Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox, was crowned the “Sports Facility of the Year” at the Sports Business Awards on Wednesday night. The 111-year-old ballpark opened its doors for the first regular-season game on April 20, 1912, and is the oldest active park in baseball.
In 2022, more than 438 events were hosted at Fenway, including the NHL’s Winter Classic game between the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins, becoming the first park to host the annual game more than once.
Other events held at Fenway included Frozen Fenway, the Wasabi Fenway Bowl, Topgolf Live and various musical concerts.
“We just have a great team of people, of ops people, who are able to transform the ballpark quickly, and take it apart quickly for these special events and return it to a pristine condition,” Fenway Sports Management president Marv Lev said, according to Sports Business Journal. “It’s a great operations team that just works tirelessly to make the ballpark accessible, beautiful and functional for all these events.”
Sports Business Journal also recognized Fenway Park as the first carbon-neutral ballpark in MLB, as the Red Sox teamed with Aspiration in 2022 to neutralize the greenhouse gas emissions of fans attending games by contributing a portion of the sale of each ticket to purchase verified carbon credits.
Throughout the years, many renovations at Fenway Park have taken place, but none more famous or coveted than the seats above the Green Monster unveiled on Opening Day in 2003.
