BGuthrie Photos: CA -- San Diego -- PETCO Park

CA -- San Diego -- PETCO Park:

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[1] PETCO_070727_005.JPG	[2] PETCO_070727_009.JPG	[3] PETCO_070727_014.JPG
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Wikipedia Description: PETCO Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

PETCO Park is an open-air stadium in downtown San Diego, California. It opened in 2004, replacing Qualcomm Stadium as the home park of Major League Baseball's San Diego Padres. Before then, the Padres shared Qualcomm Stadium with the NFL's San Diego Chargers. Starting from 2007, PETCO Park also hosts the USA Sevens international rugby union sevens event every year. The stadium is named after the animal and pet supplies retailer PETCO, which is based in San Diego and paid for the naming rights. Since the retailer spells its name in all capital letters, mere initial capitalization as "Petco Park" is not correct.

The construction cost of over $450 million was partially funded by the Center City Development Corporation and the San Diego Redevelopment Agency. The stadium is intended to be part of a comprehensive plan to revitalize San Diego's aging downtown, particularly the East Village area east of the Gaslamp Quarter. The stadium is located across Harbor Drive from the San Diego Convention Center.

PETCO Park differentiates itself from many other Major League Baseball ballparks built in the same era by eschewing "retro"-style red brick and green seats. The stadium is clad in Indian sandstone and stucco; its exposed steel is painted white and the 42,445 fixed seats are dark blue. The design is meant to evoke the sandy color of San Diego cliffs and beaches, the blue of the ocean, and the white sails of boats on the nearby bay.

Architects HOK Sport and Antoine Predock's design pulled restaurants, administrative offices and other amenities away from the seating bowl itself into other buildings surrounding the bowl. As a result, the ballpark's concourses are open not only to the playing field but also to the surrounding city. Unlike most outdoor ballparks, in which the batter faces in a northeasterly direction, in this ballpark the batter faces due north, and fans in the grandstands are treated to a view of San Diego Bay and the San Diego skyline beyond the left field seats, and a view of Balboa Park, which contains the San Diego Zoo, beyond center field. The ballpark was constructed by San Diego Ballpark Builders, a partnership with Clark Construction, Nielsen Dillingham and Douglas E. Barnhart, Inc.

The San Diego Union-Tribune honored PETCO Park in 2006 with an Orchid award for its design.

An excellent example of adaptive reuse, the Western Metal Supply company building, a hundred-year old structure that had been scheduled for demolition to make way for PETCO Park, was saved and incorporated into the design of the ballpark. The building was renovated and contains the team store, private suites, a restaurant and rooftop seating. The corner of the building serves as the left field foul-pole.

The Park at the Park, a grassy berm sloping above the outfield fence, is open during game time, allowing fans to sit and watch games for a small price of $5. When no games are being played, the Park at the Park serves as a free local park for area residents.

A 30-by-53 foot (9 x 16 m) LED video board, dubbed FriarVision, offers high-resolution replays and graphics, even in direct sunlight. Atop FriarVision in the left-field stands is a 34-by-80 foot (10.4 x 24.4 m) Matrix scoreboard displaying animation and cheer graphics, lineups, stats, and game information. Along the upper concourses are LED fascia video boards showing animation and graphics. The one along the first-base side is 3 feet by 236 feet (1 x 72 m) while the third-base side is 3 feet by 252 feet (1 x 77 m).

Fans in concession stands, in bars, restaurants or wandering the stands can watch the action on 244 high-definition TV monitors and an additional 500 standard-definition TVs. More than 500 computer-controlled speakers throughout the park deliver the sound as a "distributed signal," eliminating the audio delay from a central bank of speakers, such as the system at Qualcomm Stadium. Four stationary cameras, one roving camera and use of six Cox-TV cameras provide videos for the park's screens.

The official address of PETCO Park is 19 Tony Gwynn Way, in honor of the eight-time National League batting champion who wore that uniform number during his entire major league career with the Padres. In the first game ever played at PETCO Park, on March 11, 2004, the San Diego State Aztec baseball team, of which Gwynn is the head coach, notched a victory.

The stadium offered fans the chance to purchase bricks outside of the concourse and to dedicate them. Soon after this, PETA bought a brick and protesting PETCO's treatment of animals, tried to sneak a secret message into the engraving. It said, "Break Open Your Cold Ones! Toast The Padres! Enjoy This Championship Organization!" The first letter of each word spelled out the message, "BOYCOTT PETCO." The Padres decided to leave the brick there, saying not enough people walking by would notice the secret meaning.

On March 18 and 20, 2006, the ballpark hosted the Semi-Finals and the Finals of the first World Baseball Classic.

The stadium's first concert came on November 11, 2005, when it hosted The Rolling Stones.

In February 2007, PETCO Park became the new host of the USA Sevens, a rugby union sevens event within the IRB Sevens World Series. Previous editions of the USA Sevens had been held at The Home Depot Center in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson.

An unusual feature that PETCO Park has is that one of the bullpens is in the outfield while the other bullpen is down a baseline. The Padres' bullpen is located behind left-center field wall while the visiting team's bullpen is down the first-base line.

PETCO Park has the distinction of being the best "pitcher's park" in Major League Baseball due to, among other things, its cavernous dimensions.
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