Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville

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Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville
Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.JPG
Location 301 A. Philip Randolph Boulevard
Jacksonville, Florida 32202
Broke ground December 11, 2001[1]
Opened April 4, 2003
Owner City of Jacksonville
Operator SMG
Surface Grass
Construction cost $34 million
($42.4 million in 2013 dollars[2])
Architect Populous (formerly HOK Sport)
Project manager Gilbane/Scheer/Renaissance[3]
Structural engineer Bliss & Nyitray, Inc.[4]
Services engineer John J. Christie & Associates, PC[5]
General contractor Barton-Malow[3]
Capacity 11,000 (Jacksonville Suns games)
Tenants
Jacksonville Suns (Minor League Baseball)
ACC Baseball Tournament (NCAA) (2005-2008)

The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville is a baseball park in Jacksonville, Florida. It is the home stadium of the Jacksonville Suns, who play in the Class Double-A Southern League. The facility opened in 2003.

Contents

[edit] History

The Baseball Grounds were proposed as part of the city planning program known as the Better Jacksonville Plan. It was designed to replace the aging Wolfson Park, the Suns' previous home. The facility cost $34 million and broke ground in 2002, with construction being completed the following year.[1]

The ballpark was the first completed project of the Better Jacksonville Plan. The Atlantic Coast Conference baseball championship was held at the venue from 2005-2008. The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets won the first ACC Tournament at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville, followed by the Clemson Tigers in 2006, the North Carolina Tar Heels in 2007, and the Miami Hurricanes in 2008.[1]

[edit] Features

Seen from space.

It has nearly 6,000 stadium-style chairs and can accommodate more than 11,000 fans, the highest capacity in all of Double-A baseball, with an old-fashioned design, brick facade and a grass seating berm and bleacher seating. It also features 12 luxury skyboxes, four skydecks, a large scoreboard and videoboard, a playground, and the "knuckle," a unique 9-foot-high (2.7 m) mound for seating at the left field corner. Other ballpark features include a souvenir shop, first aid facility, various seating levels and perspectives, an ample number of restrooms and concession areas, first-class in-seat concession services behind home plate, wide concourse and seating aisles and a state-of-the-art video scoreboard in left center field.[1]

The park has an in-house video broadcast of games provided by The Schelldorf Television Network. The ballpark is located in downtown Jacksonville, situated between Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena and EverBank Field.[1]

[edit] Attendance records

The largest crowd for a baseball game at the ballpark was 17,860, which occurred on May 25, 2005 during an ACC Baseball Tournament game between Florida State and North Carolina.[6]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 30°19′30″N 81°38′35″W / 30.324968°N 81.643069°W / 30.324968; -81.643069