P & C Stadium

Main entrance of P & C Stadium, Sep-2002.

The expansive seating area.

Trains are not visible in this view, but they are often seen down the left-field line.

Chronological Tour: Stop 110

• Location: Hiawatha Boulevard at 1st Street North, Syracuse, N.Y. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 1997 as P & C Stadium
• Additional names: Alliance Bank Stadium (2007), NBT Bank Stadium (2013)
• Home team: Syracuse SkyChiefs (1997-2007), Chiefs (2008-18), Mets (2019-present), International League
• Capacity: 11,071

Rating: 3 baseballs

The naming rights for what was originally known as the Onondaga County Stadium went to P & C Foods, a New York supermarket chain. P & C Stadium opened in a blaze of glory in April 1997.

The park has two major drawbacks. One was artificial turf, a concession to the parent club, the Toronto Blue Jays, who play in a dome (and also a way to facilitate additional events in a multi-purpose setting). That turf has since been replaced with real grass, which marks a vast improvement.

The other was the design. The interior appeared to be a rip-off of Norfolk’s Harbor Park, which also sees service in the International League. The difference is that instead of boats docked in the Elizabeth River, the only view from P & C Stadium is of the trains going by beyond the left-field wall. The trains were far enough away to not be a distraction at the Big Mac.

One other thing happened in 1997, when the club moved into their new facility. Thanks to a little bit of squawking from the Onondaga Nation and a lot of grandstanding by officials looking to be politically correct, the name of the team was changed from Chiefs to SkyChiefs. In a 2002 visit to the park, however, I still found a decent number of Chiefs shirts and caps, and most fans still called the team the Chiefs. By 2008, the official nickname of the team had reverted to Chiefs.

All in all, I miss Big Mac. As run-down as it was, it had character. That said, the one remaining vestige of MacArthur Stadium is the light stanchions in the outfield, which were moved over from what remains a fallow plot of land beyond right field. Some other upgrades, such as the new grass, convinced me to increase my rating from two baseballs to three in 2018.