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Ford Frick's proposed new stadium
I was doing some research on O'Malley's threat to move the Dodgers out of LA in 1958 and came across this gem on the LA Times blog:
The picture is below. Amazing, simply amazing. How much things have changed, and how much has stayed the same.
I was doing some research on O'Malley's threat to move the Dodgers out of LA in 1958 and came across this gem on the LA Times blog:
Back in 1958, baseball was undergoing one of those generational shifts caused in large part by the Dodgers and Giants moving to California. A story published in This Week magazine, which was distributed in The Times, offered a sense of desperation and inspiration from the game’s leading official.
Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick suggested a new kind of ballpark that he said could solve the game’s problems. The stadium could be used all year, in any weather, for everything from baseball to curling matches. He called it a sports palace.
What kind of features would be part of this palace? The story includes an artist’s conception of the super stadium with a movable or translucent roof, multi-level parking, air conditioning, restaurant, movie theater, race track and subway station. Frick called the concept an ultra-modern community center. Oh, yeah, there would be a field for baseball too.
"Sure, it would cost a fortune," Frick told writer Al Hirshberg. "But so does a one-sport park. Why spend something like $10 million for a park you can’t use in winter or bad weather when, for a few million more, you can build the kind of plant I have in mind? It would pay for itself in a few years."
Some of the commissioner’s comments about financing such a venture seem, well, refreshing.
"As a baseball man, you’d go to a city and offer to pay your share. You can’t say, 'If you don’t build a sports palace I’ll take my ballclub somewhere else.' "
Frick served as baseball commissioner from 1951 to 1965. The closest thing to a sports palace built during Frick’s era probably was the Houston Astrodome, which opened in 1965 and was home to baseball’s Astros and football’s Oilers.
Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick suggested a new kind of ballpark that he said could solve the game’s problems. The stadium could be used all year, in any weather, for everything from baseball to curling matches. He called it a sports palace.
What kind of features would be part of this palace? The story includes an artist’s conception of the super stadium with a movable or translucent roof, multi-level parking, air conditioning, restaurant, movie theater, race track and subway station. Frick called the concept an ultra-modern community center. Oh, yeah, there would be a field for baseball too.
"Sure, it would cost a fortune," Frick told writer Al Hirshberg. "But so does a one-sport park. Why spend something like $10 million for a park you can’t use in winter or bad weather when, for a few million more, you can build the kind of plant I have in mind? It would pay for itself in a few years."
Some of the commissioner’s comments about financing such a venture seem, well, refreshing.
"As a baseball man, you’d go to a city and offer to pay your share. You can’t say, 'If you don’t build a sports palace I’ll take my ballclub somewhere else.' "
Frick served as baseball commissioner from 1951 to 1965. The closest thing to a sports palace built during Frick’s era probably was the Houston Astrodome, which opened in 1965 and was home to baseball’s Astros and football’s Oilers.
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