DECIDE FOR YOURSELF

• New images • Historic features • What do you think?

        A plus is a favorable comparison or advantage. A minus is an unfavorable comparison or disadvantage.

        Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore (5 stars)

        • Plus: More concourses, so you can walk all around the Reds ballpark and see the field from many different angles and locations, which you can't do in Oriole Park. Bigger museum space, better views outside the park.

        • Minus: Oriole Park is the whole package — looks, feels, smells, sounds and tastes like baseball. It's retro and it pulls it off perfectly. The design for the Reds ballpark is intriguiging, but structure alone won't make it a five-star park.

        Coors Field, Denver (5 stars)

        • Plus: Wisely, the Reds put aside their revenue-minded thought of walling off some concourse space as a way to “capture” fans' interest (and money) away from the ongoing baseball game, and instead chose the 360-degree concourse idea of Coors from which the game can always be seen.

        • Minus: It's easier to make a case for Coors' turning its back to its downtown skyline, because Denver has the Rocky Mountains on the other side. We have the low hills of Northern Kentucky and an even lower river that very few people in their seats are going to see from inside the ballpark.

        Jacobs Field, Cleveland (4 stars)

        • Plus: Cincinnati has more concourses open to the field, which means less separation from the game. At the Jake there are too many fans hanging out watching the game on TV, because when you go for a hot dog you can't see the field.. The Reds' museum will blow away the Jake's few cubicles of mementoes (a lame excuse to sell a ton of trinkets).

        • Minus: As good as the main entrance to the Reds' ballpark appears it is going to be, it's going to be hard-pressed to top the Jake's, which is so simple, and yet so cool — wrought-iron gates through which a sizeable expanse of green can be seen from outside the ballpark. We see nothing at all wrong with the main gate at the Jake entering into the left-field area. The Jake's home-run porch in left field is also cool. And the view from the club seats is good, too.

        The Ballpark at Arlington, Texas (4 1/2 stars)

        • Plus: No matter how lackluster the view is toward the Kentucky hills in Cincinnati's new park, it has to be better than the view here — a four-story white gingerbread office complex.

        • Minus: Texas has lots of nooks and crannies in the outfield fence that impacts the game itself, and it's not contrived — the fence had to be built that way to make room for the bullpens and the double-decked right-field bleacher. And as cool as the Reds' double-decked left-field bleachers figure to be, they still aren't going to look as good as Texas'. Why? Texas has cosmetic pillars, set so far back that only a half-dozen views from the seats are impacted.

        Turner Field, Atlanta (3 stars)

        • Plus: As much as the Reds like “Scout's Alley” in Atlanta — big-money producing interactive games for all ages between 6 and 60 in a midway-type atmosphere — they apparently chose not to do it here (at least not to the detriment of the game). Great decision, because Scout's Alley turns the ballgame into a sideshow.

        • Minus: Allof Atlanta's (and Denver's, too) luxury suites are above the club-level seats, which are sometimes available to the general public. In Cincinnati, the luxury suites (all on the third-base side) occupy prime viewing space. This is known as blue-blood flaunting, and unless what the Reds say is demonstrably true — that lumping the luxury suits together like that allows for much better reserved seats below the suites — then the neighborhood-ing of suites here is going to come off as a negative.

        Bank One Ballpark, Phoenix (4 stars)

        • Plus: The Reds play outdoors. The BOB does many things nicely, and it may be perfect for Phoenix, but it's still indoor baseball.

        • Minus: The BOB is air conditioned, has a good museum and a pool in outfield seats, and does a good job — through exhibits, art and other features — of teaching fans about baseball.

        Safeco Field, Seattle (3 stars)

        • Plus: So far the Reds' ballpark is cheaper, and has fewer poor seats high in the outfield. Better views from inside the park to the surrounding areas.

        • Minus: As many cool places to stand and watch the game as the Reds' ballpark will have, it'll be hard to top Seattle in this department. First-rate public art program, and on a clear day you can see Mount Ranier. Access to bullpens in Cincinnati won't be nearly as good as Seattle, where fans can grip a chain link fence as hiss at the opposing relievers.

Ballpark design: Likes and dislikes How Reds park compares Q&A with architect Joe Spears What do you think?

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