AT&T Park, home of the annual Emerald
Bowl, was built primarily for baseball and is the home of the San
Francisco Giants. AT&T Park and Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix are the
only baseball only stadiums that host college football bowl games.
For many years, the Giants
tried to get a new stadium. After years of threatening to move the San
Francisco Giants to a new city; a local ownership group decided to
purchase the Giants in 1993, in order to keep the team in San
Francisco. The Giants needed a new ballpark because of the bad
conditions at Candlestick Park. In 1995, the Giants announced plans to
build the first privately financed ballpark since Dodger Stadium. The
new ballpark would be located in downtown San Francisco, in the China
Basin area. Construction of the steel, concrete, and brick ballpark
began on December 11, 1997. Naming rights were sold to Pacific Bell
for $50 million over 24 years, thus the ballpark was named Pacific
Bell Park. After the 2003 season, Pacific Bell Park was renamed SBC
Park after SBC Communications Inc. acquisition of Pacific Bell. It has
since been renamed AT&T Park.
On April 11, 2000, the Giants played their first
regular season baseball game at AT&T Park.
The main three tier grandstand consist of 40,800 green seats that
extend from behind homeplate to both the foul poles. Bleaches are
located behind the left field fence. There are no seats behind the
right field wall because of McCovey Cove, part of the San Francisco
Bay. However, there is enough room where fans can walk behind the
right field wall and can see through the screened and brick right
field fence. The main scoreboard is located
behind the centerfield fence. For football, AT&T Park has a seating
capacity of 37,000. The football field is laid out over the infield
and what would be left field for baseball. Both teams share the same
sideline. The Emerald Bowl features teams from the Big East and
Mountain West Conferences.
AT&T
Park
