Minute Maid Park in Houston

Since the famous Astrodome extracted the Houston Astros from their shelter of over thirty-five years, the Minute Maid Park has taken the Astros in and provided them with a new home to play baseball. Minute Maid Park in Houston does more than host baseball games. The Union Station ball park is also famous for hosting a variety of other events as well such as concerts and conventions. Minute Maid Park is located in the northeast portion of downtown Houston and in close proximity to the famous George R. Brown Convention Center. The park is capable of seating 42,000 visitors and occupies 29 acres of land.

The Minute Maid Park in Houston opened in 2000 and was a substantial change from the Houston's former ballpark home that was in an enclosed dome with artificial grass. Minute Maid Park's real grass and open clear skies were immediately accepted by Houstonians and fans attended the first game held there in record numbers. Over three million fans attended in the 2000 season and the park has seen an estimated six million visitors since its doors opened.

The Minute Maid Park was named after a Coca-Cola Product. It was given the name to honor the Coca-Cola Company for its heavy involvement in the construction and completion of the multimillion dollar baseball park. Coca-Cola's hundred million dollar investment in the park enabled them the rights to name the stadium for a length of twenty-eight years.

The innovate retractable roof which only takes 12-20 minutes to open and close over the park allowed open-air baseball to played again in the city of Houston. The classic architecture of the stadium marks it as a ballpark that will move into history as one of Houston's future historic structures. The new stadium has literal ties to the past with its connection to Union Station. In the early 1900's, Houston's largest industry was composed of the railroad system . The railroads established the economic base for the metropolitan city that Houston is today. The Union Station transports baseball and concert fans into the stadium via a modern railway system.

The designers of Minute Maid Park in Houston wanted a retro look to the theme park that would complement the timeless architecture of the structure. Six thousand retro green seats and panoramic views of the ballpark give the look and feel of an old time park that is newly renovated. The retractable roof on the Minute Maid Park dome comes in handy on particularly hot days because Houston is known for temperatures that exceed one hundred degrees in the summer. Visitors to Minute Maid Park give the park rave reviews for the physical comfort that the retractable roof provides and boast about clean bathrooms and easy flowing lines at concession stands. Great food, drinks, and atmosphere keeps Astros fans coming back to Minute Maid Park. The state of the art Minute Maid Park doesn't just bring in pleased fans but it also revitalizes a downtown area of Houston that has suffered tremendously due to ongoing construction projects.