Dodger Stadium
Dodger Stadium is a baseball stadium in the Elysian Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It is the ballpark for Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers. Opened in 1962, it was constructed in less than three years at a cost of US$23 million (US$232 million in 2023).[8][11][13] It is the oldest ballpark in MLB west of the Mississippi River, and third-oldest overall, after Fenway Park in Boston (1912) and Wrigley Field in Chicago (1914), and is the largest baseball stadium in the world by seat capacity. Often referred to as a "pitcher's ballpark", the stadium has seen 13 no-hitters, two of which were perfect games. In addition, Dodger Stadium has been deemed the most popular MLB stadium on social media.[14]
Address
1000 Vin Scully Avenue[3][4]
56,000[6]
57,098 (Dodgers Home Opener, April 13, 2009)[7]
Left Field – 330 ft (101 m)
Medium Left-Center – 360 ft (110 m)
True Left-Center – 375 ft (114 m)
Center Field – 395 ft (120 m)
True Center Field – 400 ft (122 m)
True Right-Center – 375 ft (114 m)
Medium Right-Center – 360 ft (110 m)
Right Field – 330 ft (101 m)
Backstop – 55 ft (17 m) 
Santa Ana Bermuda grass
September 17, 1959
April 10, 1962
William Simpson & Associates Inc.[9]
SA Bogen Engineers[10]
The stadium hosted the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in 1980 and 2022, as well as the World Series ten times (1963, 1965, 1966, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1988, 2017 and 2018). It also hosted the semifinals and finals of the 2009 and 2017 World Baseball Classics, as well as exhibition baseball during the 1984 Summer Olympics. The stadium hosted a soccer tournament on August 3, 2013, featuring four clubs: the hometown team Los Angeles Galaxy, and Europe's Real Madrid, Everton, and Juventus. The Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks played a regular season game in 2014 as part of the NHL Stadium Series.
The stadium was also the home of the Los Angeles Angels from 1962 through 1965 and was referred to as Chavez Ravine Stadium (or just "Chavez Ravine"), after the geographic feature in which the stadium sits.
It is sometimes referred to as “Blue Heaven on Earth,” a nickname coined by Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda.[15]
History[edit]
Construction[edit]
In the mid-1950s, Brooklyn Dodgers team president Walter O'Malley had tried to build a domed stadium in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, but was unable to reach an agreement with city officials for the land acquisition, and eventually reached a deal with the city of Los Angeles. The land for Dodger Stadium had been seized from local owners and inhabitants in the early 1950s by the city of Los Angeles, using eminent domain with funds from the federal Housing Act of 1949. The city had planned to develop the Elysian Park Heights public housing project, which included two dozen 13-story buildings and more than 160 two-story townhouses, in addition to newly rebuilt playgrounds and schools, and a college.
Before construction could begin on the housing project, the local political climate changed greatly when Norris Poulson was elected mayor of Los Angeles in 1953. Proposed public housing projects such as Elysian Park Heights lost most of their support as they became associated with socialist ideals. Following protracted negotiations, the city purchased the Chavez Ravine property back from the Federal Housing Authority at a drastically reduced price, with the stipulation that the land be used for a public purpose. It was not until June 3, 1958, when Los Angeles voters approved a "Taxpayers Committee for Yes on Baseball" referendum,[16] that the Dodgers were able to acquire 352 acres (1.42 km2) of Chavez Ravine from the city. Los Angeles forcefully evicted residents from their homes, mainly Hispanics. While Dodger Stadium was under construction, the Dodgers played in the league's largest capacity venue from 1958 through 1961 at their temporary home, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which could seat in excess of 90,000 people.
Los Angeles–based Mike Davis, in his seminal work on the city, City of Quartz, describes the process of gradually convincing Chavez Ravine homeowners to sell. With nearly all of the original Spanish-speaking homeowners initially unwilling to sell, developers resorted to offering immediate cash payments, distributed through their Spanish-speaking agents. Once the first sales had been completed, remaining homeowners were offered increasingly lesser amounts of money, to create a community panic of not receiving fair compensation, or of being left as one of the few holdouts. Many residents continued to hold out despite the pressure being placed upon them by developers, resulting in the Battle of Chavez Ravine, a ten-year struggle by the residents to maintain control of their property, which they ultimately lost.
Dodger Stadium was the first Major League Baseball stadium since the initial construction of the original Yankee Stadium to be built using 100% private financing, and the last until Oracle Park in San Francisco opened in 2000. Ground was broken for Dodger Stadium on September 17, 1959. The tops of local ridges were removed, and the soil was used to fill in Sulfur and Cemetery Ravines to provide a level surface for a parking lot and the stadium. A local elementary school (Palo Verde) was simply buried rather than demolished, and sits beneath the parking lot northwest of third base.[17] A total of 8 million cubic yards (6,100,000 m3) of earth were moved in the process of building the stadium. A total of 21,000 precast concrete units, some weighing as much as 32 tons, were fabricated onsite and lowered into place with a specially built crane to form the stadium's structural framework. The stadium was originally designed to be expandable to 85,000 seats by expanding the upper decks over the outfield pavilions; the Dodgers have never pursued such a project.
Historic events[edit]
1963 World Series[edit]
The Dodgers won the 1963 World Series over the New York Yankees, sweeping the Yankees by winning game 4 by a score of 2–1. So far, this remains the only time the Dodgers ever clinched a World Series at Dodger Stadium.
1988 National League Championship Series[edit]
Until 1988, Dodger Stadium had never hosted a seventh game of a postseason series. The Dodgers won Game 7 of the 1988 National League Championship Series over the New York Mets, 6–0.
2020 postseason games[edit]
In keeping with the decision of Major League Baseball to schedule postseason games for neutral, "bubble" sites in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dodger Stadium hosted all games between the Houston Astros and the Oakland Athletics in the 2020 American League Division Series.[47]
The 2020 World Series, which pitted the Dodgers against the Tampa Bay Rays, was played in the neutral site of Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. To accommodate local fans, Dodger Stadium staff set up two 60 ft (18 m) high HD video screens in the parking lot and allowed up to 950 cars to enter for each World Series game. An entrance fee of $75 per car was charged, with no more than 6 occupants per car. Audio play-by-play was broadcast over an FM station. No food or drink was sold, and participants were prohibited from bringing alcohol or "partying away from their car". An estimated 2,000 fans attended each game.[48]
No-hitters in Dodger Stadium[edit]
(*-Perfect game)
Notable events[edit]
Park usage[edit]
Dodger Stadium has also staged other sporting events such as boxing, a basketball game featuring the Harlem Globetrotters and a ski-jumping exhibition, as well as the baseball competition of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games and is currently designated to host softball and baseball for the 2028 Olympic Games with Angel Stadium.