Oulton Park Circuit is a motor racing track in the small village of Little Budworth, Cheshire, northwest England, UK. It is about 5 miles from Winsford, 13 miles to Chester City Center, 8 miles to Northwich and 17 miles to Warrington with nearby rail connection along the Mid-Cheshire Line set in rolling English countryside and forest. It occupies much of the area which was previously the Oulton Estate. The track is set in the grounds of Oulton Hall, which were used as an army staging camp by General Patton prior to the Normandy landings.

History

The circuit was originally developed by the Mid-Cheshire Car Club, with the track attracting a crowd of 40,000 during the 1950s. Oulton Park regularly hosted the International Gold Cup event which attracted many Formula One teams (Stirling Moss won it 5 times), but as the F1 calendar shrunk to include only Grand Prix events, the Cup became less well-known. The event has been run for a number of other categories including Formula 5000, sports cars and touring cars. It has now, however, been re-established as a highlight of the classic racing calendar. The British Touring Car Championship, the British F3/British GT Championship and the British Superbike Championship meetings are also highlights of the year.

The track is famous[citation needed] for its rapidly changing gradients and blind crests leading into unforgiving corners. The full track is 2.8 miles long, with a selection of shorter circuits also possible. Among many British and foreign drivers it is considered one of the most challenging and thrilling circuits ever constructed.

One of the short circuits is the “Foster’s” Circuit which comprises half of the “Cascades” corner followed by “Hizzy’s” chicane. The circuit then heads onto Knickerbrook and up Clay Hill to work its way round to the start/finish straight. This circuit is 1.66 miles in length.

The other short circuit that is used almost exvlusively for the MSA British Touring Car Championship. This circuit comprises all of the Dentons Corner and Lakeside but then forks off into a hairpin before Island Bend. This hairpin cuts out all of the Island section of the circuit and takes the cars straight back over Hill Top.

For the 2007 season, the marshalling stations have been redesigned with a protective cage around each of the marshalling stations. This is to prevent incidents similar to those in the 2006 season, when cars were known to “fly through” the marshalling stations. Also, the marshalling post at the bottom of the back straight, near the chicane preceding Knicerbrook, has had a proper marshals post built behind the armco barrier and has been fitted with caging similar to the other marshalling posts.

The paddock facilities are reasonable, with large areas of hard-standing and some power points.

A highly-entertaining though rather risqué monologue about the construction of one part of the circuit, “The Naming of Knicker Brook”, is told by demolition expert/raconteur Blaster Bates.

A good spot for spectators is alongside either the Fogarty Moss Centre or alongside Hill Top. Most of the track can be seen from these areas.

Knickerbrook corner

Pre 1991: The corner was generally known as a ‘racers’ corner as it required courage and full commitment from the driver. The corner is notorious for causing multiple accidents. There have been several fatalities of racing drivers at this corner. One death in particular, Paul Warwick, caused the corner to be reconstructed as a chicane.

The corner led from a downhill straight [Hill top] into a fifth gear, off camber right bend. There was a deep kerbing section on the inside of the corner which combined with the off camber nature of the corner caused a car to become very difficult to control. The kerbing and camber tended to make the car veer to the outside of the circuit. The armco barrier on the outside of the corner eventually intersected with the grass verge and caused a lack of run off area.

Such is the notoriety of this corner a series of videos were produced showing clips of cars crashing and spinning primarily at this corner. The series is named Oulton Park’s Greatest Hits.

Blaster Bates, a British Explosives and Demolition specialist from Crewe in Cheshire, related an account during one of his recording sessions of how he and a colleague were once removing tree stumps with dynamite close to the corner. Upon the third detonation, a courting couple were seen to run at speed and in some disarray from the cover of a bush or bank nearby. Closer investigation followed a safe interval later and the two engineers discovered a lady’s underwear in the brook, and this resulted in the name of the corner.

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Donington Park is a site near Castle Donington in North West Leicestershire, England, owned by Donington Ventures Leisure Ltd. It is used as a motor racing track, and is also the venue for The Download Festival. Donington Park has a contract to stage the Formula One British Grand Prix for a period of ten years from 2010.

The original Donington track was opened in 1931, and initially used for motorcycle races. In 1935 it saw Richard Shuttleworth win the Donington Grand Prix in an Alfa Romeo P3, in the 1937 Donington Grand Prix and 1938 Donington Grand Prix, the race winners were respectively Bernd Rosemeyer and Tazio Nuvolari, both in Auto Union ‘Silver Arrows’.
The Donington Circuit layout in 1937

The circuit at Donington Park was closed in 1939 due to World War II, when it became a military vehicle depot. In the early 1970s the circuit was bought by Tom Wheatcroft, who funded the rebuilding of the track, which was re-opened May 27, 1977. The first postwar race meeting was organised by the Nottingham Sports Car Club, but that nearly didn’t happen, as the local ramblers tried to assert their rights to retain access to footpaths at the eleventh hour. The meeting went ahead as a “Motor Trial”, a legal loophole that curtailed the use of single seater racing cars for that opening meeting.

The NSCC continued to run race meetings at Donington until the Donington Racing Club was formed and a licence to run race meetings obtained.

The Melbourne Loop was built in 1985 to increase the lap distance to 2.5 miles (4.02 km) and allow the track to host Grand Prix motorcycle races – at 1.957 miles (3.149 km) without the loop, the circuit was deemed too short. This shorter layout remains as the National circuit, which is used for most non-Grand Prix events.

In recent times Donington has held meetings of MotoGP, the British Touring Car Championship and British Superbikes, as well as the 1993 European Grand Prix.

Other events taking place at the track include the World Series by Renault and the Great and British Motorsport Festival. On 26 August 2007 the circuit hosted the British Motocross Grand Prix, with a purpose-built motocross circuit constructed on the infield of the road circuit.
World Series by Renault at Donington Park’s Melbourne Hairpin in 2005.

In 2007 the track was sold to Donington Ventures Leisure Ltd.

