Repairs in The 21st Century
The Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995 affected KÅshien. Cracks appeared and part of the stands collapsed. In July 2004, a concrete plan surfaced for improvement of the complete baseball ground facilities.
Construction began during the off-season of 2008 while the stadium continued to be used for baseball. Later stages followed during the off-season, and the large-scale construction was completed in 2010.
The main points of the plan are as follows:
- As much as possible, the present conditions of the baseball grounds are to be preserved, including the Wrigley Field-inspired ivy, which has become a symbol of the stadium
- The infield continues to be earth
- The outfield continues to be natural grass and be open to the air (no roof over the grounds).
- The Ginsan roof over the grandstand was removed and replaced with a modern Ginsan roof without pillars.
- The seating capacity was reduced to 47,808 people to help make the stadium barrier-free.
Read more about this topic: Koshien Stadium
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