Great American Ball Park: The History, the Dimensions and How the Park Plays
A guide to the Cincinnati Reds' home on the Ohio River: the earlier parks, the dimensions, what park factors say about how it plays, and sensible advice for planning a visit.
Great American Ball Park sits on the north bank of the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati, and it has been the home of the Cincinnati Reds since the 2003 season, the first year the historical record lists the club there. It replaced a round, multipurpose concrete stadium that had served the Reds for more than three decades. What the club got in exchange was a baseball-only park with a short right field, a river just beyond the bleachers and a reputation for turning fly balls into home runs.
That reputation is worth testing against numbers rather than repeating. The park's listed dimensions are modest down the lines, its elevation is ordinary, and the batter-friendly park factor that the historical record shows for the Reds is not always as large as the stories suggest. In some seasons it has been close to neutral. In others, especially the 2021 to 2025 stretch, it has been among the higher figures in the table.
This guide covers the history of the sites the Reds have used, the dimensions, what the park factors say, the years the club reached October from this address, and what a first-time visitor should think about before buying a ticket. Everything about the park itself comes from the site's reference data and the historical record; things that change every season, such as prices, concessions and transit, are left to the club's own pages.
From the Palace of the Fans to the riverfront
The Reds' ballpark story is a series of moves, each one reflecting its era. The club's first home in the historical data was Bank Street Grounds, used in 1882 and 1883, when the franchise was the Cincinnati Red Stockings of the American Association. League Park followed for most of the next two decades, in two versions: the first from 1884 to 1893 and the second from 1894 to 1901. The 1884 to 1893 version drew a best season of 196,473 fans, and the 1894 to 1901 version a best of 373,000.
The Palace of the Fans opened the twentieth century for the club, serving from 1902 to 1911, with a best season attendance of 424,643. Then came the longest stay by far: Crosley Field, home from 1912 to 1969, a span of fifty-eight seasons. The best attendance there was 1,125,928. That park is where the club won its pennants of 1919, 1939, 1940 and 1961, and the 1919 and 1940 World Series titles.
Riverfront Stadium opened as the Reds' home during the 1970 season (the historical record lists a split year, with games in both Crosley Field and the new stadium), and the club was a different animal in it. Riverfront hosted the pennants of 1970, 1972, 1975, 1976 and 1990, along with the 1975, 1976 and 1990 World Series titles. Its best season attendance was 2,629,708 in 1976, which is still the highest single-season figure in the club's history. The stadium was renamed Cinergy Field for 1997 through 2002, and then the Reds crossed a short distance on the same riverfront to the new park.
The ballpark names and why they matter in a database
If you search old box scores or a database such as the historical record for "Great American Ball Park" you may notice two spellings. From 2003 through 2022 the park appears as Great American Ball Park, with the words "Ball Park" apart. From 2023 through 2025 the same table lists it as Great American Ballpark, one word. The ground did not move, and nothing about the field changed; the name's styling did.
The name itself comes from a naming-rights agreement with Great American Insurance Group, a Cincinnati company, which is the usual way modern ballparks acquire a corporate title. The naming rights article explains how those deals work and why they sometimes change a park's name more often than its address.
For anyone doing research, the lesson is practical. Search both spellings, search the short form "GABP", and be ready to find the park listed with its old multipurpose neighbor, Cinergy Field, in club histories that cover 1997 to 2002. The site's own ballpark page uses the slug great-american-ball-park, so that is the safe thing to look for when you want its data page.
The dimensions and what they add up to
The site's reference data for the park gives these distances from home plate to the outfield fence, in feet.
| Position on the fence | Distance (ft) |
|---|---|
| Left field line | 328 |
| Left-center | 379 |
| Center field | 404 |
| Right-center | 370 |
| Right field line | 325 |
The reference data also lists a seating capacity of 43,500, an open roof, a natural grass surface, an elevation of 535 feet above sea level and a field azimuth of 122 degrees. The azimuth describes the direction from home plate toward center field, measured clockwise from north. At 122 degrees the line points a little south of due east, which is an eastward orientation of the kind that keeps the late-afternoon sun from sitting directly in a hitter's eyes. How much glare any single seat gets still depends on the date and the start time.
