Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Perhaps The Loge Level Will Finally Get Secret Urinal Rooms, Too

Frank McCourt upgraded the facilities on the field level, but never got to addressing improvements on other levels of Dodger Stadium, particularly the Loge and Reserve level areas which make one feel vulnerable to being jumped from behind. Dimly lit bathrooms with 1950s-era troughs and concrete walls are in dire need of upgrades, particularly juxtaposed against the new secret areas added to the field level.

Enter Janet Marie Smith, who hopefully will help usher Dodger Stadium into a new improved era:

LOS ANGELES -- After making a number of moves to help the Dodgers on the field, the new ownership made a big one on Monday to help the organization off of it as the team announced the hiring of Janet Marie Smith as senior vice president of planning and development.

"Dodger Stadium is one of the most iconic venues in sports and Janet Marie is one of the few people I would trust with its future," team president Stan Kasten said in a statement. "She respects baseball's tradition and knows how to retain a ballpark's distinctive charms while providing fans with the amenities and comfort they've come to expect.

"Any fan that has walked through the gates at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the renovated Fenway Park or Atlanta's Turner Field has been a beneficiary of her understanding of what a ballpark means to its community. Every new baseball stadium built since 1992 has been influenced by what she helped build at Camden Yards."

Smith said in a statement that she is excited to work with the Dodgers' new ownership and she is looking forward to finding ways to create a better fan experience. Since taking over, the new ownership group has stressed the importance of doing just that.

"Dodger Stadium is a treasured piece of the Los Angeles community and a special place where I watched more than a dozen games per season when I lived in L.A. during the early 1980s," she said. "It's important to all of us that we restore and enhance the park in a way that honors its heritage and highlights its distinctive appeals, while still capturing what fans want and franchises need in a modern venue."

I'm a big fan of Camden Yards (technically, OPaCY), having been blown away by it when it opened in 1992, and then having come back to visit it a handful of times in my life. It's a beautiful park, with charm and care and love oozing from the ballpark (despite the fact that little of that has emanated from the team itself, not to mention the owner).

If Smith can help Dodger Stadium capture some of that feel, it would be awesome. I'll take it. Welcome, Janet Marie!

photo swiped from here

4 comments:

DodgersKingsoftheGalaxy said...

WTH Sax i don't wanna see an old man wizzing in 2008!

spank said...

MEXICO!

Dusty Baker said...

Great move for Dodgers.Especially like her work in renovating Fenway, which called for upgrades but preservation of what works and shouldn't change. Just the prescription for DS.

Hideo Nomo said...

Ah, so that's where they've been stashing Urine.