One of the things I find interesting as they switch back and forth between Regionals and Super Regionals is the different stadium designs particularly behind home plate.
The wierdest to me is the Hoover glass looking double doors. They seem to only be there for the umps to go get to the headset to do their consultation when there is a challenge on a call. Maybe that is the way to the Umpire dressing room so they can make an entrance onto the field. Elsewhere, there are little dugouts for cameras (Baum Walker), solid walls, and many times just people behind a low wall & screen netting. I like BWS combination of a padded wall with seating above it. I dislike the high padded or brick wall that is so high you don’t know whether there is anyone in the seats or not. I don’t like the seats almost all the way to the field level with little or no wall in front of them. That is too distracting as you are trying to focus on the action at the plate.
In the outfield, I do like the way Ole Miss and others have a banked grass seating, lounging, tailgating area all the way around the outfield. That makes the ball park cozier and more fan friendly feeling. We have that in our left field but not the right. I guess that is the trade off to get a giant video scoreboard which probably enhances the fan viewing experience in the main seats but doesn’t do much for TV viewing. I definitely like the fan patios and boxes in our right field building and really like that Performance Center behind it to trigger discussion by commentators on its uniqueness during every broadcast.
One other detail that has puzzled me is that many fields have a video board on the wall just to the side and behind home plate. It only functions well as advertising revenue generator during broadcast games, but the NCAA apparently has banned that during the Regionals and Super Regionals. That has to be a demand from ESPN to appease their advertisers and I wonder if they will ban its use during regular season broadcasts in the future?