Oracle Park
The world-famous Oracle Park is a baseball stadium located in the city of San Francisco, California. It was previously known as Pacific Bell Park, as well as SBC Park and AT&T Park, before eventually adopting its current moniker. The stadium's address is 24 Willie Mays Plaza, and it is served by many public transit options, including the Subway, as well as Caltrain, trams, busses, ferries, and more. The area is incredibly well-connected, making it easy for locals to attend games, and more importantly, avoiding clogging in the city's main roads due to visitors coming in to attend games from other cities. According to the earlier plans, Oracle Park was meant to be a stadium that would feature 42,000 people. Construction works started in 1997, and the project immediately changed the face of China Basin and South Beach, two neighborhoods in the industrial waterfront area, which were considered up-and-coming. The stadium eventually had a building that cost $357 million, and it replaced a previous facility, Candlestick Park. Most notably, the new stadium was engineered to reduce a problem with wind levels, which was quite an issue of the previous stadium. After several years of construction works, the stadium opened to the public in 2000. Most notably, this was the first MLB ballpark built without public funds since the early 1960s! The team did receive a tax break due to the money they invested in upgrades and the stadium's construction and renovated local infrastructure, such as a connection to the Metro line, which would connect the stadium to the rest of the city with ease.
The Oracle Park is home to the San Francisco Giants, one of the most successful and iconic teams in the league. The Giants have been around since 1883. Back then, they were known as New York Gothams. They changed their names to New York Giants and later moved out west, embracing the name of their current city in 1958. Along with the Dodgers, the Giants decided to move out west, but it wasn't always easy for them to sustain success, but eventually started turning things around in the early 2000s, when the team developed its chemistry and reached its apex. A soaking new stadium certainly helped their morale!
The G-Men have been calling Candlestick Park home for four decades, but Oracle Park is their new stadium and has been so since 2000!
Recently, the stadium has been experiencing some renovations. In 2019, some of the bullpens were moved to enhance the stadium's safety for the players and the audience alike. Since the park changed its name quite frequently, many people jokingly call it the "Some Big Corporation" Park, about its previous name (SBC Park) and the fact that several internal corporate acquisitions led the stadium to change its moniker quite frequently in a relatively short timeframe!
In addition to baseball games, the stadium was also home to several concerts. The first show featured the Dave Matthews Band and Macy Gray, and even Carlos Santana! However, the stadium also hosted Green Day, The Rolling Stones (who played there twice, even having Metallica as their side act), and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. The park also hosted many other public events and conventions and other public happenings, such as the BandTogether benefit show, which offered relief to distressed communities in the area in the aftermath of a natural calamity.