Harbor Park

• Name: Harbor Park
• GPS-able Address: 150 Park Avenue, Norfolk, VA 23510
• Ballpark Owner: City of Norfolk
• Architect(s): HOK Sport (now Populous)
• Groundbreaking: 2/21/1992
• Minor League Baseball Tenant(s): Norfolk Tides (AAA) 1993-present
• Class/League of MiLB tenant(s): AAA/International League 2022-present; AAA/Triple-A East 2021; AAA/International League 1993-2020
• First Pro Baseball Game: 4/14/1993; stadium debut of Class AAA Tides
• Other Current Tenants: None
• Previous Ballpark Names: None
• LF: 333 CF: 400 RF: 318
• SEATS: 11,800
• STATED CAPACITY: 11,856
• HOUSE BASEBALL/SOFTBALL RECORD ATTENDANCE (as currently configured): 12,408; 3/30/2007

Harbor Park in 2010

Harbor Park in Norfolk, VA, is the home of the Norfolk Tides, the Baltimore Orioles' Triple-A International League farm team. The city-owned downtown ballpark opened in 1993 - when the Tides dropped "Tidewater" as their locale name.

The franchise moved from Jacksonville, FL in 1969, after seven seasons as the Jacksonville Suns. Then a three-season New York Mets' affiliate, they remained so for 38 more years before switching to the Orioles in 2007. Their first Norfolk stadium was known as "Met Park"; easy as it would be to assume it was named for the Mets, it was in fact short for Metropolitan Memorial Park.

Harbor Park lies near the confluence of the Elizabeth River's eastern and southern branches, roughly 10 miles from Chesapeake Bay, and less than half that from the historic Norfolk Naval Shipyard. (Got a scorecard? The famed Norfolk Navy yard isn't in Norfolk; it's in Portsmouth.) The stadium salutes seafaring with flags and light towers that echo masts and cranes and with the team colors and seahorse logo. Its baseball capacity is listed as 11,856 - about one-fourth of those seats being in the upper deck - but its baseball record is the 14,263 reported August 31, 1996. The year before, Baseball America named it the best minor league stadium in the United States. New in 2022: a pair of videoboards that total more than 5,000 square feet - according to the team, the largest display in the minors.

HOK Sport (now Populous) designed the playpen in the wake of the architects' phenomenal success with Baltimore's Oriole Park at Camden Yards.