Too Big for Its Own Good?

Exterior of Joe W. Davis Stadium, Aug-2014.

The long football stands at a park no longer used for that sport.

A typically sparse crowd watches the Stars on an August evening.

Chronological Tour: Stop 147

• Location: Drake Avenue at Memorial Parkway, Huntsville, Ala. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 1985
• Home team: Huntsville Stars, Southern League (1985-present)
• Capacity: 10,200

Rating: 2 baseballs

The result is a shorter seating area in right field than in left. The left-field seats actually curve around into the outfield, providing end zone seating for football, although not quite as many seats as are found on the right field line (the other end zone).

For me, the park was a little too sterile, although it could have been the smallish crowd that gathered the evening I saw it. Like many parks in the South, attendance suffers on warm evenings unless there’s a promotion to draw the fans in.

Huntsville and the Stars actually got along less than fabulously, and after 30 years at the Joe, the team relocated to Biloxi, Miss., early in the 2015 season. I made a return trip at the end of 2014, and fewer than five hundred fans showed up for what turned out to be a Stars victory.

At one point, it appeared that the stadium would be torn down, as the property was more valuable for other purposes. However, the city has decided to restore the park to its prior use for rectangular sports. The stadium is now expected to become a venue for second-tier professional soccer.