“Mallparks: Baseball Stadiums and
the Culture of Consumption”
The author:
Michael T. Friedman
The publishing info:
Cornell University Press
324 pages, $49.95
Released July 15, 2023
The links:
The publishers website
At Bookshop.org
At Powells.com
At Vromans.com
At TheLastBookStoreLA
At Skylight Books
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Amazon.com
“Game of Edges: The Analytics Revolution
and the Future of Professional Sports”
The author:
Bruce Schoenfeld
The publishing info:
W.W. Norton & Co.
272 pages, $30
Released June 6, 2023
The links:
The publishers website
The authors website
At Bookshop.org
At Powells.com
At Vromans.com
At TheLastBookStoreLA
At Skylight Books
At DieselBookstore.com
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Amazon.com
The reviews in 90 feet or less
In June of 2020, right as the pandemic lock-down made everyone somewhat delirious, Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno announced intentions to do a deal that not only would include the purchase of the original Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium) and the land that surrounds it (mostly parking lots) from the city, but go forth with its long-rumored development of restaurants, shops, hotels and office space. Maybe a park or two. The plan could even knock down the park and edge it closer to the 57 Freeway and a large train station.
For the Angels, it’s all about their potential.
It would expand its footprint with a real estate pivot to enhance the value of a facility built primarily for them, aka The Big A, in 1966, which originally cost the city of Anaheim about $24 million.
For what it’s also worth, those plans are all on hold.
A city council corruption case blew up in their faces. Maybe for the better.
Moreno, who sniffed around about selling of the team last year, may now want to take a deep breath and figure out if a multi-year contract investment in Shohei Ohtani has more shorter-term value that could lead to this long-term expansion plan. Sure, it doesn’t have to be an either/or proposition. Both seem to have some bankable overlap.
The Angels’ news came a year after the Dodgers broke open a $100 million renovation plan, in June of 2019, that essentially connected all the levels of the stadium for better fan flow, as well as create a center field plaza that had more food, beer gardens, sports bars and musical platforms. No more separation of access. Now, the place had a “front-door” entry point that wasn’t part of the $18 million construction back in 1962.
For the Dodgers, it’s all about being more provincial.
It has done several sorts of retrofits on the retro-‘60s style facility that has managed to keep its “Wonder Years” vibe but still move forward with the needs and wants of modern-day fans.
The Guggenheim ownership team called this run-up to the 2020 MLB All Star Game as a “modernizing” and “upgrading” project, exceeding $350 million in costs. COVID canceled that event (the Dodgers got the 2022 game instead to show off its work) and it made for the reopening a bit of a thing unto itself when fans were welcome back.
This was really taking the idea forward that former owner Frank McCourt couldn’t complete. He had his own $400 million facelift project that was supposed to include restaurants and shopping, but that imploded when McCourt went bankrupt, sold the team off at auction, and somehow sneaked in a deal to keep the parking lots – the prime real estate for that kind of commercial expansion.
The Dodgers are amidst a new business mindset to “rip up the blueprint,” as described in a 2019 USA Today piece by Bob Nightengale. It means more than just an entertainment district, with night clubs and sports bars, but a place people can come year around to blow their paychecks.
“It’s not so much people interested in the statistics of baseball, but Fortnite, League of Legends, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, the immediacy of the environment, the gamification, fantasy, gambling and the social aspects of the narrative,” said one of the owners, Hollywood movie producer Peter Guber.
“If you don’t grow new tomatoes, you’re not going to have much marinara sauce in the future.’’
Now we can ask: Who’ll end up first with eggplant parmigiana on their faces?
The evolution of Angel Stadium and Dodger Stadium – both are somehow without a corporate naming rights deal to tarnish their purity – could be charted on a graph that looks like dueling roller coasters trying to out-dazzle the other. Neither appear to be finished with the ups and downs.
Both have their eye on a similar prize that has been sweeping MLB ballparks the last few years: Giving fans a reason to come more often to the general area, spend money, do more than just watch a baseball game from their seat, and then tell their friends about what a lovely experience it all was.
Because, in the 21st Century, that’s how we roll. Ballparks have morphed into shopping malls — which, as a stand-along concept, may be waning. But in the thought process of how to attract the next wave of consumers, seeds have been planted for a cutting-edge halo effect of supporting gambling parlors.
Hence, the titles of these books we have read with parallel interest.
Continue reading “Day 27 of 2023 baseball books: Hey, mallrat, scurring around in the cathedrals of commerce … who moved your cheese?”
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