The refurbished Anaheim Stadium in California may become the model for renovating Cincinnati's Cinergy Field for the Reds baseball team.
Hamilton County Administrator David Krings, who traveled there over the weekend to review the facility, said it looked impressive to him.
Mr. Krings said in a telephone conversation Sunday from Anaheim that he thinks the stadium should be given serious consideration as a model for transforming Cinergy Field.
A 'new' Cinergy
As envisioned by HOK Sports Facilities Group Inc. in 1994 drawings:
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Outfield walls with upper-deck seats cut out to present a new view of the downtown skyline.
Redesigned entrances
and ramps.
An outfield picnic section.
A steel-and-glass stadium club in right field that resembles the one at Cleveland's Jacobs Field.
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The 1960s multipurpose Anaheim stadium is undergoing a $100 million face lift to be remade into a baseball-only stadium for the California Angels.
''It looks like a brand-new stadium,'' Mr. Krings said. ''The stadium has been opened up to eliminate the bowl appearance. It has new suites, seats, lockers; completely new batting practice and pitching areas; a family picnic area; and will have natural grass when it opens in nine weeks.''
Mr. Krings said the turf is still torn up in preparation for the natural grass.
The stadium seated 64,000 when it was used by the California Angels and the Los Angles Rams. It will seat 45,000 when in opens this year for the Angels.
''As of now, (neither) the commissioners nor the (Reds) team have made a decision, but I think what has been done to this stadium is worth looking at,'' Mr. Krings said.
Hamilton County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus has advanced the idea of looking at transforming Cinergy Field - among the concrete stadiums of the 1970s.
He said renovating Cinergy Field along with Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia and Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh could represent the new wave of baseball solutions, reusing the assets in place and transforming them into new experiences. Mr. Krings visited Anaheim along with John Michel, the Hamilton County public works official in charge of stadium designs.
Meanwhile, Bengals President and General Manager Mike Brown has given city and county officials until Jan. 31 to settle a land dispute that has delayed a proposal for a new football stadium.
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