Riverfront Stadium is brought back to life in Riverfront Remembered: A Film By Cam Miller.
She wasn't built to be charming. She wasn't configured to fit inside a neighborhood like her predecessor Crosley Field. Riverfront Stadium was designed to function. A multi-purpose machine, her concrete and steel body bolted down along the Ohio River, sharing the banks with warehouses, factories, and skyscrapers. She had a job to do and she did it well.
But machines don't last forever, and eventually we deem them out of date and find something shiny and new to serve our ever-changing purposes and landscapes. After 32 years. After 2,576 games. And after 64,650,533 fans walked through her turnstiles, the time had come to say good-bye.
And for those of us that were lucky enough to have our breath taken away by her majestic size, our eyes widened when we first saw her expansive green field, as we made our way to find our plastic seats made of blue, green, yellow, and red, we are forever grateful that she let us be a part of her lifespan.
We may not remember the final scores, or whether the Reds won or lost, but we do remember the scoreboard glow, and we can still smell the damp concrete and Sportservice treats. And we can still feel the rumble in our chest as we clapped our hands and stomped our feet.
She is forever with us. And we will always have that stadium along the Ohio.
Riverfront.