The Detroit Tigers’ scoreboard at Comerica Park has a new look for the ballpark’s 25th anniversary season.
The new sign on top of the left-field scoreboard features Comerica Park, instead of the team, Tigers, and is part of a variety of changes at the ballpark in recent years, including what has been reported as new luxury box seats.
“The Tigers sign that previously sat atop the videoboard at Comerica Park had reached its mechanical end of life,” the team told the Free Press last week, noting that, with the new video board, the sign reverted back “to its original display of the ballpark’s name.”
The change received some extra attention after Detroit TV stations noticed the sign a week ago, after it initially appeared on social media. It was first reported in the news media two weeks ago.
The Tigers removing the fun Tigers sign and replacing it with a boring Comerica Park sign is blasphemous
Anything for an extra dollar in the Ilitch pockets pic.twitter.com/aMro6Sgdey
The Tigers play the Chicago White Sox at 1:10 p.m. on Detroit’s Opening Day April 4.
Some fans took to social media last week to criticize the new look because it emphasizes the ballpark’s named sponsor over the team. But the Tigers pointed out that this “is customary throughout ballparks in Major League Baseball.”
Many, but not all, stadiums have named sponsors, including other banks.
In some ways, the new sign is a throwback to the original one, which was on the scoreboard before it was upgraded with a new video screen. The new sign has white letters and in between two, tall light towers.
A prowling Tiger also flanks each side of it.
Comerica Bank, which started in Detroit and is now based in Dallas, acquired naming ballpark rights in 1998 for $66 million, and extended the deal in 2018 through 2034. The new sign will heighten the visibility of the sponsor’s name.
Another change: Tigers’ Comerica Park was last MLB stadium with this playing feature. Now it’s gone
Comerica Park replaced Tiger Stadium, opened in 2000, and, at the time, the Wall Street Journal reported that then-owner Mike Ilitch had designed the stadium to make home runs hard to hit and “batters feel small,” with its deep fences, high walls, and stiff breezes.
Fans and headline writers briefly tried shortening the name to CoPa, but it never stuck.
The Tigers did not comment on other ballpark changes — or whether the new sign was a part of financial negotiations with the bank.
In 2023, the team unveiled a new outfield wall to elevate the “player and fan experience” by moving in and lowering the center-field fence. In 2024, it added a new 15,688-square-foot video board, one of the largest in the MLB.
Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.
This story was updated with new information.
This story was updated to add a gallery.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers scoreboard at Comerica Park will look different on Opening Day
Reporting by Frank Witsil, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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