Put the five distances next to each other and a shape appears. The two foul lines are the shortest points on the fence, at 328 and 325 feet. Both power alleys are deeper, at 379 and 370. Center field, at 404 feet, is the deepest point but not an unusually deep one. A hitter who pulls a ball down either line has a shorter trip to the fence than a hitter who goes to the gaps, and the shortest trip of all is to right field.
How elevation and air fit in
The elevation figure is the quickest way to see what the park is not. At 535 feet it is a low-lying city ballpark. The thin air that lets balls carry farther in a mile-high park such as Denver's is simply not part of the equation. Air density also varies with temperature and humidity, and a Cincinnati summer night is warm and often humid; warm air is less dense than cold air, which helps a fly ball a little, though the effect is small next to what altitude does. None of that makes the park extreme. It means the main driver of home run totals here is the fence distances, not the atmosphere.
That is useful when you read about a home run rate. Anyone who says "the ball flies at Great American" is making a claim about a park of moderate elevation whose dimensions are the likelier cause. The data below allow a more careful reading than an anecdote.
What the park factors say
The historical Teams table records a park factor for batters (BPF) and one for pitchers (PPF) for every club season, with 100 as neutral. A figure above 100 means more runs scored in that club's home games than in its road games, adjusted for the league. The values are the database's own calculation and are best read as a trend, not a precise measurement for any one year. For the Reds in their home since 2003, the batter figure runs like this in selected seasons.
| Season | BPF | Season | BPF |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 95 | 2012 | 107 |
| 2004 | 98 | 2014 | 98 |
| 2006 | 104 | 2019 | 103 |
| 2009 | 100 | 2021 | 113 |
| 2011 | 107 | 2022 | 110 |
| 2023 | 103 | 2025 | 108 |
The average of the 23 seasons from 2003 to 2025 is about 103, a mild lean toward hitters. The early seasons, 2003 and 2004, read below 100, which surprises people who assume the park was a launching pad from day one. The last five seasons, 2021 to 2025, average about 108, with the 2021 figure of 113 the highest in the whole run.
Two cautions apply. A park factor mixes in the quality of the two teams' pitching and hitting when that team is playing, and with only 81 home games a year, noise is considerable. Second, the pitchers' figure (PPF) has tended to track the batters' figure closely in the same seasons, which is what you would expect from a park that affects both sides equally. If you want a deeper look at how adjusted measures handle this, the wRC+ explainer shows how analysts fold park effects into a hitter's value.
Home runs and the club's pitching staff
Because the Teams table also records home runs for and against, it is possible to see how the park's reputation shows up in totals. These figures combine home and road games, so they describe the club, not the ballpark alone. The Reds hit 227 home runs in 2019 and 222 in 2021, and allowed 258 in 2016 and 248 in 2017. The 2016 total of 258 is the highest figure of the Great American years in the table, in a season when the park's batter factor was 99, which is close to neutral. A bad pitching year does not need a short fence to explain it.
The other direction is also worth noting. In 2012, the club's 97-65 season, the Reds allowed only 152 home runs and 588 runs, and the batter park factor for that year was 107. A staff can overcome a hitters' park. In 2013, with a 103 factor, the club allowed 170 home runs and 589 runs. The ballpark gives a pitcher less margin, but it is not the whole story.
If you follow fantasy baseball, that is the kind of reasoning that should make you slow to treat any one park as a guarantee. The site's fantasy pages and the fantasy baseball topic page collect advice on how park context fits into valuing hitters and pitchers.
October at the ballpark
The Reds have reached the postseason several times since moving in, and the record is a short one. They won the National League Central in 2010 and 2012, lost the 2010 Division Series to the Phillies 0-3, and lost the 2012 Division Series to the Giants 2-3. In 2013 they earned a wild-card berth and lost the one-game wild-card to the Pirates 0-1, a game that is part of the Pirates' own postseason story.
