Multi-purpose Stadium - Criticisms

Criticisms

While multi-purpose stadiums were intended to easily accommodate both football and baseball (and in some cases, soccer), the fundamentally different sizes and shapes of the playing fields made them inadequate for either sport. When used for baseball, the lower-level boxes were usually set back much further from the field than comparable seats in baseball-only parks because they swiveled into position for football and soccer. In the case of stadiums that hosted both baseball and Canadian football, the lower boxes were set even further back than their American counterparts because Canadian football fields are 30 yards longer and considerably wider than their American counterparts. The upper-level seats were as far as 600 feet from the plate. For football, the seats nearest the field were set farther back than at football-only stadiums to accommodate the larger baseball field. In general, spectator sightlines were not optimized for either sport, i.e., seats were angled towards the center of the field rather than towards the logical center of the gameplay action (home plate for baseball and the 50-yard line for football). Likewise, attempts to build stadiums without support columns to obstruct spectators' views, as was the case with jewel box stadiums, resulted in upper decks being placed very high above the field.

Many multi-purpose stadiums also had artificial turf playing surfaces, to ease the transition from baseball field to football field and vice-versa. In many cases, the turf was nothing more than carpet on top of concrete with little padding material, which caused frequent injuries to players. During the first month of the football season, the playing field would include the infield dirt that is harder than the grass and is also a significant injury risk.

In the baseball configuration, most had symmetrical field dimensions. This detracted from the unique, individual identity enjoyed by the Jewel Box stadiums with odd or asymmetrical field dimensions, and further supported the "cookie cutter stadium" nickname.

Fans also criticized the large parking lots surrounding the stadiums as well as their concrete or painted concrete façades as uninviting.

Soccer was perceived as an especially bad fit for this type of stadium due to the fact that, in the United States, the sport does not draw as many fans to games as American football or baseball (with the partial exception of Seattle), resulting to the stadium being filled to only a fraction of its capacity. This led to the soccer-specific stadium movement.

Scheduling was also a big issue since the MLB postseason overlaps with the NFL regular season. If a baseball team advances in the postseason to the point where it is scheduled to play a postseason game on the same day the football team plays a home game, adjustments had to be made such as having the game moved to Monday night or, if a division opponent was scheduled, have the game sites switched putting the upcoming meeting on the road and playing the home game during the latter meeting. An example of the former happening was during in 1997 when the Florida Marlins played game 7 of the World Series at home on Sunday, Oct. 26, which moved the Miami Dolphins game against the Chicago Bears to Monday night. An example of the latter happening was in 1989 when the San Francisco Giants hosted a postseason game on Sunday, Oct. 8 against the Chicago Cubs, the same day the San Francisco 49ers were scheduled to host their division rival New Orleans Saints. The Oct. 8 game was moved to New Orleans and the Nov. 6 game was moved to San Francisco.