Donington Park is also home to a museum known as the Donington Grand Prix Exhibition which opened in 1973, and has the largest collection of Grand Prix cars in the world.

On 4 July 2008, Bernie Ecclestone announced that Donington Park will hold the British Grand Prix from 2010 onwards in a 10-year deal (having been hosted exclusively by Silverstone since 1987). The track will have a major upgrade, which was announced on 10 July 2008 to include an entirely new pit complex along Starkey’s Straight and increasing the circuit length to 3 miles, by the addition of a new infield loop, to get it up to the standards required for modern day Formula One racing. Experienced circuit architect Hermann Tilke will be involved in the work. The race will also be the first one to be accessed by public transportation only, as cars will not be allowed to enter the facility. The close by East Midlands Parkway station on the Midland Main Line from London to Sheffield is central to this idea. Planning permission for the development was granted in January 2008.

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The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is the famous venue of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix and the Spa 24 Hours endurance race. It is also home to the 25 Hours of Spa, run by the Uniroyal Fun Cup. It is considered to be one of the most challenging race tracks in the world, mainly due to its fast, hilly and twisty nature. The circuit features one of the most famous and dangerous sections of any racing track in the world, the Eau Rouge complex. Spa is a favourite circuit of many racing drivers and fans.

The triangle

Designed by Jules de Their and Henri Langlois Van Ophem, the original 15 km (9.3 mile) triangle-shaped course used public roads between the Belgian towns of Francorchamps, Malmedy and Stavelot. The Belgian Grand Prix was held at Spa-Francorchamps for the first time in 1924.

Back then, the Belgians took pride in having a very fast circuit, and to improve average speeds, the former slow uphill U-turn at the bottom of the Eau Rouge creek valley, called the Ancienne Douane, was cut short with a faster sweep straight up the hill, called the Raidillon. Until 2000, it was possible to travel over the race track when it was still a public road. At Eau Rouge, southbound traffic was allowed to use the famous uphill corner, while the opposite downhill traffic had to use the old road and U-turn behind the grand stands, rejoining the race track at the bottom of Eau Rouge.

The old race track continued after Les Combes towards Burnenville, passing this village in a fast right hand sweep. Near Malmedy, the Masta straight begins, which is only interrupted by the fast Masta Kink between farm houses before arriving at the town of Stavelot.

The Masta Kink was one of the most fearsome sections on any race track in the world, requiring skill and bravery in equal measure to get it right. After a long run from Malmedy, the cars would reach top speed before having to negotiate Masta, a high speed left-right chicane, and a good exit speed was vital as it is followed by another long straight run to Stavelot.

That Masta was lost to F1 racing after the 1970 race was partly its own fault. Jackie Stewart’s crusade to improve safety in racing was set in motion by his crash there in 1966, when his BRM ended upsidedown in the cellar of the farmhouse on the outside of the corner, with fuel gushing out of the tank onto Stewart, who had broken ribs to add to his misery.

Another particularly gruesome story comes from the 1973 24 hour sportscar race during which three drivers were killed. During one of his pitstops at night, Hans-Joachim Stuck shouted to his co-driver Jochen Mass over the noise that he should “look out for body parts at the Masta Kink”. Mass arrived there expecting to see bits of car all over the road but was appalled to discover it was in fact bits of a marshal.

After Masta, and at the end of the subsequent Holowell Straight, there used to be a sharp hairpin at the entrance to the town itself, which was later bypassed by a quicker, banked right hand corner. Another fast section of road in the forest leads to Blanchimont. Here, the new short Grand Prix track of 1979 joins the old layout.

18 Formula 1 World Championship Grands Prix were run on the Spa-Francorchamps circuit’s original configuration, which was boycotted by F1 in 1968, before the revised circuit banished it to the history books in the late-70s. The fasted lap record on the old triangle shaped track is held by the French driver Henri Pescarolo, at an average speed of 262 km/h.

New layout

Over the years, the Spa course has been modified several times and today it has been shortened to 6.9 km (4.3 miles) and is a fast and hilly route through the Ardennes where speeds in excess of 330 km/h can be reached. Since inception, the place has been famous for its unpredictable weather. Frequently drivers confront a part of the course that is clear and bright while another stretch is rainy and slippery.

Drivers and fans alike love races at Spa-Francorchamps. A dull race at Spa is very rare, and most drivers today say that the course is one of the two most challenging race tracks in the world (alongside Japan’s Suzuka Circuit).

The circuit probably demonstrates the importance of driver skill more than any other in the world. This is largely due to the Eau Rouge and Blanchimont corners, both which need to be taken flat-out to achieve a fast run onto the straights after them, which aids a driver in both a fast lap and in over-taking.

Many of the modern great Formula 1 drivers have had memorable battles and victories at Spa, including Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, Damon Hill, Mika Häkkinen and Kimi Räikkönen. A notable exclusion is current world champion Fernando Alonso.

Eau Rouge

The most famous part of the circuit is the Eau Rouge / Raidillon combination. Having negotiated the La Source hairpin, drivers race down a straight to the point where the track crosses the Eau Rouge stream for the first time, before being launched steeply uphill into a sweeping left-right-left collection of corners with a blind summit. Properly speaking, the Eau Rouge corner is only the lefthander at the bottom. The following righthander that leads steeply uphill, which was introduced in 1939 to shortcut the original hairpin “Ancienne Douane”, is called “Raidillon” (fr:Raidillon de l’Eau Rouge). The corner requires a large amount of skill from the driver to negotiate well and the long straight ahead often produces good overtaking opportunities for the best drivers at the Les Combes corner.

As F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso explains: “You come into the corner downhill, have a sudden change [of direction] at the bottom and then go very steep uphill. From the cockpit, you cannot see the exit and as you come over the crest, you don’t know where you will land. It is a crucial corner for the timed lap, and also in the race, because you have a long uphill straight afterwards where you can lose a lot of time if you make a mistake. But it is also an important corner for the driver’s feeling. It makes a special impression every lap, because you also have a compression in your body as you go through the bottom of the corner. It is very strange – but good fun as well.”

