Riverfront Stadium was actually not the worst. Atlanta Fulton County Stadium was far worse. The absolute, rock-bottom PITS was Veteran's Stadium.

Personally, I liked Riverfront more than both current stadiums in Cincinnati combined.

I was there many, many times. I also saw Tom Browning's perfect game. I saw Ickey Woods break the rushing record for a rookie. I was there when Brett Favre played his first game with the Packers. I was also in attendance at the game when Sam Wyche grabbed the mic and yelled at the idiots throwing snowballs at the other team "We're not in Cleveland". So many great memories.

I went there many times to see the Reds and the Bengals. I saw Tom Browning's perfect game. I saw the 1988 AFC championship game there, I saw the two Red's world series games there in 1990 and many other Bengals games with season tickets from 1987 to the mid 90's. It was an amazing place that I loved and still love fondly. I also saw every Game Denver played there for decades. Great times. I don't care what it looks like. It was the place of many great memories that I will hold dear forever. You had to be there Ginger.

Did you ever go to a game at Riverfront Stadium? If so, are you even old enough to remember it? I take it you are just basing your criticisms on 2nd-hand knowledge. While the cookie-cutters were never great for baseball, or football for that matter, they did serve their purpose. But Riverfront was definitely not the worst of them. Like others said, Veterans and Fulton County were worse. 3 Rivers in Pittsburgh was about the same as Riverfront. Sure, by the end of its 30 years, it had outlived itself and needed to go. Hence Paul Brown Stadium was built and opened in 2000 and Great American Ball Park a few years later.

Patrick, why don't you like these "cookie cutter" stadiums? Is it because you are young, and they seem outdated to you? I was 11 years old when I attended the first game at Riverfront Stadium in 1970. I will never forget how HUGE it looked! I thought I was in baseball heaven. I loved the symmetrical aspect of these stadiums, Pittsburgh and Philly too. The dimensions of all three stadiums were nearly identical, and more or less equal distances down the right and left field foul lines. No "short porch" for writers to criticize Babe Ruth and Mel Ott. Artificial turf all around, including the infield. A nice, clean look and no "bad hops". National League was FAST back then, and Joe Morgan could fly on that surface! And why is multi-purpose a bad thing? Saves the taxpayers a ton of money and keeps the stadiums from sitting vacant for months on end during the off season. I don't like Great American Ball Park. It reminds me of a AAA stadium, kind of the Pilot Field (Sahlen) in Buffalo. When Riverfront was packed, which it was frequently during the Big Red Machine era, you would not believe the VOLUME the crowd could generate! It was intimidating for opponents and flat out cool! I saw Hank Aaron drop a can of corn in right field because of that noise. I know I'm an old "Boomer" and no young people will agree with me, but you just don't realize all that your generation has missed. When was the last time you saw a player run full-speed, head-first into the catcher to win an exhibition game? Man, I miss 1970 AND Riverfront Stadium. Enjoy your content, Patrick, even if I disagree with your assessment. Keep up the good work!

Wrong. First, this video leaves out the experience of parking in Covington, KY, walking across the suspension bridge and enjoying the views it gave, and then conveniently ending up right at Riverfront Stadium. Second, the name is one of the best ever. More importantly, being inside for a ballgame was exciting, fun and memorable. Always Most importantly, it kept the Reds in Cincinnati. There was talk of the franchise moving to San Diego, among other possibilities. No Riverfront Stadium = no Big Red Machine. I laugh when people call stadiums of that era "concrete donuts". The video repeatedly uses adjectives like "horrible". Give me a break. If it was horrible nobody would have gone there. No matter how good or bad the Reds or Bengals were, big crowds turned out at Riverfront Stadium. If Stadiums like Riverfront were horrible then they would be called things like "landfills". Calling them something that makes a person laugh tells me that they were simply an idea that was tried, not anything bad. It was a good idea at first, I'm sure. The design wasn't why they went out of style anyway. Their lack of luxury suites and skyboxes was why they went out of style. The average fan was not what either the cookie cutters or their replacements were designed for, so videos like this miss the point.

Veterans Stadium was worse, rat infested

People who say that Riverfront is the worst of the cookie cutters haven't been to the Oakland Coliseum

I plan on naming my first begotten son Mt. Davis.

I would argue Atlanta Fulton County Stadium was just as bad. The seating configuration for football was atrocious.

I'm at WKRP in Cincinnati!

