Last week, Cincinnati Reds fans got just a glimpse of what's to come in terms of the new ballpark's design, which was met with a fair share of criticism by those feeling the design didn't adequately reflect the city's rich baseball history.
It's ironic, some say, that the ballpark favors a modern design when Cinergy Field, with a design called "state-of-the-art" when built 30 years ago, is being torn down.
First, the ballpark's design has not yet been unveiled, said John Allen, Reds chief operating officer. Last week, stadium design firm HOK showed the county and the public certain elements associated with the suites.
"It's not right to unveil certain elements without the public," Allen said. "Many were critical of the design without actually seeing the design."
Still, Allen went on to say that the ballpark will incorporate a combination of past and present design ideas to create a stadium that will be unique to Cincinnati. There will be plenty of references to the city's baseball history, he said.
"What is a modern design? What's retro? What we don't want is a stadium like anyone else's," he said. "We like certain elements in retro ballparks, but our ballpark is not going to look like half a dozen others in the country."
When can the public expect some concrete plans?
Allen couldn't provide an answer. Designers are still in the "value engineering" phase, which also prohibits Allen from detailing many of the ballpark's features that will make it characteristic of Cincinnati baseball.
He did say that there will be some "tremendous ties" to Crosley Field and that the ballpark will have a larger baseball hall of fame than any other ballpark.
"That's pretty darn nice, yet no one's talked about that," he said.
Also pretty darn nice is the closeness of the upper deck to the field resulting from only one row of suites, Allen said. Other fields, like Jacobs Field in Cleveland and Comiskey Park in Chicago, have double stacked suites that put the upper deck at a very steep incline.
Hamilton County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus did not return several calls for comment on the stadium design.
Burning Questions is our weekly attempt to afflict the comfortable.
