'Crown jewel of Cleveland': Guardians complete Progressive Field Reimagined renovations
CLEVELAND — Progressive Field Reimagined, the project started a few years ago aimed at renovating and updating the 31-year-old ballpark, is complete.
When the team extended its lease with the city and Progressive Field through at least 2036 four years ago, that announcement came with an agreement of $435 million to be put toward renovations, repairs, upgrades and maintenance. Of that total, $202.5 million was set aside specifically for new renovations projects, and the club just concluded the final phase of those within the original set of plans.
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With that $202.5 million, the Guardians renovated the upper deck areas in left field and right field, completely redid and expanded both clubhouse areas and added multiple seating/lounge areas, including one in left field and one behind home plate, among other projects. Additional improvements, like new, blue seats being installed, fell under the umbrella of capital repairs and maintenance, meaning they weren't included in that budget.
On Thursday, May 22, the club officially unveiled the brand new clubhouse areas and the Carnegie Club, three renovations that took up a significant chunk of the budget.
A major emphasis for the team with these renovations was not only improving the fan experience, but the player experience. The team used this opportunity to bring the clubhouse, meeting rooms, dining areas and workout/recuperation areas into 2025, rather than 1994. Of course, some improvements had been made along the way, but the space wasn't available to really do what they needed in terms of creating some state-of-the-art options.
"I think we've got a bright future ahead of us as the crown jewel of Cleveland," said Christy Corfias, Guardians vice president of business strategy and analytics, in a statement.
Guardians unveil new home, away clubhouses at Progressive Field
Last year, the renovation projects primarily centered around the upper deck areas in left field and right field. For 2025, the Guardians went to work maximizing the space available on the ballpark's lower level. The new home clubhouse area — including offices, meeting rooms, a much larger dining area, a hydrotherapy room, recuperation areas, batting cages and more — is roughly triple the size of the old setup.
The Cleveland Guardians unveil the new clubhouses, batting cages and the Carnegie Club at Progressive Field on May 22, 2025.
Technically, the clubhouse itself is slightly smaller than the original, but that's because the room was used for several things, which have now been moved into their own compartmental areas — like the game room that features the well-known, old-school Mario Kart setup. There's also now a top-shot basketball game, on which Steven Kwan holds the record.
The Cleveland Guardians unveil the new clubhouses, batting cages and the Carnegie Club at Progressive Field on May 22, 2025.
The team has said the player-led response to the new areas have been "over the top" positive.
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The opposing team clubhouse, along with the surrounding areas, is roughly four times bigger than it was before, the result of the modern age of baseball in which traveling parties with clubs has doubled or tripled when you include more coaches, assistants, data-driven groups, translators, mental-health teams and a few other categories.
The Cleveland Guardians unveil the new clubhouses, batting cages and the Carnegie Club at Progressive Field on May 22, 2025.
The Guardians have heard from some opposing players, who will remain anonymous, that they wish their own home clubhouse was a nice as what Cleveland has for its visiting players.
"We knew when we started building this clubhouse, and then heard that, that we did this right," said Willie Jenks, Guardians visiting clubhouse manager, during a walk-through for local media.
The Cleveland Guardians unveil the new clubhouses, batting cages and the Carnegie Club at Progressive Field on May 22, 2025.
Of note, the Guardians have again placed a ping pong table in the visiting clubhouse. That hasn't been the case for roughly the last 15 years because, well, as Jenks said, "Some things tended to happen to it. That's all I'll say."
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The visitors also have a game room, which includes a Golden Tee arcade golf setup, on which Justin Verlander holds the top score.
The Cleveland Guardians unveil the new clubhouses, batting cages and the Carnegie Club at Progressive Field on May 22, 2025.
Guardians batting cages include Trajekt system
The Guardians' home batting cages and weight room is three to four times bigger than the old setup, along with being updated.
The Cleveland Guardians unveil the new clubhouses, batting cages and the Carnegie Club at Progressive Field on May 22, 2025.
