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Isotopes Park 
Isotopes Park, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is the home field of the Albuquerque Isotopes, a minor-league baseball team that plays in the Pacific Coast League (PCL) as the Class AAA affiliate of the Florida Marlins. The facility is also used by the baseball program of the University of New Mexico. It was built in 2003, and has a capacity of 12,215.
The park arose from controversy. The Albuquerque Dukes, the Class AAA affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers had been a part of the city for more than 29 years. In 2000, then-owner Bob Lozinak sold the team to Portland, catching both the city and the PCL off-guard. Branch Rickey III president of the PCL, promised that "Triple-A baseball will return to Albuquerque."
Albuquerque Baseball, Inc. was put together to try and find a new ownership group, team, and get a stadium built. Finding another owner and team were not difficult. The PCL had teams in Canada that they wanted to relocate. New owner Ken Young negotiated the sale of the Calgary Cannons. Moving to Albuquerque, though, was still not a done deal.
The stadium became a political hot potato, with the mayor, and Greg Payne, a city councilman and presumed mayoral candidate, using the facility to set up a mayorial race in the coming year. The mayor wanted the stadium located downtown, to revitalize the sagging area much as stadiums in Oklahoma City and Memphis, Tennessee had done. Councilman Payne wanted a refurbishment of the old Albuquerque Sports Stadium on the site located where other sports venues for the University of New Mexico were located. The city would have obtained more revenue from the downtown park both in lease fees and in improvements in the area's economy.
After a city-wide vote, Payne's point of view prevailed. The decision was made to build Isotopes Park on the site of the aging Albuquerque Sports Stadium, former home of the Albuquerque Dukes.
What was supposed to be a remodel of the old grandstands became a complete gut and remodel. The stadium was rebuilt from scratch from a general floor plan used successfully by architects HOK Sport in several other cities. By raising areas around the field, it was effectively lowered slightly. The old stadium was famous for a "drive-in" section behind the right-field fence where drivers could park their cars and watch the action. This section was originally planned to be retained, but design improvements placed a children's play area in the same place, which was considered preferable.
The park has enjoyed explosive success. With a large open breezeway with both an outer ring food court and "festival" food carts with every conceivable form of food and drink, the park rivals many major league parks for features and comforts.
Albuquerque has always been known as a hitters park, due to the high altitude, etc., but the changes in the field create more of a wind screen which allows the ball protected lift. Also, the fences were brought in slightly. The high altitude (Albuquerque in that area stands at over 5,300 feet above sea level) and warm summer air also give the balls great lift.
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