The pop-up ballpark at Fort Bragg
On Sunday night, July 3, Major League Baseball (MLB) took the pop-up concept to a whole new level and debuted the very first pop-up ballpark at Fort Bragg, N.C.
Temporary facilities, known as pop-ups, have been a staple of retail and restaurants for years. Pop-ups have even crept in the venue world with many venues creating pop-up luxury suites and pop-up club areas that are here today and gone tomorrow.
The 12,500-seat facility at Ft. Bragg, designed by Populous, was home to a regular season game between the Atlanta Braves and the Miami Marlins. It was the first professional game in any sport played on an active military base. The Marlins won the game, beating the Braves 5-2.
“The pop-up ballpark idea started because we had a desire to bring a regular season ballgame to people who don’t get to see one,” said Michael Teevan, vice president of communication for MLB. “It was really the brainchild of our Chief Operating Officer, Tony Petitti.”
The $5 million project was funded by MLB and the Major League Ballplayers Association.
Initial planning started last August. “Someone came up with the idea of taking the project to a military base,” said Teevan, “and the Fort Bragg base quickly shot to the top of the list. We called the Department of the Army, explained it was a gift we wanted to provide and they came on board.”
The project took over an old abandoned golf course no longer used at Fort Bragg. Populous handled the ballpark design. “We have worked with Populous on our jewel events for a long time; we have an outstanding relationship with them and brought them on immediately,” said Teevan. “In terms of ballpark design they are second to none.”
BaAM Productions, Toronto, was brought in as project managers, and the construction team from BrightView Landscapes, led by Murray Cook, a wizard of building baseball fields, was hired to build the actual field. They moved into Fort Bragg March 18.
“There are a lot of dynamics that go into creating a temporary ballpark,” said Todd Barnes, Populous principal, who designed the Fort Bragg pop-up ballpark along with his partner Bobby Sloan. “The initial site area was not good. The street systems around the stadium were two-way streets so moving things in was going to be a problem; there were many aspects of the area that were not desirable.” Eventually they moved the ball field to another part of the golf course.
“Once we got the new venue location, the site became manageable,” said Barnes. “There was a clean palette for us to design a ballpark for 12,500 fans. But we still had to create a regulation major league ball field, build seating, make concession areas, bring in lighting, build a media staging area and figure out bathrooms. We even had to create streets.”
Barnes said one of the challenges was the temporary nature of everything they were going to do. “Everything was going to come down except for the field itself,” he said. “Everything else was rented. The tenting is portable, the lighting is on trucks, we brought in trailers with showers for the players.”
The metal bleacher structure went up in May. The entire project was done June 27. The tickets were not sold; they were handed out to the service men and women at Fort Bragg in a lottery. Since the game was going to be played for active military members and their families, July 4 weekend was chosen as the date. Fort Bragg is the largest and most populated military installation in the United States; it’s virtually a city in itself. It stretches almost 500 miles, consists of more than 250,000 people, and has a $9.8 billion impact on the local economy.
Fort Bragg was appealing to MLB for many reasons. “When we looked at the schedule and pinpointed the July 4 weekend, we talked with our television broadcast partner ESPN and all decided that the already scheduled ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ game between the Atlanta Braves and the Miami Marlins was a great choice to try out the pop-up field at Fort Bragg,” said Teevan. “North Carolina sits right between Atlanta and Miami so there would not be too much travelling for either team. Also, with the proximity to Georgia, there are a lot of Braves fans on the base.”
The game counted as an Atlanta Braves home game, which meant the Braves gave up a home-field game turning their season into an 80-game year, down from the 81 that were scheduled. The Braves season ticket holders lost a game.
The concessions were simple and affordable. “There were the normal ballpark foods like burgers and hotdogs and beer,” said Teevan. “All the food and drinks were sold at cost.”
The biggest concern was the weather. “It was a one-game event and the weather in North Carolina can be fickle,” said Barnes. “We were most worried about a lightning storm and we drew up an evacuation plan just in case.” The forecast wasn’t promising, thunderstorms showed up the entire week leading up to the Sunday night game and it was touch and go right up until game time. “There was a thunderstorm Sunday afternoon,” said Barnes. “About an hour before the game it looked like another storm was heading our way. We held up letting the fans in and huddled all our staff together, ready to evacuate.” But good fortune prevailed; the storm went in another direction.
The game was a huge hit with the lucky military ticket-holders and the fans who watched on ESPN. More pop-up ballparks are already being discussed. “We’re already planning another pop-up,” said Teevan. “The experiment at Fort Bragg was a big hit.”
Interviewed for this story: Michael Teevan, (917) 488-7078; Todd Barnes, (855) 458-1519