Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium
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Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium is a baseball stadium in Newark, New Jersey. It has a seating capacity of 6,200. It is the home of the Newark Bears of the independent Atlantic League, as well as to the college baseball teams of the Newark campus of Rutgers University and the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Riverfront Stadium opened for business July 16, 1999, with a game against the Lehigh Valley Black Diamonds. The Bears had joined the league at its founding in 1998, but played their "home" games at The Ballpark at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, Connecticut during that first season. They played several "home" games at Skylands Park in Augusta, New Jersey during the first half of the 1999 season, but came home to Newark to open the second half.
Originally, the stadium was to be built along the Passaic River, perhaps at or near Riverbank Park, but the eventual site was at Broad and Orange Streets, a block from the New Jersey Transit Broad Street Station. A block of Orange Street, between Broad Street and McCarter Highway, was vacated to allow for the ballpark to be built.
In 2001, the Bears added "Bears and Eagles" to the name of the park, to reflect the heritage represented by both the International League's Bears, and the Negro National League Newark Eagles, both of whom had played at Ruppert Stadium (demolished in 1967) in the area now called the Ironbound. Also, the team mascot is called Rip'n Ruppert.
External links:
- Newark Bears (http://www.newarkbears.com)
- Atlantic League (http://www.atlanticleague.com)
- NJIT baseball (http://www.njit.edu/old/athletics/bsball/bsblhome.html)
- Rutgers-Newark baseball (http://www.newark.rutgers.edu/sraiders/baseball/bbmainf.htm)