Padres' Home Stadium Getting Some Upgrades

In the middle of the 2014 season, the Padres moved one of their left field scoreboards and caught some flack from fans. Turns out, they had a reason for the change.

On Thursday the Padres announced a massive change to the left field area at Petco Park, and when I say massive, I'm speaking literally.

A new high-definition video display system is replacing the video board that's been there since the stadium opened in 2004.

It's 61.2-feet tall by 123.6-feet wide, covering 7,564.32 square feet, the third-largest in Major League Baseball (behind Seattle's Safeco Field and Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City). That's nearly five times the size of the current video screen (30-feet tall by 53-feet wide; 1,590 square feet). The entire board can be run full-screen to show live action or video replays, or it can be split into sections for statistical information, graphics and animations.

But that's not all! New LED ribbon boards spanning nearly 750 feet along the first and third base lines, as well as on the left field grandstand fascia, are going in.

Of course, a bigger board and more electronic screens take up more space, so seating will have to change a bit. Two new rows of seats (171 total) will be added to the front of the Left Field Lower Box spanning sections 126, 128, 130, 132 and 134, while 110 fixed seats will be removed from from the back rows of these sections. That back area will be replaced by a number of bar stool seats to create another fan gathering area.

The Left Field Upper Box overhang will also be scaled back and raised four feet. That means 192 existing seats will become 111 barstool seats.

Also, 610 seats from the top of the Left Field Reserved sections will be replaced by what the team calls a, "new social group space" that can hold 270 people.

All the changes will reduce Petco Park's overall seating capacity, but season ticket holders will have the option to choose new seats in at the same renewal price.

Oh, and there's one more change of note. The new seating arrangement is forcing the padded wall that runs from left field through left-center field to be brought in about three feet. It will also be lowered from eight feet to seven feet in height.

We'll have to wait and see how the alterations look aesthetically, but at this point, anything that might help the Padres score runs is a reason to be excited.

Demolition begins next week. All the changes are scheduled to be completed in time for the home opener on April 9 against the World Champion San Francisco Giants.

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