Riverfront was superior to Great American Ballpark (GABP). They tucked GABP into a too small footprint. There's not enough room in the outfield to hit triples and balls that might drop in shallow or in the gaps are usually caught. GABP is a homer friendly ballpark.

I've been to all the so called cookie cutter stadiums at one time or another in the 80s and 90s. With the exception of RFK in DC, I actually didn't mind these stadiums at all As a child of the 70s and 80s, these were the types of ballparks I grew up with. And while they can't compare to modern parks, they do have a special place in baseball history and reflective of the era they were built in.

I went to games here from 1970 till the end. Riverfront was not a bad place. I liked going to games there. For the time it was state of the art. STOP THE HATE.

Jeez Dude I would take Riverfront over any of these new stadiums any day It was clean easy parking in/out access Great sightlines During the 70s & 1990 the place was packed & historic games played here

During its last couple years, when they removed the section of seats behind the outfield, it reminded me of Shea stadium

Riverfront was a great stadium. Great American BP has grown on me but liked Riverfront much more for the longest time.

In its first 10 years, Riverfront hosted as many World Series as Crosley Field did in 58 years. Yet, it could not dislodge Crosley Field in the hearts of the Cincinnati fans.

The worst was Veteran's Stadium in Philly because it had far and away the worst astroturf.

Perhaps it was the worst but they had one of the best names. Riverfront Stadium was a great name and perfectly descriptive of the stadium .Three Rivers Stadium was a good name too. With the move to sell naming rights there arent good stadium names anymore.

Great American Ballpark turned out so good it’s easily a top 5 stadium in the entire MLB.

This is top tier best sports, media, history, general topic channels out there.

I think that building the stadium on top of the parking garage was genius

WELL LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING, YOU CAN RUN YOUR MOUTH ALL YOU WANT , BUT I GREW UP IN NEWARK. OHIO AND FROM 1972 TO 1979 MY FAMILY AND I WENT TO 3 REDS GAMES A YEAR , AND I LOVED RIVERFRONT STADIUM, IT HOLDS SO MANY SPECIAL MEMORIES FOR ME . I WAS ABLE TO GET A PIECE OF THE TURF AND I DID GET 3 FOUL BALLS AND AUTOGRAPHS FROM -ROSE, FORSTER, GRIFFEY , CUBS BILL MADLOCK. so to me Riverfront stadium will always put a smile on my face.

Do three rivers stadium next or Fulton County stadium ?

Bro, Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia is the worst stadium in history, let alone cookie cutter stadium.

Everyone entitled to opinion, but enjoyed many great games and event at Riverfront....club level rocked.

Perspective: Crosley Field was a DUMP. We loved our shiny new Riverfront. It was symbol of power & prestige where our small market city finally had a big league ballpark. It was beautiful esp compared to old Crosley. Add to that we had powerhouse teams in the Reds with the Great Eight and the Bengals with Kenny Anderson at QB. Cookie cutters went out of style? So what. All these "retro" parks will go out of style in the next couple decades and will be torn down and replaced by whatever new style comes along. Your critique misses the perspective of time, style & place.

You obviously were never there.

The late 60s early 70s were the dark ages for sport stadiums construction thank God they are gone

As a big reds fan even though i like great american ballpark better it dosent deserve all of the hate

2002 was a rough year for Griffey jr. Maybe he didn’t like the construction.

I always thought Busch Stadium II was fantastic as a cookie cutter multi purpose stadium with the arch's going all around. Open in 1966 all others attempted to be like Busch and failed.

Three Rivers in Pittsburgh was worse. And three California entries: 1) Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego, Oakland Coliseum, and Candlestick Park(after a remodel), San Francisco

I was curious seeing the pics from the last year and there was natural grass at Riverfront. I figured maybe they switched over in the early 90's, but no they only had natural grass for the final season 2001-2002. Seems like a big money project for just one season, why not leave the ASTRO turf for one more year.

This longtime baseball fan has visited all the "cookie cutter" stadiums, except Fulton County. Each one wasn't a thing of beauty. One was as bad as the others.

That's arguable with the 2nd Bush Stadium. When it was astroturf, the big bowl made summer day games a sweltering nightmare. The conversion to real grass lessened some of the effect, but the stadium would still trap in heat and humidity. It didn't really resemble a ballpark until the Rams moved out and they made renovations

I had been to probably 3 dozen Reds games and 1 Bengals game at Riverfront. The stadium wasn't particularly special but it was a clean, functional venue. There was a sectional in the centerfield yellow seats that wasn't completed. The Reds had wanted to put a restaurant and a club there for fans to congregate, but the Bengals wouldn't approve it. Any stadium changes or improvements needed the approval of both teams and the ownership of both the Reds and Bengals rarely saw eye to eye. As a result, for many years, that centerfield section was basically left unfinished. They would put folding "card table" chairs there during overflow baseball games or football games.

