If you honor history, Reds fans will come.
That appears to be the indication, at least, after the team's announcement it will retire three more jerseys this season. Whether fans will flock to Cinergy Field for the ceremonies remains to be seen, but so far the popularity of the idea has even surprised its architect, Managing Executive John Allen.
Which leads directly to the point: If the Reds hope a new stadium will help solve their financial woes, they should make their history the centerpiece of any plan.
Preliminary proposals for a stadium - whether it's a new structure or a rehabilitated Cinergy - already include some sort of Hall of Fame. The Reds say that because there's not a site for the new park yet, it's too early to worry about the details.
Well, you have to sooner or later, so here's a potential blueprint.
To rightfully honor the great history of the Cincinnati franchise, and draw more fans in the process, the new park should leave no doubt you are in one of the truly special cities in all of professional sports. In this stadium, history should be ubiquitous.
Picture this: You walk up to the main entrance and are greeted by statues of the great players and teams in Reds history: Pete Rose, the Big Red Machine, Edd Roush, Ernie Lombardi.
Everywhere you look, you should see history, from the statues or monuments to the physical exterior of the park, which could have a timeline of Reds' history chiseled into the stone.
Inside, banners recognizing the championship teams and retired numbers should hang above the outfield walls for every fan to see from the seats.
For the Hall of Fame, they'll need something special. By the time this stadium opens, we'll be in the next century, and it should feel like it.
Interactive displays could give fans the opportunity to see video clips from the vault or hear interviews with players of the past and present. Computers would let you search a database for a specific player or specific game. Say you wanted to see highlights from Game 7 of the 1940 World Series or read a newspaper clipping from Opening Day 1976. Hit a button and up they come.
The Reds recently added a makeshift Hall of Fame at Cinergy with plaques on the plaza level in the outfield - at least credit Allen for doing something when their history had been ignored for so long - but it's nothing like you'd need at a new park.
Other than that, history is essentially ignored at Cinergy. There are three retired jerseys hanging on the outfield wall and some cheap-looking signs in the walkway leading to the Cinergy concourse, but not much else distinctive to the past. Not only is the park ugly, it's ignorant.
At least this year they'll be adding a room to display memorabilia.
Of course, this new idea is going to cost lots of money. But this is actually a money-making proposition because it would draw fans, and the Reds could find sponsors to defray the costs.
Besides, when you're building a stadium that may cost as much as $200 million, you might as well splurge.
A modern model
A good model of what the Reds should do is soon to be on display in Phoenix, where Bank One Ballpark, home of the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks, is set to open this spring. The BOB, as the locals call it, is a brand-new $354-million palace that includes a swimming pool in the outfield and a retractable roof. But that's beside the point.
The interesting thing about Bank One Ballpark, from the Reds' standpoint, is that it's a shrine to baseball history.
A museum in center field, sponsored by Cox Communications, features videos and displays on the history of the game, some on loan from the Baseball Hall of Fame. The main attraction is a row of 32 lockers - 30 holding a current jersey and a historical jersey of each team and two with general baseball memorabilia.
The park's main concourse level has the glitzy stuff, with huge interactive video screens detailing different eras and events in baseball history.
''Baseball fans don't tend to sit through the whole game,'' said Bob Crawford, the Diamondbacks director of media relations. ''We know they like to wander and we wanted to give them something to do.''
This is an expansion team, mind you, with no history. Just think what the Reds, with all the great legends of their past, could - and should - do.
''Let's face it,'' Crawford said, ''there's nobody with more history.''
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