Dodger Stadium was built with private money on land obtained through a vote, a court battle, and a forced eviction. When it opened on April 10, 1962, it was immediately beautiful—and immediately controversial. More than six decades later, it remains both.
The design by architect Emil Praeger placed the stadium into the natural bowl of Chavez Ravine rather than imposing a structure on top of the landscape. The field sits below street level; the parking terraces cascade down the hillside in rings. From the upper decks, the San Gabriel Mountains rise to the north and the downtown skyline to the south—a panorama that no other major league park can match.
The capacity at opening was around 56,000. Subsequent modifications have adjusted the exact figure, but Dodger Stadium remains the largest baseball park in the world by seating capacity. It is also, as of 1962, the oldest major league ballpark in continuous use west of the Mississippi.
Walter O'Malley, who moved the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles in 1958, built Dodger Stadium entirely with private financing—a point of pride for the organization and a significant departure from the model of publicly subsidized stadiums that would dominate sports construction for the next half century.
The deal that provided the land—352 acres of Chavez Ravine in exchange for the Dodgers' Wrigley Field property in South Los Angeles—was negotiated with the city and approved by voters in 1958. The communities that had lived on the land were no longer there; they had been displaced beginning in 1950 under a failed public housing plan. The stadium's private financing did not erase the public cost of the displacement that preceded it.
Dodger Stadium has hosted twelve World Series, more than any park currently in use. It has seen thirteen no-hitters, including two perfect games.
On August 5, 1969, Willie Stargell of the Pittsburgh Pirates hit a home run that traveled an estimated 507 feet—still considered one of the longest in baseball history. On July 21, 2024, Shohei Ohtani launched a ball 473 feet in his first season in a Dodgers uniform, a reminder that records at this park are still being made.
The 2025 World Series produced one of the most extraordinary games in baseball history: an 18-inning Game 7 between the Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays, the longest deciding game in Series history.
What distinguishes Dodger Stadium from most of its contemporaries is that it has never been replaced or substantially rebuilt. While other cities have demolished and reconstructed their ballparks multiple times since 1962, Dodger Stadium has been renovated and updated without losing its essential character. The site still has the same sightlines Praeger designed, the same relationship between the field and the mountains behind center field.
The parking lot, which surrounds the stadium in a vast terrace of asphalt, has become something of a gathering place in its own right—home to a pre-game tailgate culture particular to Los Angeles. Critics have long argued that the stadium's car-centric design reflects a city that built for automobiles rather than transit. The organization has explored transit connections. The conversations continue.
Dodger Stadium sits in Chavez Ravine, directly north of downtown Los Angeles. The stadium is easily identifiable from altitude: its distinctive oval shape and the concentric rings of parking terraces carved into the hillside make it one of the most recognizable structures in the region. The 110 Freeway runs along the eastern edge; the 5 Freeway is to the northeast. The downtown LA skyline is immediately to the south. The stadium's coordinates are approximately 34.074° N, 118.240° W. Nearest airports: KBUR (Burbank) 6 miles north, KLAX (Los Angeles International) 15 miles southwest.