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Marlins aiming for comfort in new stadium
Wide seats, plush amenities among club's current emphasis

By Joe Frisaro / MLB.com
08/31/09 10:57 AM ET

MIAMI -- An emphasis on comfort is being placed on each seat that will be installed at the Marlins' new ballpark.

Depending on location and price ranges, seats at the retractable-roof stadium at the Orange Bowl will be between 19-24 inches wide.

"We are looking at an average of at least 21 inches," Marlins president David Samson said. "It's going to be very comfortable The toughest thing about sitting close to people is when you're hot and sticky. We're not going to have that issue."

Some of the chairs will have padding on the bottom, while others will have it on the back. Cup holders in some areas will be in the front, and in other areas on the side.

As of now, the exact number of seats at the park is 37,024. Keep in mind, the figure is subject to change. At one point the figure was 37,064, and then it was changed to 37,009.

"As we look into every detail in how every seat is, we don't want any rows of one, and some seats get moved," Samson said. "In some areas, we [will] add a few seats, so it's a moving target."

The color of the seats, picked out by team owner Jeffrey Loria, will be sea blue.

"It's an image Jeffrey had of how he wanted to see the architecture and the color of the seats mesh with each other," Samson said. "That's what he came up with."

The seats will have a different look and feel in the pool area behind the outfield wall. In all, there will be 90 seats by the pool, and they will be positioned to look directly through the wall to see the game action.

"In the pool area, we're looking to have a real 'beachy' feel, almost like Tiki huts," Samson said. "There will not be normal ballpark seats where people will watch the game in the pool area. They will be the most unorthodox seats in all of baseball."

Basically, the seats in that section will be a cross between beach and traditional ballpark chairs.

Samson noted he expects the group area by the pool to sell out before the 2012 season starts.

Ground was broken at the Orange Bowl grounds on July 1, and all the developments at the site can be viewed via the new stadium webcam on Marlins.com.

In recent weeks, the ground was graded, and concrete has been poured. Within a week or so, the project will begin to go "vertical."

"The expression 'going vertical' means we actually start building up instead of going across," Samson said. "We'd been building horizontally until now. We expect that within a week, we'll be building vertically."

Soon, concrete supports will rise from the ground to support the "super columns," or large columns that will hold up the roof.

Come September, the project will be 31 months away from completion.

All phases of design and construction are moving along rapidly.

In recent days, Loria has met with the designers to discuss everything from tiling on floors in the club levels and what the suites will look like.

Attention to the signage saying where the bathrooms are were discussed, as to placements of garbage cans in the restrooms.

A suggestion recently was to install ledges in the ladies rooms for pocketbooks, purses or bags.

"We're almost 50 percent through those kinds of decisions," Samson said. "We're down to 31 months. It started at 33. At the end of September, it's just about 10 percent done already."