Harrisburg Sports Blog & Stadium Construction

A long time follower of this site, Verb, recently started Harrisburg Sports Blog. According to his initial post the blog will “have coverage and information from all of the areas minor league teams, local college teams, some high school sports coverage, and some professional sports coverage of teams near the mid-state.” He is very passionate about sports, and in particular sports in central Pennsylvania. I wish him a lot of success, as I am sure this will keep him extremely busy.

I bring up Verb’s new site for two reasons, hopefully I can send some traffic his way for the dedication he has shown to me over the years, and he posted a topic on the Senators stadium renovations.

He does a good job of summing up the progress and his analysis is well worth reading.

I will summarize his analysis (but make sure you visit his site to read the entire article) and expand upon it with some thoughts I left on his site. He has expressed the same concerns that I’ve heard from many people; will it be done on time. His concerns focus on the outfield wall, or lack thereof. He also touches on the seats still not being in place in the outfield.

As of today there is only a week and a half until 2009 FanFest, two-weeks until open practice and three-weeks until opening night. The concerns expressed by Verb and others are very real.

Up until this point, construction crews have had decent weather the past few weeks. It appears as though that will change over the next few days. Starting tonight through next Tuesday (7-days) there is a chance of rain 4 days. I’m not sure if this will slow progress but it sure can’t help matters. With time running down, they need to maximize every day available.

I’ve been told by a construction worker that they have been putting in a lot of hours (coming in early and staying late, as well as working 7 days a week). Tons of progress has been made over the past few weeks but will it be enough. I’ve heard a variety of answers to that question and each answer ends with should, maybe or might. Either way it will be a close call.

Opening night could be an issue if the new entrance and boardwalk are not done. I am sure plans are in place to accommodate fans regardless if the construction is finished or not but it could be an inconvenience to fans. Opening night promotions are hardhats and $2 Beer on the Boardwalk. They might need to hand out hard hats to everyone if the construction isn’t finished. If the boardwalk is not complete/open, then the $2 beer on the boardwalk could be a problem. Although I’m sure other arraignments have been made just in case.


As for the outfield wall, the framing is going up fast. The wall is supposed to be static advertisement panels. I’m guessing they just need to be lined up and secured into place. It shouldn't’t take that long.

My big concern is the seating by the scoreboard, the bar by the scoreboard and the boardwalk. The frame for the boardwalk is going up but could take awhile to finish. Then they actually have to install the boards and stuff. The seating and bar by the scoreboard was still in the foundation stages last weekend. Going by how long it took them to build the LF seats, I’m guessing it might take two weeks to finish the seating and bar area.

I am a big fan of what the City of Harrisburg is doing to Commerce Bank Park/Metro Bank Park. It will be a very nice addition to the City of Harrisburg. The construction crews have been working diligently, sometimes in difficult weather conditions, to complete the project on time. The Senators front office and owners worked extremely hard this “off season” to come up with a good game plan to get fans in the seats. I am sure all parties involved are doing everything in their power to complete this project by April 16th. If you build it they will come….if you’re still building it people will come too.