Home Despot

Chairman Boz dons his thinking cap, looks around Busch Stadium, and likes what he sees. In an article that I can't find online, but is on the front page of the WaPo's print edition, Boswell lays out a scenario for how to spruce up RFK to make it look less like a cookie cutter, and more like Busch.

His plan?

• Add four rows of premium seats in front of the field boxes to reduce the foul territory.
  
• Move the bullpens closer to center, and wrap the lower reserved seats around to fair territory.
  
• Near the bullpens, put backless bleachers to sell on the cheap.
  
• In that same area, install a patio area with some picnic tables.
  
• Rip out the 500-level seats in dead center to put a manual scoreboard; he notes that this could be cheaper than expected, and that the Cardinals display seems to be made out of plywood!
  
• Put a grass berm in center field (I don't think there's room).
  
• He suggest a number of other visual flairs to break the monotony of the stadium.

He has some interesting ideas. Some would work. Others wouldn't.

But without new ownership, none of that would get done by the start of next season anyway. And if the stadium really is set to open in 2008 (HA!), then some of these might be cost prohibitive, especially with an ownership group that's likely to be leveraged to the hilt.

I like his enthusiasm, but one thing struck me as I was reading it... Are stadium detractors going to seize upon this as evidence that RFK is good enough? Will they point to his suggestions and use this as evidence that with just a few million in improvements, that the stadium's A-OK? We'll find out....