The challenge for drivers has always been to take Eau Rouge-Raidillon flat out. Regular touring cars can take the corner at 160 -180 km/h, Formula One at over 300 km/h. This is due to the huge amount of downforce on the cars. World Champion Jacques Villeneuve once spoke of the effects of the downforces (in 1996, when they were much less than they are today) saying that to get through the corner they have to go faster as the faster the car is going the more downward force there is, thus explaining the phenomenon of Eau Rouge flat out. Taking the corner flat out in a Formula One car is now the norm, thanks to modifications made to the circuit, and the high downforce of modern Formula One cars.

Still, a loss of control in this section often leads to very heavy shunt as usually the rear-end of the car is lost and the impact is most of the times lateral. Eau Rouge has claimed several victims over the years, including Stefan Bellof in a Porsche sportscar, and also caused Alex Zanardi’s in 1993 and Jacques Villeneuve’s spectacular off in qualifying in 1999, which he described as “My best-ever crash”, followed by his team-mate Ricardo Zonta’s similar accident, leading cartoonist Jim Bamber to show BAR boss Craig Pollock telling Zonta: “Jacques is the quickest through Eau Rouge, so go out there and do exactly what Jacques does…”

Following the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna at Imola in 1994, the following F1 races saw the introduction of chicanes made of piles of tyres. The entry to Eau Rouge was obstructed in such a way in 1994, although it was returned to its previous glory the following year. The corner was slightly modified for 2002, but still retains its character.

Testimony to the fame and beloved character of the Eau Rouge corner can be found in fan reaction to the Istanbul Park circuit in Istanbul, Turkey. When fans first got to see the course configuration at the start of the weekend of the 2005 Turkish Grand Prix, many noted that an uphill kink on the back straight was very similar to Eau Rouge; many jokingly dubbed the kink “Faux Rouge.”

Blanchimont

The Blanchimont turn is one of the most fearsome turns in Formula 1.[citation needed] This high-speed left-hand turn, present in both the old 14 km circuit and the new, shorter, 7 km track, is the final sweeping corner of the track before the Bus Stop chicane, which leads to the pit straight.

This turn and the approach to it have caused serious accidents over time, the most recent being in 2001, when Luciano Burti lost the front wing of his Prost due to a clash with Eddie Irvine’s Jaguar, losing front downforce and steering, leaving the track at 185mph and piling into the tire wall, the impact knocking him out and burying the car into a mound of tires.

In addition, the run-off area is narrower than in other turns taken at this speed, plus the fact that behind the protective barriers there is a 7-8 meter drop. This is the first turn taken by the cars after the new track rejoins the route of the old 14 km track.

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The home of Reading Football Club and was opened on 22 August 1998 when Luton Town were beaten 3-0 with Grant Brebner having the honour of scoring the first goal at the ground. The rugby union club, London Irish, also play their home games there as tenants. It also provides the finish for the Reading Half Marathon.

It is an all-seater bowl stadium with a capacity of 24,250 and is located close to the M4 motorway. It was built on the site of a former household waste dump and the stadium is surrounded by methane vents. The stadium cost more than £50m to build and the pitch incorporates a system of synthetic fibres interwoven with natural grass, installed at a cost of more than £750,000.

Madejski Stadium has also held various music concerts, including the Summer XS festival series. Performers at the Madejski Stadium have included the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blue, Busted, Craig David, Elton John, Girls Aloud, Lulu, McFly and Rachel Stevens.

The stadium is named after Reading’s chairman John Madejski but it is owned by the football club.

For the first time in their history, Reading Football Club are participating in the elite Premier League in the 2006-07 season. As a result of the sell-out crowds for their first few fixtures of the season, the club announced their intention, in October 2006, to make a planning application to extend the ground to between 37,000 to 38,000 seats. The application was made on 24 January 2007, proposing initially the extension of the East Stand with a further 6,000 seats (raising capacity to around 30,000) and subsequently extension of the North and South Stands to to reach the full proposed capacity. On Thursday 24th May 2007 it was announced that planning permission had been granted to extend the stadium to a capacity of 36,900. The first phase will expand the East Stand by 6,600 seats and work will start in summer 2008, followed by expansion of the North and South Stands the following summer.

Stands

North Stand

Home end stand.

South Stand

The South Stand has a capacity up to 2,327 for away fans. For the Premier League season 2006-07, half of the South Stand (that which meets the East Stand) is designated for away supporters, whilst the half which meets the West Stand is for ticket-only home supporters.

East Stand

The home crowd’s favourite stand. Opposite the tunnel and director’s box, chants of “There’s only one John Madejski” are often heard emanating from this stand.

West Stand

This stand contains a lower and an upper tier, but the upper level does not overhang the lower tier. Executive boxes are found between the two tiers. The tunnel and dugouts are on this side of the stadium.

The outside of the stand contains the Millennium Madejski Hotel.

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Vicarage Road, a stadium in Watford, Hertfordshire, England, is the home of the football club Watford F.C. and their tenants, the Saracens rugby union club. A four stand all-seater stadium, its capacity is 19,920.

It has been the home of Watford since 1922, when the club moved from a ground on Watford’s Cassio Road. The ground was officially opened by Col. Charles Healey of Benskins Brewery for the visit of Millwall on August 30th 1922. Watford temporarily had to sell the stadium in 2003 but after a campaign entitled ‘Let’s Buy Back The Vic’ with donations coming from fans as well as celebrity former owner Elton John donating the entire proceeds of a concert held at the venue, the club was able to repurchase the stadium in 2005 for £7.6m.

Vicarage Road Stand

The Vicarage Road Stand was built following the conclusion of the 1992-93 season. Previously an open terrace, the all-seater stand was built to comply with the Taylor Report and raise the standard of the ground. It cost £2.3 million to build and has a capacity of 5,800 people.

