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Angel Stadium

After more than four decades of existence, Angel Stadium has had numerous different looks throughout its history. In 1960, Gene Autry founded the Los Angeles Angels. The team played their first year at Los Angeles’ Wrigley Field in 1961. After the Los Angeles Dodgers constructed Dodger Stadium in 1962, the Angels moved from Los Angels Wrigley Field to the Dodgers home until 1965.

With the need for their own stadium, the Angels announced that they would construct their own ballpark in Anaheim. Named Anaheim Stadium, construction began on August 31, 1964. With the move to Anaheim, the team changed its name from the Los Angeles Angels to the California Angels. After a work stoppage and strikes Anaheim Stadium was completed on time. The Angels played their first game at Anaheim Stadium on April 19, 1966 against the Chicago White Sox. The three tier stadium had 43,204 seats that stretched from the right field foul pole to home plate and around to the left field foul pole.
Escalators, elevators and ramps helped fans get to the multi-colored seats. Anaheim Stadium instantly became known as the Big A, because of the A-frame scoreboard that was behind the outfield wall. It was 230 feet tall and a $1 million huge halo topped the scoreboard. The first of two renovations to Anaheim Stadium came in 1979 when the Los Angeles Rams moved to Anaheim.

The stadium was enclosed, increasing the capacity to 65,158. A new scoreboard was installed on the facade of the outfield roof because the Big A was moved to the parking lot. New executive and media boxes and a new sound system were added. The stadium remained multipurpose until 1995 when the Rams moved to St. Louis. After the 1996 season renovations began with the removal of all the outfield seats and renovations continued throughout the 1997 season. Parts of the stadium remained closed during the 1997 season thus making the capacity around 33,000.

At present replacing the 20,000 seats in the outfield are bleacher seats, a video display board, an out of town scoreboard below the right field seats and new bullpens. All of the multicolored seats were replaced by green seats. The exterior of the stadium was renovated as the concrete structure and ramps were painted green and a plaza was constructed outside the stadium with two giant Angel hats. With a new capacity of about 45,113, the renovated stadium was completed by April 1, 1998.

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