Anaheim Stadium a Work in Progress

The field looks ready . . . for a sandlot game. Dirt from one end to the other. No fence. No pitching mound. No foul lines. All that’s missing are a few kids with gloves and a baseball missing a few stitches.

At the moment, there are more holes in Anaheim Stadium than the Angels’ starting rotation. But team officials say the stadium will be patched up by opening day.

In a little more than a month, Anaheim Stadium has to be ready for use. The Angels and Dodgers begin the Freeway Series in Dodger Stadium on March 28 and a night later play in Anaheim. Crews are working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to meet that timetable.

“Right now, we’re on schedule to be ready,” said Kevin Uhlich, director of stadium operations. “It has to be ready. This is not going to be an Oakland Coliseum situation, where we have to look to play somewhere else.”

The Oakland A’s opened the 1996 season in Las Vegas because the $100-million renovation of the Oakland Coliseum was not completed in time. Ed Alvarez, the A’s executive vice president, said the club thought the stadium would be ready by mid-March. He also said the crews worked around the clock the month before the opener.

The Angels have no such contingency plans at the moment. None are needed, according to Uhlich. Still, much work remains in the $100-million project and the schedule allows for few unforeseen problems.

“Obviously, if worse came to worst, we would have looked at playing somewhere else,” Uhlich said. “We’ve had the usual problems with a project this size. The drawings for the stadium were done in 1966. Pipes and wiring weren’t located where they were supposed to be. We didn’t know what was there until we tore into the walls.

“But there has been a lot of careful planning put into this, and we are on schedule.”

Pitchers Troy Percival and Chuck Finley visited the stadium last month and said they were shocked at the amount of work remaining.

“It looked like a fallout shelter . . . that had been hit,” Finley said. “When I first saw it, I thought ‘We’ll be at Cal State Fullerton pulling [fans] in.’ But they say it’s going to be ready.”

Said Percival: “There were no walls in the locker room. It was gutted. It was amazing they could take a structure that huge and pretty much start all over.

“I thought there was no way they were going to get this ready. There were no walls, no nothing. I think I only saw one guy working in there. But it was between noon and one, so maybe they were at lunch.”

Much has been done since. But much is left to finish.

The press box, suites and concession stands behind home plate are unfinished. Seats behind home plate still need to be replaced. The dugouts and clubhouses need to be refurbished. Sod for the infield and outfield is expected to arrive next week.

There is also a gaping hole in the view level where the football press box used to be. Uhlich said concrete will be poured and seats installed before the season.

Some of the stadium’s light standards must be reinstalled. It was a lighting problem that finally forced A’s officials to move to Las Vegas. Alvarez said the temporary lights that were installed were not suitable.

Angel officials said they do not anticipate the same problems.

When the work is completed, safety inspectors must also approve the stadium for use. Fans will still notice more destruction than construction, particularly in the outfield, where the three-deck structure has been reduced to one level.

The capacity will be reduced from 64,593 to between 26,000-30,000 for this season. That will increase to 45,000 in 1998.

“What fans will experience this year is a lot of the demolition work,” Uhlich said. “The thing that will hit them is they won’t be looking at 20,000 empty seats in the outfield. On nice days, they will be able to see Mt. Baldy.

“But the fans’ experience really won’t change until 1998.”

Angel officials point out that the grand opening is set for the 1998 season and hope that fans will tolerate some discomfort this season.

Uhlich, in fact, was in Kansas City this week meeting with officials of HOK, the company that has handled much of the stadium renovation. They were putting together the bid packets for the final phase, which will be done next off-season.

Those plans now feature a multi-scoreboard structure in right field. It will include a Jumbotron, a message scoreboard, a game-in-progress board and an animation board. The outside of the stadium will also undergo a face lift. Work on the suites and the Diamond Club lounge behind home plate will also be completed then.

The stadium’s original Big A scoreboard, which officials initially said would be moved back inside the stadium, will remain in the parking lot.

Some work will continue through this season, mostly on the club level. Half the club level will be closed during the season--the third-base side will be open for the first half, the first-base side for the second half. That, plus the loss of terrace-level seats behind home plate, has forced the relocation of season-ticket holders.

Most ticket-holders will be moved back to those seats. Others will be given “the best seats possible,” according to Disney Sports Enterprises spokesman Bill Robertson.

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Home Improvements

Work that remains to be done before season opens:

* Sod the field.

* Complete press box behind home plate.

* Replace field-level seats behind home plate.

* Install seats where football press box was located.

* Put temporary scoreboard in left field.

* Position lights behind home plate and in outfield.

* Restore outfield fences and screen behind home plate.

* Finish refurbishing dugouts and clubhouses.

DURING SEASON

* Construct suites on club level. First-base side will be closed during first half of season. Third-base side will be closed during the second half. Season-ticket holders will be moved from one side to the other.

* Detail work on dugout suites and stadium club.

NEXT WINTER

* Face lift of stadium’s exterior.

* Family area in left field, with interactive equipment.

* Picnic area outside stadium, grass area where center-field seats were.

* Large scoreboard in right field.

* New suites behind home plate.

Source: Times reports; researched by CHRIS FOSTER/Los Angeles Times

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Times staff writer Mike DiGiovanna contributed to this story.