Riverview Stadium

Walking up to Riverview Stadium, Aug-1998.

A typical 1930s-style seating bowl is a rarity in this neck of the woods.

It’s tough to actually see the river from Riverview, but the riverboat casino is clearly visible.

Chronological Tour: Stop 141

• Location: Sixth Avenue North, near the Mississippi, Clinton, Iowa (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 1937 as Riverview Stadium
• Additional names: Alliant Energy Field (2002); Ashford University Field (2012); NelsonCorp Field (2019)
• Home team: Clinton Owls (1937-38), Giants (1939-41), Three-I League; Clinton Cubs (1947-48), Steers (1949), Central Association; Clinton Pirates, Mississippi-Ohio Valley/Midwest League (1954-59); Clinton C-Sox (1960-65), Pilots (1966-76), Dodgers (1977-79), Giants (1980-93), LumberKings (1994-2019), Midwest League
• Capacity: 2,500

Rating: 3 baseballs

Riverview Stadium went up more than 75 years ago as a WPA project, and it’s hardly been touched since aside from a few coats of paint. It shows its age, but despite that I found it a wonderful place to watch a baseball game. Renovations prior to the 2006 season added some outfield spectator areas as well as new locker rooms and a new scoreboard, but the seating bowl is relatively unchanged aside from seats having been replaced.

Alas, the good people of Clinton don’t seem to agree. Maybe a few of them have taken a trip to Des Moines to see the Iowa Cubs in recent years, and they’re spoiled. It also doesn’t help that the population of Clinton has been steadily decreasing. In any case, the LumberKings’ attendance has suffered, and the club was constantly threatening to move out. The city was, indeed, left out of the restructuring of the minors in 2021, but the LumberKings promptly joined the Prospect League, a college summer league.

In what might be construed as good news, Riverview Stadium was the latest to succumb to the corporate naming trend. Alliant Energy paid $450,000 over ten years to slap its name on the ballpark, known from 2002-11 as Alliant Energy Field. When that contract ran out, Ashford University, a for-profit institution that took over the campus of a defunct Catholic college in Clinton, put their name on the field despite not having a baseball team. The school pulled out of Clinton after the spring 2016 semester, however, and that put naming rights to Riverview Stadium in play again. NelsonCorp Wealth Management became the park’s sponsor in 2019, the last season Minor League Baseball was played here.