Dude, you are wrong. Riverfront Stadium was a great and legendary stadium with plenty of good history. It had a great appearance. You also have a hard time pronouncing words. It's not Bangals with a bay. It's Bengals with a bee. There is no A after the B.

Of the 5 highest attendance games the Bengals lost 4. The Bengals were so bad that you couldn't watch the games on local TV because of blackout rules. The Bengals have had some really good seasons and still struggled to put fans in the seats and the games would be blacked out locally. They've had trouble keeping a fanbase charged and part of that is Mike Brown's past cheapness. I hope the Joe Burrow era lands Cincy a Lombardi because the long standing fans have suffered long enough.

If you think Riverfront and 3 Rivers looked the same, you'd better schedule an eye exam!

Riverfront was a descent multi purpose grew up there yes it was a beautiful sight like they are now. but there were quite a few of these around

The 1981 AFC Championship Game did not sell out at Riverfront when their Bengals beat San Diego? Why didn't that game make The Top 5 in Riverfront Attendance? I'm surprised that The 1988 Championship Game also did not make The Top 5 when the Cincinnati Bengals also beat Buffalo for another chance at the 49ers in the Super Bowl.

When they took out the outfield seats it looked somewhat like Shea which was supposed to be another enclosed cookie cutter but there wasnt enough funding

when digibyte pump ser? i sold my 401k years ago for it...

Worst of the cookie-cutters was the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodump with hockey boards as the left field wall and hefty bags beyond the right field fence. The ultimate in tacky. Second was the Seattle Kingdump. Cincy-Pittsburgh-Philly were practically identical and I watched games in all of them. Monuments to concrete.

I remember the first hr. Hit at Riverfront was by Reds Second Baseman Tommy Helms

Loved the red seats in Riverfront. 5 dollars to sit behind home plate. Watched the Reds in nearly all positions of the stadium. Red Green and Blue seats. Watched the cubs play the reds when slamming Sammy Sosa was in the running with Mark Maguire, Great memories and fun place to see a game. The only negative was the turf on the field. Reminded me of the plastic fake grass.

the stadiums today are about anything but the game not to mention its soft gen zers and millenials with their heads buried in their phones most of the game tweeting out pics of whatever crappy craft beer their drinking 🤣

Fulton County and RFK were worse. Riverfront was state of the art for it’s time. Camden Yards and Jacobs Filed opening in the 90’s made all those multipurpose parks obsolete quickly.

I know you are depressed and I hate to put more depression on you. But the Bangles were an all female pop music group. They never played football anywhere let alone in Cincinnati. It would have been a bit confusing because Cincinnati already had an NFL team there named the Bengles.I would've probably like seeing the Bangles play football. I hope I haven't caused further depression. Don't take it too hard, Ginger. Don't go an take a swan dive from the highest point of Mount Davis in Oakland. Don't hang yourself from the catwalk at Tropicana field in St. Pete. And please for god sakes, Ginger don't go to Minute Maid park in Houston and lay on the tracks. It's just a bit of confusion over a pop music football team and.... ah, hell now I'm depressed. Move over Astro fans. Make room on the Minute Maid Express tracks for me.

walks will haunt

Three Rivers was great for football. Still miss it since Heinz Field is such a dump.

Home of The Bangles? I don't think so ... Susannah Hoffs was only eleven years old when the stadium opened. 😉

With that planned renovation, was going to be just like Shea stadium

"Bangles". decent band

Funny part about that is hienz field is the same as the frowns and the titains stadium

Look at an aerial shot of Fulton County for football and it's laughable... baseball was better but not by much. The field level seats at Riverfront had a decent system and were at least reasonable. It might have been a classic cookie cutter turd, but it was at least more polished than Fulton.

Man idk I kimda like the circle design xd

Construction site or not, it was much better when they tore out the outfield seats. Actually felt like an actual baseball stadium rather than watching a game in a concrete canyon in the original configuration.

Home of the crush

#HeyCoolYo!

Fulton County stadium was the worse by far, Riverfront, Veterans stadium and Three Rivers were pretty much equal

Huge Reds fan here, but I totally agree that even though they had some great teams back in the day it was a big eye sore

How do you pump out so many videos? Love the grind my man