Author's Blog

July 31, 2010

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Northwest Stadiums - Day 11 Civic Stadium

I am on the last leg of trips to the Pacific Northwest to visit the professional baseball stadiums of Washington, Oregon, and Vancouver, B.C.  The trip is being reported on in a daily log posted at the blogsite at CaProParks.com.  Trip #1 – day 1 through 4 – took me to Everett, Vancouver, Tacoma, and Portland.  Trip #2 – days 5 through 11, takes me to Seattle, Spokane, Yakima, Pasco, Salem-Keizer, and Eugene.

I didn’t even enter the gate before I heard the talk.  What are they going to do with Civic Stadium?  Built in 1938, the nearly all wooden Civic Stadium is a classic.  They simply don’t make them like Civic Stadium any more, nor will they ever again.  Talk now is of tearing the place down, and most, although not all, are against that, sometimes very passionately.

Civic Stadium needs work, however.  I would say it needs a new coat of paint especially in the wooden general admission seats which are downright dirty, yet where the paint is peeling it's possible to see five or six layers of paint.  As Ms. Marty, a fan at the game, put it, “The only thing that has changed Civic Stadium has been the color.”  So rather than a coat of paint, the bleachers could stand for a good scraping first.  The box seats need even more work.  Many are cracking, and it’s possible to see rusted holes in the steel platforms supporting these seats.  Yes, Civic Stadium absolutely needs a couple million dollars in repairs.

Here’s where the dilemma gets sticky.  The University of Oregon is bringing back baseball, and doing so by building a new stadium on campus, partially with support of the Eugene Emeralds.  The Emeralds (better known as the “Ems”) have already agreed to begin playing at the new stadium beginning with the 2010 season.  Civic Stadium, on the other hand, is owned by the Eugene School District, which considers it surplus space.  They want to sell the land for development, and apply that money to other places within the school system.  Meanwhile, a vocal group of supporters are pushing to save Civic Stadium, even if they have not a team to play there beyond next season.

Despite the rustic nature of Civic, the experience is great.  Not only is the stadium a classic, despite the dirt and grime, but the fans themselves are great.  Crowds of 4000 on a week night are not uncommon.  It’s not clear if it’s the stadium or the team that is the draw.  Not many fans where sporting Emeralds hats or clothing, and many fans left early one a Wednesday night.  As I see it, these fans simply enjoy the game of baseball, even if they can only afford a few hours before getting to bed.  Perhaps this appreciation came from having a classic stadium in town for the past 70 years.  Eugene, a modest sized city, has a unique baseball experience, and everyone in town knows it.  As such, the city supports the Emeralds because they are the local baseball team.  As Chuck, also a fan, put it when discussing the struggles of the Emerald’s this season, “Who cares, as long as it’s baseball.”

The fans at Civic Stadium are great to talk to.  Perhaps some of the most knowledgable baseball fans in a minor league town I’ve met.  Even the ushers were ready to talk baseball.  Actually, Civic didn’t have the typical high school students on a summer job type ushers that can be all too common.  These ushers where generally more seasoned, knowledgable, polite, friendly, and ready to talk baseball.  I can imagine that many grew up in the area and have childhood baseball memories at Civic that makes working there a few hours even week exciting.

While I must have talked to over a dozen people about the stadium, and the team, and baseball in general, Chuck, Ms. Marty (she wanted me to call her Ms. Marty so that people would know she was not a man), and Dave where extraordinarily helpful.  Eugene people go to ball games at Civic Stadium, so all had plenty of experience there.  Chuck shared with me the details of the entirely manual scoreboard; hand placed scores with toggle switch lights for strike counts, outs, and to indicate if a play was an error.  Chuck also pointed out how the center and left fields where down hill form the rest of the field, and by a good two feet.  Once pointed out, you can'tt help but notice the drop in elevation which starts from just beyond third base with another dramatic drop just in front of the warning track.  Ms. Marty shared some of the history of the place while enthusiastically following every pitch.  Dave talked about the needed repairs and the future of the Emeralds.   They all took an interest in what I was doing and wanted to help.  I was impressed by just how much they did know.  There were other fans, whose names I didn’t get, that offered all sorts of valuable information.  For someone who writes about baseball stadiums, talking with fans at Civic Stadium was a great pleasure.

My guess is that when the Emeralds do move to the new stadium, which apparently is being built from brick to give it a classic feel, the fans will follow.  It’s the all around experience that keeps them coming to Civic Stadium, only now they will have experience of visiting a new stadium.  Besides, its baseball, and Eugene, despite the fortunes of University of Oregon football, is very much a baseball town when the Ems’ are playing.  There’s just been too many years of history to take that away from Eugene.

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