Home of the Detroit Tigers -- Comerica Park

Although it’s car, bus, limo or luxury sedan ride from any point in the Detroit suburbs, Comerica Park has become a big draw this summer mostly because of the Tiger’s successful 2006 season and it’s current season with a record above .500 for the year so far.

The famous park is almost 10 years old and is another in the line of the picturesque throwback era ballparks situated in the heart of a major downtown metropolis.

And naturally, tigers are the theme in this park. Its all brick exterior is circled by stone tiger heads with a baseball between clinched teeth. Huge tigers with menacing scowls guard the two main entrance gates, both down the right field line. Comerica Park also has brick in the one place it is most likely to be noticed -- the area extending from either side of the tree-lined hitter’s backdrop.

The brick wall serves as a Tigers Wall of Fame, with last names of six Tigers immortalized on the wall in left-center. On the concourse above, there are six 13-foot sculptures of former Tiger greats Al Kaline, Hal Newhouser, Charlie Gehringer, Hank Greenberg, Ty Cobb, and Willie Horton. Aside from Cobb, who played before there were numbers, the other five have their retired number etched in the brick directly below their statues.

The last names of Tiger legends that played before numbers were worn adorn the right-center field stretch of brick. A notable exception is the name Harwell, for the famed Tiger broadcaster, who retired following the 2002 season after 55 years in the booth.

Comerica Park has many other distinctive features, although not all of them are original. The first thing you notice when you look out towards the playing field is the huge scoreboard in left field. At 147 feet high by 202 feet wide, it is the largest in baseball. The idea was borrowed from Cleveland’s Jacobs Field Jumbotron, which was the biggest until Detroit copied the feature and made theirs slightly bigger.

Sitting atop the scoreboard, on either side, are a pair of orange and black tigers, whose eyes flicker green when a Tiger hits a home run and during the classic Survivor song “Eye of the Tiger.”

The park takes other architecture cues from Jacobs Field with the light towers in the form of toothbrushes. While Tiger Stadium’s distinctive bank of lights can still be spotted from most places in Detroit, Comerica Park is only visible from a short distance. The field is dug below street level, so the ballpark doesn’t appear to be very large as you approach it from the outside.

Directly above the hitter’s backdrop in center field is the General Motors Fountain, which remains dormant during the game unless a Tiger homers. It is used before and after games when it spurts water streams that are choreographed to music.

The fountain is also the centerpiece of the fireworks show that occurs after every Tigers Friday night home game. Spraying water up to 150 feet high, the fountain is programmed to changing lights as well as music. If you sit in the upper deck, you can easily see the cylinder shaped headquarters of General Motors directly behind the fountain that it sponsors.

Other hard facts about Comerica Park:

  • Physical address: 2100 Woodward Avenue
  • Construction cost: $300 million (HOK Sport)
  • Construction began on October 29, 1997
  • Public financing paid for 38.3% ($115 million) of the ballpark's cost. Tigers owner Mike Ilitch footed the remaining 61.7% ($185 million)
  • Naming rights: Comerica Bank pays $2.2 million per year through 2030
  • A dirt path leads from the pitcher's mound to home plate, where the batter's cut out area is in the shape of a home plate
  • As a tribute to Tiger Stadium, the flagpole located between center and left field was originally in play. That changed after the 2002 season when the left field wall was moved in
  • Original seating capacity was 40,000. In 2005 the bullpens were moved from right field and 950 seats were added in their place