Originally a mere earth bank when the club moved to the ground, it was gradually made into a conventional terrace. In 1978 an electronic scoreboard was put up, which became an iconic symbol of Watford’s eighties heyday.

Its final game as a terrace was a 1-0 loss to Oxford United on Saturday May 8th 1993. It opened to the public once more on September 18th 1993, with Watford beating Notts County 3-1.

The home stand until 1999, it now houses the away support. A partition was added in 2004, meaning that both home and away support could be put in the stand. In previous seasons, the whole of the Vicarage Road Stand could be allocated to visiting supporters, but now only half of the stand is given to away fans, and the other half is used for home fans. It also houses wheelchair supporters of both teams.

The Rookery Stand

At present the newest part of the stadium, The Rookery Stand was built over the course of the 1994/95 season. Another former terrace, the all-seater Rookery stand has a capacity of 6960. Larger than the Vicarage Road stand, it has facilities on two levels. It also holds most of the clubs administrative areas, along with the club shop, which was moved to its current location in November 2005 from a site on Vicarage Road. The stand cost £1.6 million to build, approximately £300,000 of this figure was contributed by the Football Trust, with the remainding money coming from the sale of Paul Furlong and Bruce Dyer by owner Jack Petchey at the end of the 93/94 season.

When Watford moved from Cassio Road this end of the ground featured a roof over a cinder bank, and over the years the roof eventually had to be removed for safety reasons. The Supporters’ Club eventually raised funds to enable the Rookery End to feature concrete terracing under cover and this aim was realised in 1959.

The new stand, replacing the 1959 model was used by Watford supporters for the first time on April 22nd 1995 for the visit of Bristol City.

The Rookery is the “home end,” containing the noisier Watford fans and noticeably more electric atmosphere.

The stand is also popular with Saracens supporters, although it is known as the ‘Rover South’ stand for rugby matches.

The Rous Stand

The Rous Stand – named after former FIFA president Sir Stanley Rous – runs along the side of the pitch, on the west side of the ground. It is a two-tiered stand, with executive boxes and a TV camera gantry.

Built in 1986, it replaced the Shrodells Stand. The £3 million development was partly-funded via a loan from Elton John. The upper tier complete with executive boxes was constructed first, and temporary seats forming a lower-tier were added later. These were later replaced with permanents seats, first used for a game against Notts County on September 18th 1993.

When the club moved from Cassio Road in 1922, the Union Stand was transported and reconstructed on this side of the ground. It was replaced by the Shrodells Stand, which was constructed during the 1930s. It was extended in 1979 with a further 2,200 seats replacing the standing enclosure in front of the stand.

The final match for the Shrodells Stand was against Manchester United on May 3rd 1986, the new Rous Stand opened on August 23rd 1986, when Oxford United visited Vicarage Road, with Watford coming out 3-0 winners.

The Upper Rous is well known amongst Hornets fans for being the most sedate part of the ground.

The Main Stand

The Main Stand sits on the east side of the ground, and contains the changing rooms, tunnel, director’s box and press area. The eldest stand of the four, the Main Stand contains the only part of the original stadium built at Vicarage Road still standing.

Constructed in 1922 as Watford moved from Cassio road to the present ground, the stand was included as part of the stadium constructed with the financial help of Benskins’ breweries, who initially handed the land to the football club on a 21-year lease. The structure featured 3,500 seats and a standing enclosure and cost around £7,000.

In 1969 a new extension to the main stand was constructed adding approximately 1700 seats to this side of the ground. Seats were added to the terrace in front of the original main stand In 1982 to create the club’s family enclosure, and capacity was further increased with the addition of uncovered seats towards the Vicarage Road end of the stadium around the same time.

In 2004 parts of the stand were closed, after they were deemed unfit for use. The club are drawing up plans – originally shelved after 2002′s financial crisis – to redevelop the stand, along with making considerable developments to the Rous Stand. This scheme is in conjunction with Watford General Hospital, whose site runs alongside the Rous. Watford have also bought a pub for the supporters opposite Vicarage Road. The Hornets are hoping to increase capacity to initially 23,500 and then gradually increase upon this.

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Dickey-Stephens Park is a new stadium in North Little Rock, Arkansas. It is primarily used for baseball and is the home field of the Arkansas Travelers minor league baseball team. It replaced the club’s former home, Ray Winder Field in Little Rock. Dickey-Stephens Park hosted its first baseball game when the Arkansas Travelers played the Frisco RoughRiders on April 12, 2007. The new facility, with a seating capacity of at least 7,000 people, boasts a number of state-of-the-art features including free Wi-Fi access.

Built for the start of the 2007 season, Dickey-Stephens Park on North Little Rock’s riverfront is only the third ballpark to be the home of the Arkansas Travelers. Kavanaugh Field, which is now the site of Little Rock’s Quigley Stadium, housed the club from its inception in 1896 until after the 1931 season. Then the Travs began play at an “all new steel and concrete facility” on Wednesday, April 13, 1932, in what was then known as Travelers Field.

In 1966 Travelers Field was renamed to honor Ray Winder, who in 52 years rose from ticket seller to owner and eventually savior of the Travelers. It was Ray Winder who spearheaded the return for the Travelers to Little Rock, as a fan-owned enterprise, after a brief hiatus during the 1959 season. In 1990, Ray Winder Field hosted the largest crowd ever to witness a baseball game in Arkansas, more than 12,000, to watch Fernando Valenzuela’s rehabilitation start. After 74 years, Ray Winder Field hosted its farewell baseball game with 8,307 in attendance on September 3, 2006.

Funded by a North Little Rock voter-approved one-cent sales tax, Dickey-Stephens Park was built through a partnership between the Travs, Little Rock financier Warren Stephens and the city of North Little Rock. After donating an 11-acre plot of land east of the Broadway Bridge, Mr. Stephens named the ballpark in honor of two pairs of baseball-loving brothers; Stephens Inc. Founders Jack and Witt Stephens, and Hall of Fame Catcher Bill Dickey and his brother Skeeter, also a former Major League ballplayer. Both Dickey brothers worked for Stephens Inc. following their baseball careers. Bill, who caught for the 1925 Little Rock Travelers, also managed the club for one season following a 17-year Hall-of-Fame career with the New York Yankees that included seven World Series titles.

