When the Los Angeles Dodgers unveiled plans for a Dodger Stadium renovation, much of the attention understandably went to forthcoming eye-popping additions such as a center field plaza, overhauled pavilions and elevators and escalators.
The $100 million project is bringing about several other noteworthy changes, however, including doing away with the batter’s eye set up that’s been in place for multiple decades. “We’ve got a corrugated metal that’s going to be 80-feet wide on the permanent building,” Dodgers senior vice president of planning and development Janet Marie Smith said.
She’s overseeing the renovations and is renowned for not only her previous work in around Chavez Ravine but also the Baltimore Orioles’ construction of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the Atlanta Braves converting Olympic Stadium into Turner Field, and the preservation and expansion of Fenway Park.
“Gone is the tarp that formed our batter’s eye, gone is the scaffolding that we’ve been wrapping for decades. The cameras will be positioned on two levels in the structure; we’ve still got it set up so the cameras are stacked just as they were in the scaffolding but now in a concrete spot, so there’s no shaking and it looks better,” Smith explained.
“And we have cameras that are in the corners on the field wall, so we will be blocking those seats behind the cameras. We will be blocking the seats behind those cameras so there will not be fans in what is technically the batter’s eye, but we won’t need the tarp again.”
The Dodgers are also replacing their old speaker tower in center field with two structures, though they are not completely doing away with it. “The sound quality is going to be better with the two columns than with the single pole, so it’ll be better distributed,” Smith said.
“Our acoustical consultants have all these colored drawings, that if they’re right, all these color stays inside the park and doesn’t dribble out. It should be a better quality sound. If you were infatuated with those speakers, rest assured they are coming back. Some of the speakers are coming back.”
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