Souping Up the Game

Walking in to Campbell’s Field, May-2001.

A unique section of grandstand, for private parties, nestles among the sky boxes.

The Ben Franklin Bridge dominates every view, and downtown Philadelphia is visible from some angles.

Chronological Tour: Stop 196

• Location: Penn and Delaware avenues, Camden, N.J.
• Opened: 2001
• Demolished: 2019
• Home team: Camden Riversharks, Atlantic League (2001-15); York Revolution, Atlantic League (part of 2007); Rutgers University-Camden Scarlet Raptors, New Jersey Athletic Conference (through 2018)
• Capacity: 6,425

Rating: 4 baseballs

The new ballpark in Camden that opened for independent ball in May 2001 celebrated none of that history. However, the easiest approach to it was via Cooper Street, and every seat in the park had a dramatic view of the Ben Franklin Bridge, a grand structure that helped put the ferries out of business. This view – which also included downtown Philadelphia from the extreme end of the grandstand in right field (that’s all they could do owing to the necessity of avoiding sun glare problems for the batters) – was the best feature of an otherwise copycat park that succeeded in being a pleasant place to watch a game.

Campbell’s Field – named for the flagship brand of the Campbell Soup Company, a longtime Camden industry – shared some design features with the nicer 1990s minor-league parks in the state, such as Trenton, Atlantic City, and Somerset. Seating was in a split lower level, with a concourse halfway down the seating bowl dividing “lower boxes” from “upper boxes”. As with most of these parks, they weren’t truly box seats, but glorified field-level reserved seats. An interesting touch was that the upper deck, which is generally sky boxes, included two small grandstand areas for larger parties.

Concessions were reasonably priced, but originally the ticket pricing was very affordable. That changed, but it was possible to gain a $2 discount on $14 and $13 tickets by purchasing in advance. Parking, originally $2, shot up to $6 by 2014, and it was collected by the city, not the team, which had no control and was not permitted to reduce the fee as an incentive (or so a team official told me).

Mounting attendance woes and failure to market the team well after its original owner, Steve Shilling, died in 2003 eventually led the Riversharks to fold after the 2015 season. The New Britain (Conn.) Bees replaced the Riversharks in the Atlantic League roster, playing at just-vacated New Britain Stadium. The baseball team from the nearby campus of Rutgers University played there for three seasons before the park was demolished to make way for a more modular development of the Scarlet Raptors’ athletic fields.