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Dr Pepper Ballpark (formerly Dr Pepper/Seven Up Ballpark) is the home ballpark of the Frisco RoughRiders Class AA minor league baseball club. Located in Frisco, Texas U.S., the stadium has a capacity of up to 10,600. The ballpark is host to numerous functions in addition to minor league baseball games, including corporate and charity events, wedding receptions, city of Frisco events, and church services. Local soft drink manufacturer Dr Pepper/Seven Up holds naming rights and exclusive non-alcoholic beverage rights in the park.

Since its opening in 2003, the Dr Pepper Ballpark has won awards and garnered praise for its unique design, feel, and numerous facilities. In his design, park architect David M. Schwarz desired the creation of a village-like “park within a (ball)park”. Dr Pepper Ballpark received the 2003 Texas Construction award for Best Architectural Design and was named the best new ballpark in the country by BaseballParks.com.

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Citibank Ballpark is a stadium in Midland, Texas. It is primarily used for baseball, and is the home field of the Midland RockHounds minor league baseball team. The first game at Citbank Ballpark was played in 2002, the stadium seats 6,669 people.

Citibank Ballpark was originally known as First American Bank Ballpark, but the name was changed in 2005 after Citibank acquired First American. Citibank Ballpark replaced the old Christensen Stadium, the former home of the Rockhounds. Christensen Stadium had previously been known as Cubs Stadium and Angels Stadium.

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Nelson W. Wolff Municipal Stadium is a stadium in San Antonio, Texas. It is primarily used for baseball, and is the home field of the San Antonio Missions minor league baseball team, Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. The San Antonio Missions are part of the Texas League, a minor league baseball organization.

It was opened on April 18, 1994 and has a capacity of about 9,500 spectators, including fixed seats, luxury boxes, a picnic area down the right field foul line, and a left field berm. The dimensions (from home plate to the outfield wall) are: 310 feet (94.5 m) to left field, 402 feet (122.5 m) to center field, and 340 feet (103.6 m) to right field.

The stadium is located about 8 miles (13 km) from the Alamo and downtown San Antonio on the city’s west side.

Viewing the stadium from the outside entrance (behind home plate) there are two large brick belltowers, in keeping with a southwestern theme. Most of the seating area is shaded by a large high roof. There are no poles to impede views as seen in some older minor league parks at the Double-A and Single-A level. A concourse wraps around the playing field and enables spectators varied views of the game and stadium.

The section behind homeplate has individul seats; the left and right field seating areas, however, are entirely made up of bleachers.

Planes can often be seen flying in to Lackland Air Force Base behind the outfield wall. The Missions regularly have “Military Night”, inviting recently graduated troops to Friday night games.

The stadium’s namesake, Nelson Wolff, is a former Texas legislator and San Antonio councilman and mayor, who as of 2007 is the current County Judge for Bexar County.

Stadium Upgrades

Following the 2006 season the city of San Antonio voted 9-0 to a revised lease of Wolff Stadium. The San Antonio Missions would take control of the stadium and plan to invest 1.2 million dollars (USD) to improving the concession areas, creating a fiesta deck in left field, an improved sound system, an LED scoreboard to replace the scoreboard in right field, and a new paint job.

In addition the city of San Antonio will invest $300,000 for new lighting.

The lease also calls for the Missions to spend the next 10 years in the stadium. There are three options of five years each as well.

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Hammons Field is a minor league ballpark in downtown Springfield, Missouri. The facility, funded entirely by local businessman, hotel mogul and benefactor John Q. Hammons, is the centerpiece of the midtown development project, Jordan Valley Park, on the corner of Sherman Avenue and Trafficway Boulevard. Completed in April 2004, it is home to the Springfield Cardinals, the Double-A Texas League affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals as well as the Missouri State University Bears.

One of the interesting things about this stadium is its history: Hammons built the ballpark before he had a minor league team secured to play in the stadium, though he steadfastly assured local residents it would be the Double-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. He was ultimately able to persuade the Cardinals to purchase the El Paso Diablos franchise of the Texas League (still around, but now as an independent league club in the new American Association) from the Brett Bros. and relocate it to Springfield. They became the Springfield Cardinals soon thereafter when the parent club ended its brief two-year affiliation with the Tennessee Smokies of the Southern League.

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Opened in 1981, Drillers Stadium, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA is a minor league baseball stadium, located near the Tulsa metropolitan area. Drillers Stadium is the former home to the Tulsa Drillers, a minor league baseball team which plays in the Texas League. Drillers Stadium also plays host to one of the three regular season baseball games played between Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma each year in the Bedlam Series (the other two games are played in Oklahoma City at the larger AT&T Bricktown Ballpark).

Drillers Stadium is located at the corner of Yale Avenue and 15th Street, and is a part of EXPO Square and the Tulsa County Fairgrounds. The stadium is located on the northeast corner of the Fairgrounds. Drillers Stadium is located practically next door to Big Splash Waterpark, and about a fourth of a mile to the northeast of the former home of Bell’s Amusement Park. A Walgreens is located across the street, which replaced a Bud’s supermarket. Home run balls from Driller’s Stadium sometimes landed in the parking lot of the Bud’s.

Tulsa County completed 8,000 seat Robert B. Sutton Stadium in 1981, naming it for its chief benefactor, a local oil executive. Sutton, however, was convicted in 1982 of fraud, and as a result the County renamed the park Tulsa County Stadium. In 1989, Drillers Stadium received its current name. The stadium now seats 10,997 , making it the largest stadium in Double-A baseball. Originally a multi-purpose stadium with an artificial surface playing field, it now features a Prescription Athletic Turf (PAT) grass surface. Since its installation in 1993, the field has regularly been rated one of the best in the Texas League by players and managers.

