Chukchansi Park, formerly known as Grizzlies Stadium, is a city-owned baseball stadium located in

Fresno, California Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

, United States, completed in 2002 as the home for

Minor League Baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

Fresno Grizzlies The Fresno Grizzlies are a Minor League Baseball team of the California League and the Single-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. They are located in Fresno, California, and play their home games at Chukchansi Park, which was opened in 2002 in ...

. The first game was May 1, 2002. Located in downtown Fresno, it was designed to be an anchor in the rehabilitation of the area, as other commercial development is planned in the Central Business District Loop. The ballpark is also used for music concerts,

motocross Motocross is a form of off-road motorcycle racing held on enclosed off-road circuits. The sport evolved from motorcycle trials competitions held in the United Kingdom. History Motocross first evolved in Britain from motorcycle trials competi ...

events, and high school football.

History

Upon the 1998 arrival of the Grizzlies minor league baseball team in Fresno, a group of developers proposed building a stadium in downtown Fresno as a permanent home for the club. There was extensive debate over how much money the City of Fresno would contribute to the project. Ultimately the stadium was built entirely with public money and then leased back to the owners of the Grizzlies for 30 years at $1.5 million per year. The stadium was designed by Populous, the firm responsible for many of today's sports stadiums like

Oriole Park at Camden Yards Oriole Park at Camden Yards, commonly known as Camden Yards, is a ballpark in Baltimore, Maryland. It is the home of Major League Baseball (MLB)'s Baltimore Orioles, and the first of the "retro" major league ballparks constructed during the ...

, Petco Park,

Comerica Park Comerica Park is a baseball stadium located in Downtown Detroit. It has been the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Detroit Tigers since 2000, when the team left Tiger Stadium (Detroit), Tiger Stadium. History Construction Founded in 1894, t ...

and

Oracle Park Oracle Park is a ballpark in the South of Market, San Francisco, SoMa district of San Francisco, California. Since 2000, it has been the home of the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball (MLB). The stadium stands along San Francisco Bay ...

in San Francisco. The $46 million facility seats 10,650, with

left field In baseball, a left fielder, abbreviated LF, is an outfielder who plays defense in left field. Left field is the area of the outfield to the left of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the numbering syst ...

dimensions of ; center field, ; and

right field A right fielder, abbreviated RF, is the outfielder in baseball or softball who plays defense in right field. Right field is the area of the outfield to the right of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In t ...

, . The ballpark features 600 club seats and 32 luxury suites In September 2006, Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino, affiliated with the Chukchansi tribe, announced it would be the premier corporate sponsor for Grizzlies Stadium, in a 15-year, deal. In August 2011, the stadium served as a filming location for '' Parental Guidance''. During the game,

Billy Crystal William Edward Crystal (born March 14, 1948)On page 17 of his book ''700 Sundays'', Crystal displays his birth announcement, which gives his first two names as "William Edward", not "William Jacob" is an American comedian, actor, and filmmaker. ...

threw out the first pitch in character and later appeared on the Grizzlies radio broadcast for an inning. One of the stadium's most popular events is an annual "taco truck throwdown" where

food truck A food truck is a large motorized vehicle (such as a van or multi-stop truck) or trailer equipped to store, transport, cook, prepare, serve and/or sell food. Some food trucks, such as ice cream trucks, sell frozen or prepackaged food, but m ...

s compete for best taco according to the event's judges. Based on the event, the team designed and wore taco-oriented jerseys.

Attendance records

The stadium's attendance record was set on July 10, 2015 when Chukchansi Park hosted an exhibition soccer game between Mexican soccer clubs Chivas and Atlas, in front of 16,824 fans. The stadium's second attendance record was set on June 27, 2012 when Chukchansi Park hosted an exhibition soccer game between Mexican soccer clubs América and

Chiapas Chiapas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas, is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises Municipalities of Chiapas, 124 municipalities and its capital and large ...

of the Primera División, in front of a crowd of 16,125 fans; breaking the previous record set on March 26, 2008 when the Grizzlies played their parent club, the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...

, in an

exhibition game An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the playe ...

in front of 14,084 fans. On March 27, 2015, Liga MX teams Cruz Azul and León faced off an international friendly match in front of a crowd of 15,087 spectators, the third largest crowd recorded at Chukchansi Park. On May 11, 2012, the Grizzlies fell to the

Iowa Cubs The Iowa Cubs are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. They are located in Des Moines, Iowa, and are named for their Major League Baseball (MLB) affiliate. T ...

in front of 14,023 fans, which is the largest regular season crowd in franchise history.

Boxing events

* November 9, 2019 -

Top Rank Top Rank, Inc. is a boxing promotional company founded by Jabir Herbert Muhammad and Bob Arum, which was incorporated in 1973, and is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Since its founding, Top Rank has promoted many world class fighters, including M ...

promoted card, which aired on

ESPN+ ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communicati ...

, saw Jamel Herring retain his WBO super featherweight world championship via unanimous decision against Lamont Roach. Also on the card was future world champion Janibek Alimkhanuly and heavyweight contender

Kubrat Pulev Kubrat Venkov Pulev (; born 4 May 1981) is a Bulgarian professional boxer. He has held the World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight title ( Regular version) since 2024. At regional level, he has held multiple heavyweight championships, includ ...

. * October 16, 2021 -

Matchroom Boxing Matchroom Sport is a UK-based sporting event promotions company founded by Barry Hearn and run by him and his son Eddie Hearn. It first came to attention in the sports of snooker and boxing and is also involved in pool, bowling, golf, fishin ...

promoted card, which aired on

DAZN DAZN (; pronounced "da zone") is a British Over-the-top media service, over-the-top sports Sports broadcasting, streaming and entertainment platform. Founded in 2007 as Perform Group via the merger of Premium TV Limited and Inform Group, it is o ...

. This event saw a huge upset, when massive underdog Sandor Martin defeated former multiple-weight world champion

Mikey Garcia Miguel Angel Garcia Cortez (born December 15, 1987), best known as Mikey Garcia, is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2006 to 2021. He held multiple world championships in four weight classes from featherweight to light w ...

via unanimous decision. This would turn out to be Garcia final professional fight and was attended by 8,000 fans.

Gallery

File:Ffuegostadium.jpg, Chukchansi Park aerial view File:Chukchansi Park satellite view.png, Chukchansi Park aerial view File:Park View1.jpg, Morning view at Chukchansi Park looking east File:Chukchansi.jpg, Downtown Fresno skyline from Chukchansi Park

References

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External links