unpleasant place to sit. When circumstances changed and they ultimately decided to build in the parking lot of Old Comiskey, any thoughts of asymmetry or building-to-site were ignored, and the symmetrical, suburban-styled park was plopped down next to the old place.Īnd, as mentioned above, the priority was for luxury boxes and corporate spaces, so two (and in some places three) levels of luxury boxes were added, leading to the cocktail-party trivia that most Chicago sports fans have heard: the front row of the upper deck at New Comiskey was as far from the field as the LAST row at Old Comiskey.Īnd the last row at New Comiskey. The White Sox, on the other hand, made plans for a symmetrical, almost cookie-cutter-style stadium that was intended to be built in suburban Chicago. New Comiskey, built at about the same time and designed by the same architects, could have been the prototype for the new era of retro ballparks, but unfortunately, they had different priorities.Īs mentioned here, HOK Sports's plans for the new ballparks in Chicago and Baltimore were quite similar, but the Orioles brought in an architectural consultant to serve as VP of Planning and Development who steered the architectural tean down the retro path that ultimately developed Camden Yards. The last real ballpark built before New Comiskey was Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, almost 20 years prior.Īnd the next one to be opened after New Comiskey? The landmark, groundbreaking, iconic, magical Oriole Park at Camden Yards. I mentioned the opportunity that New Comiskey had the last two MLB parks built before it were the SkyDome in Toronto and Tropicana Field in Tampa, both muti-use domes, and not ballparks at all. Thus, the jewelbox Old Comiskey was scheduled for a tear-down and a new, state-of-the-art stadium earmarked for its place.īut New Comiskey was no doubt a stadium.)
This was the beginning of the building boom for new ballparks in baseball, and, as we've profiled before, the objective was to maximize corporate and luxury box space and revenue. How much thought was given to refurbishing/renovating/updating Old Comiskey is not known, but presumably not much. New Comiskey Park (as it was originally called) replaced the classic but aging Comiskey Park, where the White Sox had played for the preceding 81 years. It had an opportunity to be really special, but it also had a period of being really not very nice, so the fact that it is a pretty nice place to see a game today is a good thing. a pretty nice place to see a baseball game. Guaranteed Rate Field, AKA US Cellular Field, AKA New Comiskey Park, is.
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