Progressive Field renovations: 7 things to know about the Guardians finalized plans

CLEVELAND — Pour one out for the shipping containers in right field at Progressive Field. This will be their last season occupying space at the ballpark.

Construction on the Guardians’ new renovations is scheduled to begin immediately following the end of the 2023 season, with some of the updates being ready for the following Opening Day and the rest of the remodeling set to finish by the start of the 2025 campaign.

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Here are other takeaways from the team’s finalized plans.

1. The initial plan (much of which The Athletic first reported here) has been adapted over the past year and a half, but the bulk of the project remains the same. The themes throughout the ballpark will be an emphasis on more social gathering spaces and an attempt to offer fans more incentive to visit the upper deck. So, the Guardians will convert the oft-dormant terrace club down the left-field line into the “Terrace Hub,” a market hall with local food and beverage options that is accessible via the upper and lower levels of the venue. It will also connect to a new beer garden in the upper deck in left field.

They’ll replace the shipping containers — even members of the organization have resorted to referring to the beige eyesores by that term — with group outing spaces and grab-and-go concessions. They’ll also knock out some of the walls of the upper deck to create panoramic sight lines of downtown Cleveland. Behind home plate, they’ll redesign the dugout suites and create seven private lounges. There will also be two new bars positioned near home plate in the upper deck.

2. Neal Huntington, the ex-general manager of the Pirates and former member of Cleveland’s front office, has captained the planning of the redesigned clubhouses and service-level amenities that include areas dedicated to sports science, nutrition and other forms of training and recovery. The team considered swapping the home and away dugouts, but ultimately decided to keep them as is, with the Guardians occupying the third-base side.

That expansion will force the club to move the home base for its kitchen and concessions, so the team is constructing a four-level building for storage, the “E. 9th Street Building.” The rooftop will connect to the upper concourse and host group outings.

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All upper deck projects, plus the E. 9th Street Building are expected to be completed by Opening Day 2024. All other facets of the renovations are expected to be ready one year later.

3. With sports betting now legal in Ohio, the Guardians partnered with bet365, but they won’t have a physical sportsbook in the ballpark. Unlike the NBA — the Cavs recently opened a Caesars sportsbook at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse — Major League Baseball does not allow betting windows or kiosks inside its venues. The Guardians have held discussions about creating a physical gambling area just outside of the building’s walls, possibly in or near the space occupied by NewEra, beyond the outfield gates.

4. The Progressive Field seating capacity (about 35,000) is expected to remain about the same. The Guardians will be adding seats in right field, but eliminating seats in other sections, including the left-field line, as they create more standing-room locations similar to The Corner bar in right field.

They will be replacing all seats over the next couple of years, starting with the lower bowl. The project is estimated to cost $13 million and will come out of the capital repairs budget, according to information from a recent Gateway Development Corp. meeting.

5. The team had originally earmarked $20 million for a “social press box experience,” in which it would relocate the press box and turn the middle level behind home plate into another space for fans. That was initially scheduled to be the last phase of the renovations, but it’s no longer in the plans. The Guardians had also assigned $42 million for significant renovations to the team offices and the plaza, but those have been scaled back a bit. They will renovate the offices, adding a fifth floor to the current structure.

6. There’s been no talk about a ballpark museum, despite the team keeping much of the memorabilia from its 122-year history in a dimly lit storage closet. The Royals, Reds and Mariners are among the teams that have excelled in recent years in developing a space for fans to learn about their team’s history. The Guardians possess a treasure trove of items at which fans would marvel. Heritage Park is a nice start, but even if a museum is a non-starter, there’s plenty of room for additional displays around the ballpark.

7. Team sources continue to downplay the urgency of developing the areas surrounding the ballpark. The Guardians, as part of the lease agreement, did purchase a half-acre plot of land across the street last year. The team has until the end of the year to decide whether to buy the Gateway East Garage for $25 million. Team sources have told The Athletic over the past year that the club could shift its focus to that realm of development once the current renovations project is complete. By that point, David Blitzer, the team’s minority investor, could play a larger role, given his background in commercial real estate and his agreement to succeed Paul Dolan as majority owner.

In all, the renovations account for $202.5 million of the $435 million included in the lease agreement, with the rest covering capital repairs. The Guardians are responsible for one-third of that $202.5 million sum, plus any additional costs beyond that total. The lease agreement, finalized about a year ago, runs through 2036, with vesting options that could tack on an additional 10 years.

(Top illustration of the new setup in the upper deck in right field: Courtesy of the Cleveland Guardians / Manica)

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