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Whataburger Field is the minor league baseball stadium located in Corpus Christi, Texas, USA. It is currently home to the Corpus Christi Hooks, the double-A affiliate of the Houston Astros.

The park, which opened in 2005, is located on what used to be old cotton warehouses upon the city’s waterfront. Naming rights were paid for by Whataburger, Inc., which is headquartered in Corpus Christi. Fans are able to see the USS Lexington and the Texas State Aquarium from inside the park. Whataburger Field features 5,050 fixed seats, 19 luxury suites and two outfield berm areas that are able to accommodate nearly 2,000 fans.

On June 30, 2005 the stadium unveiled For the Love of the Game, an 18-foot (5.5 m) statue depicting a young ball player in a contemplative pose. The statue is believed to be the largest bronze statue of a baseball player.

On June 26, 2007 Whataburger Field played host to the 2007 Texas League All-Star game.

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Lawrence-Dumont Stadium is a stadium in Wichita, Kansas. It is primarily used for baseball, and is the home field of the Wichita Wingnuts independent baseball team. It was built in 1934 and last renovated in 2001. It holds 6,400 fans and is one of the few stadiums in the world that features a natural grass outfield with an astroturf infield.

It was home to the Wichita Wranglers minor league baseball team. The Wranglers left Wichita at the end of the 2007 season and moved to Springdale, Arkansas, where the team will be renamed the Northwest Arkansas Naturals. The Wichita Wingnuts now play at Lawrence-Dumont.

Lawrence-Dumont Stadium is also home to the annual National Baseball Congress World Series, the annual North American championship of the NBC, an organization of 15 amateur and semi-professional baseball leagues operating in the United States and Canada. It has been played in Wichita at L-D Stadium annually since 1935. In 1949, the ballpark was the last to host the College World Series before Omaha, Nebraska became its permanent address the following year.

The stadium is named for Charles S. Lawrence, Wichita mayor from 1933 to 1934 who died on September 20, 1934 after convincing the city to move the park within the city limits. The construction of the stadium was a WPA project; Works Progress Administration which employed workers during the depths of the Great Depression.(Blue laws earlier prohibited baseball within the city and games were played on Ackerman Island in the middle of the Arkansas River. That stadium burned in 1934. Ray “Hap” Dumont had promised to hold semi-pro games in the new ball park (which was built with WPA help. He paid Satchel Paige $1,000 to bring the Bismarck Churchills to the stadium to play in the first NBC Championship.

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Joe W. Davis Stadium (aka “The Joe”) was built in 1985 in Huntsville, Alabama, United States to host the Southern League Huntsville Stars minor league baseball team. The stadium is a multi-purpose facility that seats 10,200 with 15 air-conditioned skyboxes. Ticket offices and general office are located on the second floor of the stadium. Closed circuit television above the main concourse allows for viewing of the game while grabbing a bite at the concession stands.

The stadium is named for the long time mayor of Huntsville, Joe Davis. Davis was instrumental in gaining support for the stadium’s construction and subsequent moving of the Nashville (TN) Double A baseball franchise to Huntsville.

Called “The Crown Jewel of the Southern League” upon its construction, the stadium is now the oldest venue in the league. In the mid-2000s, renovations began on the stadium, including the replacement of all the stadium’s box seats. In 2004, Joe Davis Stadium’s current scoreboard, a 36-by-48-foot scoreboard complete with LED numbering and a 12-by-18-foot videoboard, was installed. Renovations to other areas of the stadium are expected to be complete before the start of the 2007 baseball season.

In addition to baseball, Davis Stadium is also used for high school football, monster truck rallies and concerts.

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AT&T Field is a baseball field located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Construction of the stadium began in March of 1999, and completed for the 2000 season. Capacity of the stadium is 6,160 people. It is the home of the minor league Chattanooga Lookouts. The first baseball game to be held at the stadium was on April 10, 2000 which was won 5-4 by the home team. The stadium is peculiar because the vast majority of the seating is along the first base line and right field.

AT&T Field was formerly known as BellSouth Park until March 2007, when the ballpark’s name changed to reflect the purchase of BellSouth by AT&T.

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Five County Stadium is the home of the Carolina Mudcats of the Southern League. The ballpark, which was opened in 1991 and extensively renovated in 1999, has a capacity of 6,500. The stadium is located in Wake County, North Carolina, but it is in close proximity to the intersection of the county lines between Wake, Franklin, Nash, and Johnston Counties. Those, along with nearby Wilson County are the “Five Counties” that the stadium is named for.

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Regions Park, formerly known as Hoover Metropolitan Stadium or The Met, is a minor league baseball park located in the Birmingham, Alabama, USA, suburb of Hoover. It has been the home of the Birmingham Barons of the Southern League since 1988, replacing historic Rickwood Field in Birmingham. The stadium also serves as the home for the SEC Baseball Tournament as well as Hoover High School football. Regions Park is located in the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area near Interstate 459 at Exit 10 just off Alabama State Route 150. The stadium is located three miles from the Riverchase Galleria, one of the south’s largest shopping centers.

The seating capacity is 10,800 for baseball and can accommodate up to 16,000 when the patio, banquet, and grassy side areas are used. The stadium also houses 12 suites and state-of-the-art dressing and training rooms. The stadium also features a meeting/banquet room named for Michael Jordan, who played for the Barons during his brief foray into professional baseball, during which time the stadium experienced its largest crowds.

Regions Park was renamed in March 2007 when Regions Financial Corporation purchased the naming rights. Despite the name change, many locals still refer to the stadium as “The Met”.

The City of Hoover operates the stadium and an adjacent recreational vehicle park.

Regions Park hosted the AVP Birmingham Open on July 13-16, 2006, the first beach volleyball tournament to ever be played in Alabama. The feature court was above the baseball diamond as well as eight other courts on the field, made of 222 tons of sand per court.

