1. History

2. Facilities

3. Events

4. See also

5. References

6. External links

Sahlen Field (formerly Pilot Field, North AmeriCare Park, Downtown Ballpark, Dunn Tire Park and, most recently, Coca-Cola Field) is a 16,907-seat baseball park in Buffalo, New York, which hosted its first regular season baseball game on April 14, 1988, as the tenants of the facility, the Buffalo Bisons, defeated the Denver Zephyrs, 1-0.^[5] HOK Sport (now known as Populous) designed the park as one of the first retro-classic ballparks. This concept featured classic and distinctive architecture, a grass, baseball-specific design and a location within the downtown core. The same firm would bring this concept to the major leagues four years later with Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

History

At the time of the stadium's construction, Buffalo was hoping to get either an expansion Major League Baseball team or a relocated team; Buffalo was one of the five finalists in the early 1990s National League expansion process, which led to the 1993 debuts of the Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins. The ballpark was originally built with a seating capacity of 19,500 people,^[6] which making it the third-largest stadium in minor league baseball and the overall design allows for future expansion to accommodate a major league team: capacity could be increased to nearly 40,000 by double-decking the existing mezzanine. In the first season the Bisons played at the stadium, the team shattered the previous minor-league attendance record, as many Buffalonians and visitors traveled downtown to enjoy the amenities offered by the new facility, which replaced the old War Memorial Stadium (where the Buffalo Bills played from its inception in 1960 until 1973, when it moved to its current location in Orchard Park) as the Bisons' home where, in this inaugural season, the Bisons outdrew a number of Major League Baseball teams.^[7]

After several years as Pilot Field, there was a dispute involving the naming rights to the stadium following Pilot Air Freight's defaulting on naming rights payments. For part of a season, the stadium was known locally simply as the "Downtown Ballpark." In July 1995, however, another company stepped in and acquired the naming rights and the stadium became known as North AmeriCare Park. The stadium maintained this moniker for only a few years, however. Prior to the start of the 1999 season, Dunn Tire, a local chain of retail tire outlets, became the naming rights holder for the stadium, hence the name Dunn Tire Park. On December 17, 2008, the Buffalo News reported that a new naming deal had been reached with the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Buffalo, with the stadium renamed as Coca-Cola Field for the 2009 season.^[8] With the Omaha Royals moving out of Rosenblatt Stadium after the 2011 season, Coca-Cola Field became the highest-capacity minor league baseball stadium in the United States.^[9] Before the baseball field was built, the corner of Swan and Washington was the site of Ellsworth Statler's first hotel, Statler Hotel.^[10] It was later called the Hotel Buffalo after Statler built a new Statler Hotel on Niagara Square in 1923 and sold this one. Before the Statler Hotel, here was St. John's Episcopal Church built from 1846-1848 on land donated by Joseph Ellicott,^[11] remained in use until 1893 and finally demolished in 1906.^[12] The 2019 season will be the 32nd for the Bisons ballpark. On March 29, 2018, it was announced the Coca-Cola Bottling Company would not be renewing their naming rights on Coca-Cola Field beginning in 2019. In a statement, the Bisons stated they would continue their partnership with the company, but not the naming rights to the stadium.^[13] On October 9, 2018, the ballpark was renamed to Sahlen Field, as the Bisons and local hot dog packaging company Sahlen's announced a 10-year naming rights deal.^[14]

The Bisons' lease on Sahlen Field expires at the end of the 2019 season; the Bisons have begun negotiations for renewal at the start of that season.^[15]

Facilities

In 2011, the Buffalo Bisons added a new state of the art video screen board which is 80' wide by 34' tall and provides fans with 2,500 square feet of entertainment. The screen is the largest high-definition LED video display in all of Minor League Baseball.^[16] Along with the new video board, a new lighting system was added for Coca-Cola Field, which cost over $970,000 and contains fewer bulbs and emits more light than the old lights.^[1] For the 2014 season, $500,000 was spent in improvements to Coca-Cola Field, which included a new sound system to replace the dated version which had been in house since the ballpark's opening and the installation of new LED message boards on the facing of the club level down both baselines.^[17] On August 22, 2014, it was announced the stadium would get new seats for the 2015 season, replacing 3,700 original seats from the ballpark's opening, which were installed during the offseason and these seats are for specially reserved sections, dropping the capacity of the stadium from 18,025 to 17,600.^[18][19] On August 22, 2016, the second phase of new seating project was announced to take place over the offseason. Seats in sections 115-122 were replaced with seats identical to those that were installed during Phase 1, dropping the capacity of the stadium from 17,600 to 16,907.^[20] An additional 2,100 seats were replaced in early 2019, further reducing seating capacity to 16,600.^[15] Sahlen Field is served by the Seneca Station on the Buffalo Metro Rail.

Events

Sahlen Field was also home to the Buffalo Nighthawks of the short-lived Ladies Professional Baseball League in 1998,{{cn|date=July 2018}} when it was known as North AmeriCare Park. Other events hosted at the stadium include the "Ballpark Brawl" annual wrestling events, the annual Taste of Country in June and the annual National Buffalo Wing Festival on Labor Day Weekend.^[21] The ballpark has hosted the Triple-A All-Star Game twice, with Pilot Field hosting the inaugural game in 1988 in which the American League-affiliated team defeated the National League-affiliated team, 2-1^[22] and Coca-Cola Field hosting the 25th Annual Triple-A All-Star Game in 2012 in which the Pacific Coast League stars defeated the International League stars, 3-0. Buffalo's Matt Harvey was selected as the IL MVP.^[23]

See also

• War Memorial Stadium (Buffalo)
• Offermann Stadium

References

External links

• Coca-Cola Field
• Rochester Area Ballparks – Coca-Cola Field
• Coca-Cola Field Views – Ball Parks of the Minor Leagues

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