The ol’ ballpark never looked better. Dodger Stadium turned 44 this season, making it the second oldest in the National League behind the Chicago Cubs’ Wrigley Field. It’s the fourth oldest in the majors. And its current makeover will pay dividends for years to come.

All of the 50,000 seats have been replaced and the crumbling concrete floors were all resurfaced. The original color scheme from Opening Day in 1962 has been reinstated: light yellow for field level seats, light orange seats one tier above, then a light green level and a light blue level for the top deck.

“The most important thing is they’ve made changes but you still have the feel of Dodger Stadium,” said Amanda Branam a 15-year attendee from Santa Clarita. “It’s weird to look out and not see yellow, orange and blue seats. They’ve been slow to make changes but they are changes that had to be made.”

Reconfigurations along both foul lines have moved the field level seats closer to the action with the installation of true “boxes.”

Unlike Wrigley and Boston’s Fenway Park and New York’s Yankee Stadium, there are no 20th century iron railings. Plastic mesh partitions separate each set of four seats, which includes its own table and a shelf. These boxes are adjacent to each dugout and extend into left and right field. The field level seats are 12 feet closer to the foul lines, and behind home base the field level seats are padded and have a cup holder.

Not everyone, however, appreciates the new field level look.

“I grew up down here in the 60s,” said Alan Way of Santa Barbara. “The field level boxes are nice. They took away the foul lines. Now if there’s a foul ball it’s in the stands. Before, the player could come in and make a play. I liked the old Dodger Stadium.”

This is the second consecutive season of changes implemented by owner Frank McCourt, who has plans for six phases of overhaul. Unseen upgrades this year have been made to the player’s locker rooms. The last two renovations cost about $40 million. McCourt’s goal is to attract a fan base of 4 million.

I attended the May 21 Dodgers game with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Dodgers rolled a five in the first inning and never looked back in a 7-0 win. Attendance that day was 55,662, the seventh sell-out of the season. Patron count for the three-game set with the Halos was 156,904, which set a new three game home series record for the franchise. Thisyear the Dodgers have drawn over 1.4 million and are on a pace to exceed the 3 million mark
for the third straight year.

The Dodgers have represented the Los Angeles community since 1958. With cumulative attendance of more than 169 million, the Dodgers have played before more fans than any other sports franchise in history.

I’ve been going to Dodger Stadium since the 1960s. A pleasant constant is the ease of exit; I
reached Goleta about two hours after the last pitch.

Photo by D.C. DeMilio