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The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville is the home of the Jacksonville Suns of the Southern League. The ballpark, which opened in 2003, has nearly 6,000 stadium-style chairs and can accommodate more than 11,000 fans with an old-fashioned design, brick facade and a grass seating berm and bleacher seating. It also features 12 luxury skyboxes, four skydecks, a large scoreboard and videoboard, a playground, and the “knuckle,” a unique nine-foot high mound for seating at the left field corner.

Featuring an old-fashioned design, brick facade and a grass seating berm. Other ballpark features include a souvenir shop, first aid facility, various seating levels and perspectives, an ample number of restrooms and concession areas, first-class in-seat concession services behind home plate, wide concourse and seating aisles and a state-of-the-art video scoreboard in left center field. The ballpark was the first completed project of the Better Jacksonville Plan. The Atlantic Coast Conference baseball championship is also held at the venue from 2005 to 2008. The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets won the first ACC Tournament at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville, followed by the Clemson Tigers in 2006, and the North Carolina Tar Heels in 2007.

Previously, the Suns played at Sam W. Wolfson Baseball Park.

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Hank Aaron Stadium is a baseball stadium in Mobile, Alabama, United States. It hosts the Mobile BayBears, a minor-league professional team in the Southern League. The stadium, which opened in 1997, has a capacity of 4,000. The ballpark was named after Major League Baseball’s all-time home run king and Mobile native Hank Aaron.

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Smokies Park is a baseball stadium located in Kodak, Tennessee, just east of Knoxville (exit 407 off Interstate 40) and adjacent to the tourist centers of Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, and Gatlinburg. The park, which opened in 2000, has a capacity of 6,412. It is the home of the Tennessee Smokies of the Southern League.

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Hadlock Field is a Minor League baseball stadium in Portland, Maine. It is primarily home to the Portland Sea Dogs of the Eastern League. It is also the home of the Portland High School and Deering High School baseball teams. The stadium is named for Edson J. Hadlock, Jr., a long-time Portland High School baseball coach.

The park opened on April 18, 1994, and currently has a capacity of 7,368 seats. About 400 seats were added in right field before the start of the 2006 season. Hadlock Field is located between Interstate 295, the historic Fitzpatrick Stadium, and the Portland Exposition Building, the second-oldest arena in continuous operation in the United States. In 2003, when the Sea Dogs affiliated with the Boston Red Sox, a replica Green monster, called the Maine Monster, was added to left field to match the original at the Red Sox’ Fenway Park. A replica Citgo sign and Coke bottle were added too to make the field look even more like Fenway Park.

The left-field fence is 315 feet from home plate, the center field fence is 400 feet, and the fence in right field is 330 feet away.

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Thomas J. Dodd Memorial Stadium is a stadium in Norwich, Connecticut. It is primarily used for baseball, and is the home field of the Connecticut Tigers minor league baseball team. It was built in 1995 and has a seating capacity of 6,270. Named for Eastern Connecticut native Thomas Dodd who was a United States Senator and Representative from Connecticut, and the father of U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd.

Dodd Stadium hosted the 12th and final Double-A All-Star Game on July 10, 2002, in front of a standing-room-only crowd of 8,009. The three AA leagues began holding their own separate All-Star Games starting in 2003, with Dodd Stadium scheduled to host the Eastern League game once again on July 11, 2007. (That game was ultimately canceled in the 3rd inning due to excessive fog.) The facility has also been the site of the New England Collegiate All-Star Game; the Big East baseball tournament; several concerts including the Beach Boys, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, and Clint Black/Dwight Yoakam; and a TNA Wrestling event. During the fall of 2006, the stadium was used as the setting for the ESPN movie The Bronx Is Burning, based on a Jonathan Mahler book of the same name.

The stadium is sunk into the surrounding ground, so that all fans enter at street level and walk down to get to their seats. Each section has 22 to 25 rows of seating, split into box seats (closest to field) and reserved seats. Beyond first and third bases, there is a third category of general-admission seats making up the top 10 rows. A wide concourse runs around the top of the seating area, with concession stands, restrooms, and a gift shop. The press box is also located at concourse level, overlooking the field. Other than behind the press box, fans can continue to watch the game while standing in line or while walking around the stadium.

There are 18 skyboxes, elevated above the concourse and accessible by stairs or elevator for ticket-holders only. The skyboxes and their outdoor seating serve as cover for the main concourse below, and for the top couple rows of reserved seats.

Down the left- and right-field lines are grassy berms which are popular with children because they abut the bullpens. These are also frequent landing places for foul balls. The left-field side also features a large covered picnic area which can be rented out, and a kids’ play area with inflatable slides. One room off the concourse has been made into a video arcade.

The stadium is located in the Norwich Business Park, and parking is free (one dollar of the game ticket price is used to cover it). Season ticket holders park on a paved lot on the first-base side of the stadium; all other parking is in a large gravel area.

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Samuel J. Plumeri Field at Mercer County Waterfront Park (sometimes referred to as simply Waterfront Park) is a baseball stadium in Trenton, New Jersey. It is home to the Trenton Thunder of the Eastern League. Official seating capacity is 6,341.

The park was built for the 1994 season, although it opened several weeks late due to a rough winter that hampered construction. The sod also was unable to take properly that season, and the field did not properly drain, leading to rainouts on evenings where the sun had been out since noon. The drainage problem was fixed in 1995.

While the outfield in left and center field is covered with advertising signs that obscure views of Route 29 and nearby houses, the right field fence was kept as a short structure so that fans could see the Delaware River and Pennsylvania beyond. The river is also an inviting target for left-handed sluggers, several of whom have deposited baseballs into the water. Similar to Great American Ball Park and its river border with Kentucky, Waterfront Park also holds the unique possibility of having someone “hit one out of the state” since the middle of the Delaware River is the border with Pennsylvania.

The stadium anchors an area of rejuvenation in Trenton that also includes office buildings, nightclubs, and the Sovereign Bank Arena, several blocks away, for ice hockey and basketball.

