The OTHER Ballpark in Louisville

[Teflon Skies]

Had this one in the hopper for GForce and got sidetracked - turning it into Armed Forces Stadium. I went back and put the finishing touches on his original request. (I still plan to go on a stadium hiatus - I swear)

I'll let GForce describe the park in a follow-up post, if he would be so inclined.

Bitmap: Humana Park at Churchill Downs

TS

[Kelric]

*drool*

[GForce22]

better than I could have hoped for TS. Thanks a lot.

GH

[asaintsfan]

Park hiatus....................lol....................u h ok!!!
AWESOME!!!

[Cuss16]

very cool

[SteveCox]

those PILES in the outfield!!

[Deft]

I might want to build a new stadium for the Louisville Jockeys just to use this pic. Thanks for the work Teflon!

[pallison14]

Absolutely fantastic!

[DreamTeams]

Excellent. I've got to work this one into my Metros. It's the sort of ballpark my Townsville Titans would call home with all of the green accents and all. Or pehaps I'll wait to make it the home of the future expansion Sterling Tomcats. Nah, I've gotta have it in there now, the Titans will play here and the Tomcats will get the Titans current design (your Tribune Park). Besides all this, my collection of excellent fictional parks (mostly of your creations) just grew again. Thanks.

[GForce22]

It took a lot of legwork, a lot of negotiating, but in the end the Louisville Thoroughbreds ended up with the ballpark of their dreams for the new United States Baseball Alliance. Humana Field at Churchill Downs has everything General Manager Mike Greenwell could have wanted. It's a gorgeous park, for one. It's at a location that has a built in attraction other than the club, a peak week in May that the league has already designated will be an annual homestand, and just the name...classic.
"If you were going to pick one spot in Louisville to put a stadium, this would be it," Greenwell said as we walked the outfield. "We made some concessions, as would be expected. This is hallowed, sacred ground here. We had no intention of violating that and we basically told the Churchill Downs folks that we would do whatever was needed."
The main concession is that, unlike most of the rest of the league, night games will be common on the weekends. The Churchill Downs brass was stonefaced that the park would not take away from the racetrack.
"We needed to work with their schedules and they needed to have a say in the development of the park, how it would look, be arranged." Though it may seem Humana and the Thoroughbreds were willing to be dictated to, Greenwell noted "our ownership stuck up for us a great deal. Humana has helped Churchill Downs as well, and they have offered substantial financial backing, probably more than any team in the league." When you walk into the park, that backing shows.

The field is more or less symmetrical, with left field providing a marginally deeper reach. The left field scoreboard will carry out of town games, but will also carry race results during day games. At 418 ft., center field is a nice poke, but the ball carries well in the open park, and should play as a neutral/slight hitters park, aiding doubles and average but hurting home runs.
One factor that could affect that is the center field bleachers. Though the stands are elevated above a black backdrop, they are not so high that a high release point from the opposing pitcher could yield significant issues during day games with white shirts in the stands. Though fans will be requested to wear colors when in those bleachers, it will not be enforced as a rule. "Telling people in Louisville in the heat of summer what they can wear is a losing proposition," Greenwell said.
Another detail of the park is the impact of the scoreboards, which create walls of varying heights in RF and LF. The scoreboards do not go all the way to the pole. Meaning there is an 11 foot fence on the left field line, an 18 foot fence where the scoreboard is, then an 8 foot fence around to right field until the scoreboard, which goes back up to 18 feet, before the 8 foot section from the end of the board to the foul pole.
The stands behind home plate go higher, giving an outstanding view of the Churchill Downs grounds. Part of the extra money Humana contributed to make the park a reality includes a cleaning staff double the size of most parks in the league. "We will keep this place immaculate," Greenwell noted, another prerequisite of the Churchill Downs crew.
The seats behind home plate have 5 rows with TVs that carry simulcasts of the races, and ushers in the area can take bets. In addition, there are ticket booths and tv's throughout the concourse, for those who want to catch both events when they run concurrently.
"We have the greatest park in the league," Greenwell said. "And I promise a team to match it."

Dimensions:
LF line: 327
LF: 357
LC 381
CF: 418
RC: 375
RF: 352
RF line: 322

Park Factor:

Avg RH: 102
Avg LH: 102
2B RH: 105
2B LH: 105
HR RH: 95
HR LH: 97

GH

[soxman]

What's the capacity GF?

[GForce22]

ahhhh...I made it 33500, but I made all parks for my league small. It's a fictional league running second to MLB. Putting 60,000 would just be unrealistic.

GH

[badfish]

OMG...that is a BEAUTIFUL ball park.

Teflon, have you sent any of your work to HOK?

[mh2365]

how do you put these stadiums into the game ... don't you need a park.dat and park.config file to do it?

[couriers]

Go to League Setup and select the Edit Ballparks option. From there you can either create a new ballpark or edit an existing one in order to get the desired dimensions and such.

[mh2365]

thanks