The 2020 postseason brought a wild-card series loss to Atlanta, 0-2, in a season in which the historical record lists an attendance of zero for the club because games were played without fans. The most recent entry through the 2025 season is another wild-card series: a 0-2 loss to the Dodgers. There is no World Series appearance in the park's history through 2025, and the club's last pennant remains the 1990 team that swept Oakland 4-0, which played at Riverfront.
For the broader picture of the club's October history, including the Big Red Machine pennants of the 1970s, see the Reds' best seasons and every October run. For the wider story, see the Reds' franchise history.
What the attendance record shows
The club's season attendance at Great American Ball Park peaked at 2,534,369 in 2013, the year of the wild-card berth. The first season, 2003, drew 2,355,259, and the low points came in the middle of a rebuilding stretch: 1,395,770 in 2022 and 1,505,024 in 2021. The 2025 total recorded in the database is 2,170,963.
Those numbers are worth comparing with the older homes. The all-time high for the franchise, 2,629,708, came at Riverfront in 1976, the second year of back-to-back championships. Great American's own best is lower by a little under 100,000. Attendance depends on the team's record, the ticket market and the schedule, so the table is a clue about interest in the club, not a measure of the park.
What you will see when you visit
The setting is part of the appeal. The field sits beside the Ohio River, and from many seats the river, and the Kentucky bank beyond it, form part of the backdrop. Beyond the center-field wall stand two smokestacks styled after river steamboats, a nod to the city's river history that has become one of the park's best-known visual features. Next to the park stands the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum, which tells the club's story, including the 1869 Red Stockings, widely documented as the first fully professional team, and the Big Red Machine of the 1970s. Check the museum's hours and ticketing before you go, since they are separate from game admission.
The club's all-time greats are the other half of the story. Johnny Bench holds the club record for home runs with 389, and Pete Rose the club's hits record with 3,358. Both were Reds for most of their careers, and the all-time greats article places them with the club's other best players, position by position.
Planning a first visit
Keep the advice general, because the specifics change every season. Look at the club's schedule and at the Reds team page for the next home game, and decide whether you prefer a day or a night game. Because the park's azimuth points toward the east-southeast, and because the shade changes through an afternoon, seat choice affects comfort more in a day game than a night one. The ballpark page on this site has the reference data used in this article.
Arrive early if you want batting practice and a walk around the concourse. Pack for weather, since the park is open to the sky, with sunscreen for summer day games and a layer for April and September evenings. Buy tickets through the club's official site or its authorized channels, check the bag and prohibited-item rules before you leave home, and look at the club's page for transit and parking options that apply on the date of your game. Parking and prices change often, and any figure printed in an article would be out of date.
If you are coming for the history, allow time for the museum on top of the game itself.
Common questions
Is Great American Ball Park a home run park? The park factors say it leans toward hitters, with a 23-season average near 103 and the highest figures in the most recent years. The short lines support the idea. It is not an extreme park in the way a high-altitude ballpark can be.
When did the Reds move in? The historical record lists 2003 as the first season at the park, after the club's years at Riverfront Stadium and, from 1997, Cinergy Field.
How big is the park? The reference data gives a capacity of 43,500, with distances of 328 feet to left, 404 to center and 325 to right.
Is there a roof? No. The roof field in the reference data is "open", and the surface is natural grass. Weather is part of the experience.
Where did the Reds play before? Crosley Field from 1912 to 1969, then Riverfront Stadium, renamed Cinergy Field for 1997 to 2002.
Where to go next
For the data behind this guide, open the Great American Ball Park page and the Reds team page, and browse Reds coverage on the topic page. To compare a division rival's home, read the guides to the rest of the NL Central through the Cubs, the Brewers and the Pirates, and for the sport's biggest stage see the history of the World Series.