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Northeast Delta Dental Stadium (formerly known as Fisher Cats Ballpark) is a stadium in Manchester, New Hampshire that holds 7,500 people. It is used primarily for baseball, and is the home field of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats minor league baseball team.

The first game played at the ballpark was on April 7, 2005, between the New Britain Rock Cats and the Fisher Cats. The first concert was performed by Bob Dylan on August 27, 2006. The corporate sponsored name of Merchantsauto.com Stadium was introduced on April 7, 2006, named for one of the region’s largest auto dealerships. However, like the Verizon Wireless Arena, its former name still adorns all of the road signs along the major routes in town.

The park was built on the former Manchester Millyard, which was used for circuses, carnivals and other large gatherings. It is located in the downtown area along the Merrimack River, facing northwest towards the heart of downtown. The park is within walking distance of many local landmarks, including Manchester’s mill district, the Verizon Wireless Arena, the WMUR television station, and countless restaurants and bars. It has an open concourse, allowing fans to view the action on the field at all times, and includes 32 luxury suites that line the upper level and provide fans with a panoramic view of the field. One of the most dominant features is the recently opened Hilton Garden Inn Hotel. The hotel is six stories high and has more than 125 rooms; each room has windows that overlook center field and have shatterproof glass due to the proximity to the park.

In October, 2006 the stadium hosted the funeral service for fallen city police officer Michael Briggs, who was shot while responding to a domestic dispute call.

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Metro Bank Park is a stadium in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It is primarily used for baseball, and is the home field of the Harrisburg Senators minor league baseball team. The original structure was built in 1987. Currently, the ballpark has a capacity of 6,360 people; however, the ballpark will receive a $30 million renovation beginning in 2008. The stadium is located on City Island, an island on the Susquehanna River.

Metro Bank Park sits on the exact spot where baseball had been played earlier in the century, where other Harrisburg teams played from 1907-1952. The location, City Island, is a sixty-two-acre waterfront park and sports complex. The facilities include volleyball courts, softball fields, a football/soccer field, water golf, nature tails, jogging paths, cycling paths, two marinas, the “Pride of the Susquehanna” paddlewheel riverboat, a food court called RiverSide Village, and a miniature train that runs around the island for tours.

The original ballpark is a steel and aluminum structure. The stadium was used as the Spring Training facility in the movie Major League II, starring Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger and Corbin Bernsen.

Stadium Renovation

Metro Bank Park will receive a much awaited $30 million renovation ($19.1 million in state funding). Originally the renovation was to begin in 2005, however delays in state funding for the project have pushed it back until 2007, meaning the improvements won’t be implemented for Senators fans until the 2008 season at the earliest. Final designs for the project have been completed by HOK Sport, and the city has floated $18 million in bonds to cover its share of the projected $30 million cost. The project calls for 1,700 more seats, 20 skyboxes, 766 club seats, a second level, a new party deck and restaurant, new picnic areas, a children’s play area, new clubhouses, state-of-the-art concession areas, and a new entryway. The overall look and feel of the new stadium improvements will ultimately give a Camden Yards feel to it, utilizing historic brick architecture for the stadiums new entryway and grandstand. Originally, the renovations were to have been implemented to help lure a move from the Ottawa Lynx, the Triple A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. The Ottawa affiliation will be taken over, however, by the Philadelphia Phillies in 2007, who will move the franchise to Allentown, PA in 2008. The Orioles also signed an affiliation agreement with the Norfolk Tides. With their proximity to Baltimore and the success of baseball in Norfolk, along with 2 AAA franchises in Eastern Pennsylvania, and other cities in the area gaining independent franchises, the city of Harrisburg is very unlikely to see AAA baseball any time soon.

Stadium Dimensions

The ballpark’s dimensions are fairly basic. The walls at the left and right field lines are 335 feet from home plate, and the center field wall is 400 feet from home plate, with the outfield wall pretty much the same setup that multi-purpose stadiums had in the 80′s (though Commerce Bank Park itself is not a multi-purpose stadium), with no extra bends or such in the wall, and the height of the wall at 8 feet. Billboards also ring around by the walls, and reach a height of 16 feet. Anything that hits the billboards are home runs.

Foul territory also varies, as behind home plate, there is a small amount of foul ground. However, the further out toward the outfield, the wall on the foul ground stays somewhat parallel to the foul line in both left and right field, with only the box seats sticking out into foul ground helping reduce the area somewhat. The bullpens are also located out in the foul territory by the outfield walls.

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Prince George’s Stadium is the home of the Baltimore Orioles’ AA affiliate in the Eastern League, the Bowie Baysox.

The stadium, originally slated to open at the start of the 1994 season, did not open until July 16, 1994, because of construction delays due to poor weather. Its capacity for baseball is listed at 10,000, but when the Double-A All-Star Game was held there in 2000, the attendance was about 14,000. The 2002 Major League Lacrosse All-Star Game was held at the stadium.

While the stadium was being finished, the Baysox played one full season (1993) at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium and a few series in 1994 at fields belonging to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, and the University of Maryland, College Park, as well as the minor league stadiums of the Frederick Keys and Wilmington Blue Rocks.

PGS is located near the intersection of U.S. Route 301 and U.S. Route 50. It has been host to the AA All-Star Game, the “Congressional Ball Game,” the annual Allen Iverson charity softball game, a lacrosse tournament, movie nights, concerts, and Halloween activities in addition to its primary function as a baseball park. In addition, the Baysox operate a drive-in theater in the stadium’s left-field parking lot during the Baysox’ road trips.

Due to its close proximity to many local military bases, the stadium is also regularly the site of many related promotions involving enlisted persons. For example, on 14 June 2007, 5,000 Baysox tickets were distributed to soldiers to celebrate Flag Day with professional wrestler Sergeant Slaughter.

In 2004, it served as the home of the D.C. Forward, the city’s Pro Cricket team.

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