While I found this place to be fairly standard, I would imagine that it was practically revolutionary when it first became the home of the Silver Hawks.  For several decades before the 1990s, minor league ballpark design was typically unimaginative (for an example, see Harrisburg's Riverside Stadium). This ballpark was one of the first to change all that.  This may be the first of the "open concourse" stadiums that have popped up all over the place in recent years.  Like so many other parks of this design, the main entrance to the park is at the concourse level, and fans walk down from there into their seats.  

The seating consists of regular stadium seats throughout most of the bowl, with bleachers at both ends.  There are also grass hills where fans can sit in each of the outfield corners, but these are only available for sellout games.  I never really understood that policy, actually.  Most teams that do this sell extremely cheap tickets for the grass areas, so I suppose it makes good business sense that they would not want to provide this option unless all of the expensive seats are sold.  But, if a fan has already bought a more expensive ticket on a non-sellout night, why not give them the option of sitting on the grass if they want to?

Other than that policy, I only have one complaint here.  While this park may be the originator of the open concourse, the concourse isn't really open enough for my tastes.  The entire luxury and press box area is situated at the concourse level, which means that the concourse is actually blocked off from the field more than half of the way down each base line.   Those of you who have browsed through several parks on my site may already know that the ability to walk around during a game to get different views is one of my criteria when evaluating a park, and this particular aspect of the park limited my ability to do so.  

This is not to say that the place does not have its plusses.  Because it was built in the city and not the suburbs, it has a great sense of place, with a large brick building and a train station visible beyond the right field seats.  The outfield wall has no advertising, which gives it much less cluttered look than most minor league parks. There are, however, advertising banners beyond the wall.   Overall, this is a very pleasant facility. 

Incidentally, there is no such bird as a Silver Hawk.  The name comes from an automobile that used to be manufactured in South Bend.  Unlike Oldsmobile Park in Lansing, however, there is no overall theme at the stadium to communicate this.  

Because of the net, which even covers the top, fans behind home plate have no chance of snaring a foul ball.

The grassy areas allow a good view of the game (and the bullpen), 
but are only available on sellouts

The handicapped seats are protected by small areas of netting