Wow. The Nationals are just a tad further along. They must not have had a land dispute.

Jeff, the groundbreaking for the Nats park was in May 2006, so obviously they are further along. It's scheduled to open in 2008.

I was listening to Pat Ruesse on the radio recently and he thought that the Twins and Nationals stadiums were passed in the same Legislative timeframes. He was chastizing Hennepin County for taking so long in getting started compared to D.C. His dates must have been off. Thanks for the clarification.

Citi Field construction pic. Click link.

HAS ANYONE NOTICED HOW LOUSY THE SEATING IS IN FOUL TERRITORY ON THE 3RD BASE SIDE? THE FARTHER DOWN THE LINE YOU GET, THE WORSE THE SIGHT LINE. IF YOU'RE SITTING PAST 3RD BASE YOU'RE LOOKING RIGHT AT THE CENTER FIELDER. CLASSIC HOK SEATING BOWL THAT IS PARRALEL TO THE FOUL LINE. I DON'T LIKE IT. WASN'T THAT THE PROBLEM WITH THE DOME? I'M GLAD THERE WILL BE A NEW BALLPARK BUT I KNEW HOK WOULD SCREW UP THE SEATING DIRECTION.

John, I was at HoK's At&t Park in San Francisco last week. What they do there, like many HoK and non-HoK parks is angle the seats in the outfield corners to face second base, unlike the Metrodome. It's not perfect, but that's why tickets are cheaper in the corners compared to behind homeplate.

I am not trying to defend HoK, in fact I can't stand their generic seating arrangements compared to cantilevered decks. Obviously club seats and boxes are a priority to MLB teams and HoK.

Rick, do you know what role HGA had in the design? I've heard that they had a lot to do with the exterior design and HoK developed their typical structure, seating alignments, and overall engineering.

The direction of the aisle dictates the direction that the seats will face. Unless there is a new "angled" seat design I don't know about...

Click on link to see At&t park's 3rd baseline.

Thanks Rick as always. This very much concerns me as this is a clean slate and those seats look terrible. Hopefully they have an angled seat design because the structure is parallel with the foul line. I think I may have noticed this (upper deck) at PetCo in SD, but I can't remember where I saw the photos.

Lafferty - I think you're missing the point. You are stating the obvoius.

Rick - thanks for the update on the seats. I assumed the seats must be different than the angle of the aisle, but its nice to get a confirmation and a picture.

JOHN, how am I stating the obvious? I simply used At&t Park as an example of how many ballparks angle their outfield corner seats toward second base. You admitted that you've never heard of that, and Rick has a link that shows another example.

I really appreciate your concern for the Twins getting it right. I've been to almost every ballpark in bigs and hope that the new Twins field will be considered one of the best in baseball.

peace

Thank you once again Rick. I thought PetCo had angled seats but could not find a photo. You, of course, did just that! Now if they could just swap some of those in the dome when the Twins play... THX!

Laferty, I was talking about the seats down the third base line, not in the outfiled corners...Every baseball stadium in the country angles the outfield corner seats... Your link would't work so I could only go by your words.

Rick...do you know when the new drawings are going to be released? Ground breaking?

MOJO - the official ground breaking ceremony is August 2. Although now that I read your message again, maybe you are asking if the new drawings will be released at the official ground breaking, in which case just ignore my message.

From stadiumpage.com, here is a wide shot of the Yankee Stadium II construction. Click link.

Here is a pic of the proposed Montreal Expos stadium.

Have they announced the color scheme for the seats yet? I'm hoping there isn't any blue. That nationals park looks rather blah.

Tim, I want blue seats. All baseball,
football, and soccer fields are green. I
see wisdom in placing other colors around such fields. Blue has blended in
very well with green fields for years.
The Metrodome, Turner Field, Yankee
Stadium, Three Rivers Stadium, Tiger
Stadium, and Atlanta Fulton County Stadium are examples. The walls need
other colors as well (blue is great!).
Thanks.

I wouldn't mind a dark blue color scheme with red and white accents to match the Twins colors. I don't want the same bright blue we've had at the dome. Green is also used at many great ballparks.

The seats are going to be "Fenway green" unless something has changed during the last two months.

I would also like to see dark blue seats such as Kauffman Stadium (Kansas City), PNC Park (Pittsburgh), and Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia). Green is used in too many new ballparks such as Milwaukee, Baltimore, Houston, Seattle, Cleveland, Texas and so on. It would be nice to have dark blue seats to resemble "The Land of the Lakes". Dark blue seats would look good with the green grass and the limestone. I know some of you may say the Metrodome already has blue seats, but those are more of a royal/bright blue. I want to see a dark/navy blue, even though I am pretty sure the decision has been made to go "Fenway Green" with the seats.

On another note...Has anyone seen any of the latest renderings? Word has it there has been new renderings since the initial renderings in April. I would like to see some renderings of a "Night game" with the lights on and the city skyline. Also, I would like to see a cross-section comparison to the Metrodome to see how the seats compare as far as height and distance from the field. They have a few nice cross-section plans for the new ballpark, but I would like to see how the new ballpark compares to the Metrodome, especially the Upper Deck.

I agree Luke, green is too common in the new parks. I don't understand why more teams don't use multiple colors like Dodger Stadium. The Twins could go with dark blue in the lower decks and Twins red in the upper deck. Why not put the TC logo in the seats behind homeplate like Mile High Stadium. Instead, we might get something boring and stale like Citi Field. Click link for pic.

Let's just make sure those seats get filled every night so we won't be able to notice the color.

Does anyone know when the new/revised renderings will be made available?

For those in the know, what efforts have been made to celebrate the rich tradition of baseball in Minnesota, including the Twins?

With the scheduled 2010 completion date, it would seem logical to have a Twins (Minnesota baseball/sports) museum launch simeltaneously in commemoration of 50 wonderful years.

To Jeff T: The nationals did not have a land dispute. What they DID have was a dispute between MLB and the DC City Councel that nearly scuttled the whole deal.

It'd be nice to have something to pay homage to the old Met and, yes, the Dome as well. A museum space would be nice and would enhance the experience of going to the game.

Looking at the webcam, it appears that one could walk from North 6th St (near Ford Ctr) over the North 5th St overpass to Target Ctr. Is this so, or is the overpass still blocked by your construction?