Dodger Stadium’s $100 million renovation will add a two-acre “entertainment plaza” with plenty of food and drink options, following a trend by developers to boost retail offerings at ground-up and arena renovation projects.
The Dodgers’ Centerfield Plaza is meant as a “front door” for the stadium, according to the Los Angeles Daily News, and will provide some of the amenities that other stadiums already have.
Dodgers President Stan Katsen said the plaza “will encourage people to come early, to leave late if they wish,” according to the report.
The renovation is being led by the team’s senior planner Janet Marie Smith, who led a hugely successful renovation of Boston’s Fenway Park and the construction of the Baltimore Orioles’ Camden Yards park. That stadium, opened in 1992, has been credited with revitalizing the area and beginning the boom of new stadium construction.
The Dodgers, meanwhile, are looking to complete their addition before the start of the next baseball season in late spring. It will also include a new sound system and other stadium upgrades.
While the Dodger Stadium project is relatively small compared to some of the mega-stadiums and arenas in the works around the country, it follows the wider trend of adding retail and entertainment facilities to augment those sports arenas.
The $2.6 billion L.A. Stadium and Entertainment District in Inglewood — the future home of the L.A. Rams and L.A. Chargers NFL teams — is the most ambitious of those projects in the L.A. area. The project has spurred investment and development in the surrounding area, but has also fueled concerns over gentrification.
The owners of the New York Islanders want to build a 43-acre megaproject anchored by a 19,000-seat arena bounded by around 435,000 square feet of retail space and a 250-room hotel. [LADN] — Dennis Lynch