Hotels Near AutoZone Park - Memphis Tennessee

The Inside Scoop by our Local Expert

AutoZone Park, home of the Memphis Redbirds, is one of the largest minor league baseball stadiums ever built. Some have jokingly referred to it as being a major league stadium with only the "good" seats, because it does not have outfield seating. The $80-million facility was opened in 2000 in the heart of downtown Memphis as a replacement to Tim McCarver Stadium. The price tag is the highest ever spent on a minor league stadium and included innovative technology that allows the infield to drain one inch per hour of rain and still remain playable, greatly reducing the amount of times it must be covered.The Memphis ballpark, which seats just over 12,500 people, features a picnic pavilion, lawn seating, two open-air party decks, and 48 suites in the upper club level. Normal club seating has access to an air-conditioned concourse complete with several restaurants and bars. In addition to standard seating, children can play on P.D. Parrot's Playhouse Perch on the bluff just north of the field.AutoZone Park also features the largest video screen in minor league baseball providing much of downtown Memphis with highlights of the game. In December 2006, the MLB made the venue host of an exhibition game called the Civil Rights Game. The first of these annual games was played by the St. Louis Cardinals and the Cleveland Indians in March 2007. It also became the first place outside of New Orleans to host Voodoo Music Experience because of Hurricane Katrina.