Guaranteed Rate Field

Guaranteed Rate Field
New Comiskey Park The Cell Sox Park The GWAR
Exterior view 2007
Earlier names
Comiskey Park II (1991-2003) US Cellular Field (2003-2016)
Data
place	333 West 35th Street Chicago , Illinois 60616
Coordinates	41 ° 49 '48.3 "  N , 87 ° 38' 2.6"  W Coordinates: 41 ° 49 '48.3 "  N , 87 ° 38' 2.6"  W.
owner	Illinois Sports Facilities Authority
operator	Chicago White Sox Ltd.
start of building	May 7, 1989
opening	April 18, 1991
Renovations	2001–2007, 2015–2016
surface	Natural grass ( Kentucky Bluegrass )
costs	167 million US dollars (1991) 118 million US dollars (2001-2007)
architect	HOK Sport
capacity	40,615 places (since 2004) 47,098 places (2003) 45,936 places (2001–2002) 44,321 places (1991–2000)
playing area	Left Field - 330 ft (100.5 m) Left Center - 375 ft (114 m) Center Field - 400 ft (122 m) Right Center - 375 ft (114 m) Right Field - 335 ft (102 m) Backstop - 60 ft (18 m)
Societies)
Chicago White Sox ( MLB , since 1991)
Events
MLB All-Star Game 2003 World Series 2005

The Guaranteed Rate Field is a ballpark in the US city ​​of Chicago in the state of Illinois . It is the home ground of baseball team the Chicago White Sox from the Major League Baseball (MLB).

history

The Guaranteed Rate Field, as it has been officially called since 2016, replaced Comiskey Park in 1991 . This was built shortly before the Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore started a new trend in ball park construction, the retro parks. A trend that more or less all new stadiums in the USA have followed since then. Comiskey II, as it was called at first, fell sharply, with a very concrete-heavy exterior, it was initially not well received by the fans.

So after only ten years the decision was made to extensively renovate the stadium. The interventions were large. B. the upper part of the upper tier (six rows of seats) to make the overhanging tiers more attractive to the outside and at the same time to enable a new roof, the shape of which is reminiscent of cast-iron models of earlier times. At the same time, new seats were created in the outfield.

By replacing the blue seats with green ones, a further step has been taken towards retro design. At the beginning of the 2007 season, the renovation work, which amounted to almost three quarters of the new construction costs, was completed.

On August 24, 2016, the Chicago White Sox announced the acquisition of the naming rights by Chicago-based mortgage lender Guaranteed Rate Inc. The White Sox venue officially bears the name Guaranteed Rate Field since November 1, 2016 . The owner, the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, gave its approval for the name change. The contract has a term of 13 years and the White Sox has an option to extend the agreement until 2030.

gallery

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  The stadium in the construction phase (September 1990)

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  US Cellular Field (May 2004)

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  The outer wall at Gate 3 (June 2012)

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  US Cellular Field on May 10, 2015 during the White Sox game against the Cincinnati Reds

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  Old US Cellular Field logo

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  Season opening 2016

Web links

Commons : Guaranteed Rate Field  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• mlb.mlb.com: stadium on the site of the Chicago White Sox (English)
• isfauthority.com: US Cellular Field (English)
• ballparkdigest.com: US Cellular Field / Chicago White Sox (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ stadionwelt.de: US Cellular Field soon history article from August 26, 2016
2. ↑ dnainfo.com: US Cellular Field Changing Name To Guaranteed Rate Field ( Memento of the original from August 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Article from August 24, 2016