Great American Ball Park

Great American Ball Park is the home of Major League Baseball’s Cincinnati Reds franchise. The park opened on March 28, 2003 with an exhibition game with the Cleveland Indians. The first regular season game, on March 31, 2003, saw the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates defeat the Reds 10-7. The ceremonial first pitch was thrown by former president George H. W. Bush, who replaced his son, current president George W. Bush, who was scheduled, but unable to attend. The younger Bush eventually did get the opportunity to throw out the first pitch before the Reds’ April 4, 2006 opening day game versus the Chicago Cubs. However, the Reds lost 16-7.

	Capacity		42,059
	Opened		March 31st 2003
	Owner		Hamilton County
	Cost		$290 million
	Architect		HOK Sport and GBBN Architects

Contrary to popular belief, the park’s name is not a patriotic reference. Adhering to the norm in American professional sports, Great American Ball Park is named after a business sponsor, the Great American Insurance Group. Great American is the insurance division of American Financial Group, Inc., the principal shareholder of which is former Cincinnati Reds majority owner Carl Lindner, Jr..

Great American Ball Park is located in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio on the Ohio River between U.S. Bank Arena and the site of the former Riverfront Stadium/Cinergy Field.

In 1996, Hamilton County voters passed a one-half percent sales tax increase to fund the building of two new facilities for both the Cincinnati Reds and the National Football League’s Cincinnati Bengals. Previously, the teams shared occupancy of Cinergy Field, but complained that the aging multipurpose facility lacked modern amenities and other things necessary for small market teams to survive.

After much discussion and debate, the site that was eventually chosen became informally known as “the wedge,” due to it being “wedged” between the two existing facilities. To accommodate construction on the small plot, Cinergy Field was partially demolished, although it remained in use until Great American Ball Park was ready. Cinergy Field, which opened midway through the 1970 season under its working name, Riverfront Stadium, was demolished on December 29, 2002.

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Great American Ball Park wikipedia entry
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