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Rays Ballpark was the name used in project documents for a ballpark in the current location of Al Lang Stadium on the Tampa Bay waterfront in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, proposed by the Tampa Bay Rays as a replacement for Tropicana Field. The Rays had hoped to complete the park in time for the 2012 season, but the proposal did not garner enough public support, and the project was abandoned.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=St. Pete waterfront ballpark a no-go )〕 A task force was subsequently created to look for alternative sites in and around St. Petersburg. ==Design== The Tampa Bay Rays have been working with Populous (formerly HOK Sport) on a design for a possible future ballpark since at least the beginning of 2007. The main design point of the proposed stadium was the "Mast and Arch" retractable roof. Instead of a solid material sliding roof panel, the "roof" would have been a fabric covering stored inside the shade to the seating. It was to be deployed by a pulley system at the top of the mast in 6–8 minutes. It would have looked like a sail raising on a boat in the bay, or a circus tent being torn away by a stiff wind. The retractable-roof design would have been unique in baseball, looking like no ballpark built in this century or last. The concourses in the proposed ballpark were similar to those at Pittsburgh's PNC Park, whereas they would have been enclosed and air conditioned and fronted with glass on the field side, allowing fans waiting for concessions to view the field. As part of the new stadium, Bayshore Drive, which currently runs along the east side of Al Lang Field, was to be closed during gameday activities, and become part of the ballpark. The ballpark would have faced the opposite direction of Al Lang Field, with centerfield on the north. In this configuration, it would be possible to hit home runs into the waters of Tampa Bay beyond the right field wall, similar to how home runs can be hit into San Francisco Bay at AT&T Park.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Report: Rays looking into new stadium )〕 This configuration would also have placed most of the fans in the shade of the grandstand as the sun sank into the west on summer afternoons, mitigated heat issues in the open-air facility. The open access to Tampa Bay from right field would also have provided a cooling breeze. The original designs for the stadium called for up to of Tampa Bay to be filled in. By the time the stadium proposal was first made public, the landfill was reduced to . In May 2008, the team revealed a new design calling for moving Bayshore Drive to a bridge structure, reducing the landfill requirement to .〔(The evolution of the Rays design ) St. Petersburg Times, June 6, 2008〕 The plan website mentions that the simple act of moving from a dome to an open-air stadium could reduce the team's carbon footprint by up to 70%.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Play Ball: Facts about the new ballpark )〕 However, the ABC group analyzing stadium needs for the Rays have said that any new stadium must have a fully retractable roof. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rays Ballpark」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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