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April 3, 2008
AP photo / Elise Amendola
Wade Sutton, of Merrimack, N.H., welds on a column in the upper left stands of Fenway Park this morning, as the ballpark is readied for Tuesday's home opener against the Detroit Tigers.
BOSTON (AP) - The Boston Red Sox have maxed out Fenway Park in their seventh year of offseason renovations, bringing the capacity of the oldest and smallest ballpark in the majors to 39,928 with no plans to add more.
"We decided never to have a number that started with a '4' for Fenway," said Janet Marie Smith, the team's point person on the ballpark improvements.
But she added: "I don't think we've run out of ideas, yet."
The Red Sox have steadily upgraded Fenway since the current owners bought the team in 2002, with the most visible change being the seats added above the Green Monster in 2003. Along the way, they've increased the capacity from under 34,000 seats to almost 40,000.
"With the Yankees opening a new ballpark in 2009, they have dramatic new revenue sources," Red Sox president Larry Lucchino said Tuesday after giving the media and Boston city officials a tour of the new changes. "So we've got to do everything we can to make this little engine that could keep up with the bullet train in the Bronx."
Among the changes fans will see first is the replacement of a temporary trailer that had been installed for the 1999 All-Star game with a permanent luxury suite. Farther down the third-base line in the upper deck is a new section with 412 more seats and a standing room section behind. There's also more handicapped seating in the bleachers.
Four new electronic scoreboards along the face of the upper deck bring the ballpark into the 21st century technologically. But, Smith said, the graphics used on the LED screens will be limited to information like scorelines and batting statistics, instead of the fancy graphics used at many arenas.
"It's the best technology one can buy," Smith said, "but the presentation of the information is very traditional."
A new Coca-Cola sign down the left-field line will be familiar to old-timers who might remember the one at the Coke plant off Storrow Drive as it followed the Charles River toward Harvard Square. The Coke bottles that used to line the light tower above the Green Monster are gone.
The Red Sox also added a stairwell and elevator in the same corner to improve the flow to and from the seats. Several luxury suites have been renovated.
Life will be a little bit better for the defending World Series champions, who have a professionally equipped kitchen upstairs from the clubhouse; previously, all their food had to be brought in from outside. Although the clubhouse itself remains the same size, it feels much bigger with the removal of a drop ceiling.
The clubhouse, which was about 8,000 square feet in 2002, now measures about 16,000 feet, including family rooms, workout rooms and the new kitchen.
Picnic tables and concession stands also have been added. A new restaurant under the center field bleachers, where there had been a batting cage, is scheduled to open in May.
Some things fans might not notice:
-The repair and waterproofing of concrete under the bleachers. The seats were removed and replaced, though the "Red Seat" that had marked the spot where Ted Williams allegedly hit his longest home run was returned.
-Sprinkler systems and structural stabilization throughout the concourse and seating areas.
"Our goal is for our fans to come in and breathe a sigh of relief that they're back, and it's still Fenway," Smith said. "We don't want it to look like we put the effort into it that in fact we had."
Posted by Mike McDermott 
at 1:43 PM | Permalink
