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ARCHIVE: New Al Lang Stadium Glistening, Not Creaky
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Published: February 13, 1977
Updated: 02/10/2008 03:43 pm
St. Peterburg - Tears of joy would trickle from the proud eyes of Al Lang. Baseball fans who sat in the creaky wooden stands at old Al Lang Field for years will stare in wonder.
Virtually on the spot of old Al Lang Field, named for the man who brought major league Spring Training to the city, has risen a glistening-new $2,650,000 ballpark.
It's name, Al Lang Stadium.
Jack Puryear, City Parks Department director, says it will be ready for dedication, March 12, when the St. Louis Cardinals play the New York Mets.
They're planning a celebration which will go on for two or three days. Included will be a banquet and the guest appearance of as many of baseball's Hall of Famers as the Chamber of Commerce can arrange to come.
Al Lang Stadium is a mini-major league ballpark.
It will seat 7,800, including 6,300 in the grandstand which, unlike the old wooden stands, is virtually free from obstructions.
Because of a now different configuration, the foul-line distances are now 330 feet, compared with the short 309 in old Al Lang. It is 400 to center.
There's a concrete fence. The infield has natural grass. Perhaps in the future they will go back to artificial turf which Al Lang Field had the past several years but had rotted underneath.
As in major league parks, player entrances lead directly from the dugouts into their dressing rooms.
The two dressing rooms are virtually alike and contain a total of 118 lockers.
The old dressing quarters which fronted on 2nd Avenue will be remodeled into a baseball museum which Robbie Robinson and the Chamber of Commerce are pushing.
The stadium has a uniquely designed cantilever roof and the stands are arranged that additional concrete bleachers can be added on both ends to double the size, if needed in the future. For now, wooden bleachers will be adequate.
Seating is in three sections. Fold-up aluminum chairs make up the first two levels with nine rows (at its highest location) of red seats serving as boxes and five rows of blue seats making up the loge section. There are 16 rows of aluminum bench seats. The top row is about 50 feet up from field level, but the stands' angle is such that the view from the top is superb.
Ramps lead to concessions and rest rooms, all easily accesible.
The Cardinals and the Mets and the St. Petersburg Cardinals of the Class A Florida State League will all have stadium offices.
The pressbox is glass-enclosed.
The scoreboard will be located in left-center.
The hitters backdrop is of metal construction, compared with the old canvas contraption.
Behid it, just off the Bayfront Center parking lot, will be the batting cages.
2nd Ave is gone. It's part of a 372-space parking lot being built. But, there will be a drive-in lane for unloading fans virtually at the stadium front gate.
Counting the Bayfront lots and the city-owned lot on the west side of 1st Street, stadium fans will have 1,742 parking spaces available to them.
New lights are up which probably will make it the best-lit stadium in Florida.
This artical originally appeared in the Tampa Tribune-Times, February 13th 1977
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