Cooper Stadium is an abandoned baseball stadium that was home to several minor league teams in Columbus, Ohio. Cooper Stadium was the home of the Columbus Clippers from 1977 to 2008. Since then, the stadium has sat empty.
By the 2000s, the county began exploring options to rehabilitate the ailing Cooper Stadium, which had structural concerns and outdated features that included shag carpeting and wood paneling in the luxury boxes. In April 2005, it was decided to construct a new ballpark in the Arena District as it was determined that renovating the existing facility would not be cost-effective. The ground was broken for the new $55 million baseball stadium on August 2, 2007.
In June 2011, Arshot Investment proposed reusing the facility as the Sports Pavilion Automotive Research Complex (SPARC), a $40 million sports entertainment center that would feature a half-mile track with room for 8,000 spectators, an automotive research and development facility, a hotel, and two restaurants. 1 8 10 13 The county sold the old stadium to Arshot for $3.4 million in 2012.
Most of Cooper Stadium was demolished in 2014. What remained — a section of the stadium running down the third base line — was to be incorporated into the racetrack stands. The initial proposal never panned out and Arshot proposed building office space and 500 apartments at the former Cooper Stadium site.