They actually went from four batting cages to three, but all four weren't necessarily needed, and the three new cages are loaded with technology and data-retrieving abilities. For example, the pitching mounds and batter's boxes have pressure plates underneath them that collect data on placement and force.
The Cleveland Guardians unveil the new clubhouses, batting cages and the Carnegie Club at Progressive Field on May 22, 2025.
The room also includes a Trajekt pitching system, which can replicate virtually any pitcher's pitches — velocity, movement, revolutions, break, etc. — in the league. The slot where the pitches are "thrown" even changes to match each pitcher's arm angle. That isn't entirely new to the team, as many MLB teams have bought into the technology, but the room as a whole is now up to date in how teams can collect and implement data.
The Cleveland Guardians unveil the new clubhouses, batting cages and the Carnegie Club at Progressive Field on May 22, 2025.
Guardians unveil Lexus Carnegie Club
The Carnegie Club is now the team's most premium ticket offering.
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With this club — which was designed to invoke Cleveland's history of design and architecture and has a real "Great Gatsby" feel — the Guardians are aiming to create a "luxurious, members-only" space located right behind (and sort of below) home plate.
The Cleveland Guardians unveil the new clubhouses, batting cages and the Carnegie Club at Progressive Field on May 22, 2025.
The all-inclusive space features a bar, "elevated" food menu and some grab-and-go options. Tickets also include premium parking and extra-wide and padded seats in the first five rows of the lower bowl.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Guardians unveil clubhouses, Carnegie Club at Progressive Field
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It's possible that bigger games mean a bigger battery drain; Mario Kart in particular seemed to devour a charge pretty quickly. Increased storage is nice, but you'll still need more The Nintendo Switch 2 packs 256GB of storage, which, on paper, is a pretty big upgrade over the 32GB Switch and 64GB Switch OLED. But when game downloads are only getting bigger, that space is going to fill up very fast if you're buying most of your stuff digitally. It's great that the Switch 2 can finally play big blockbusters like Street Fighter 6 and Cyberpunk 2077, but those take up around 50GB and 60GB of space, respectively. By the time you transfer your existing Switch library and tack on a handful of new titles, you'll likely run out of space like I did within my first day with the system. And expanding your storage is a bit tricker and more expensive than before. Unlike the original Switch, which let you pop in just about any microSD card to make space for games, the Switch 2 requires you to use specific microSD Express cards that allow for faster transfer speeds. The problem is, there aren't a ton of options available right now, and the ones that do exist are pretty pricey — like this 256GB SanDisk model that'll run you $72. Want to future-proof your console with 1TB of storage? Get ready to pay at least $190 for this GameStop model. Adding storage to any console isn't cheap these days, but when you compare that to this $110 Xbox Series X 1TB expansion card or this 1TB PS5-ready SSD that can be had for $65, upgrading your Xbox or PlayStation suddenly seems like a bargain. I imagine that microSD Express cards will become easier to find and more affordable over time, but if you find yourself needing to make space in the immediate future, get ready to pay up. The launch lineup is good — if you're a specific type of gamer I've been struggling to properly assess the Nintendo Switch 2's game lineup. If you're coming from the original Switch and are mainly a Nintendo gamer, you'll get a great new Mario Kart game, access to some cool triple-A titles you couldn't play before and some nice upgrades for some of your existing games. And this is your first Nintendo Switch? Sheesh, get ready to enjoy one of the best game libraries of all time. But if you're like me — a Switch fanatic that also plays games elsewhere — you can probably wait for the Switch 2 game library to flesh out a bit. As you've probably pieced together by now, the system is headlined by Mario Kart World, an expansive new take on the series that introduces huge 24-player races and an interconnected open world that you can drive around freely. It rules. I played more Mario Kart 8 Deluxe than just about any other Switch game, so having a sequel with new courses and moves to master — not to mention the option to just chill out in free roam — is worth the price of a new console for me. If you're not big on Mario Kart, that might not be the case. The other notable first-party launch game is Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, a playable instruction manual that packs charming visuals, some fun mini-games and a bunch of tedious but informative quizzes that cover everything from key features to nerdy tech specs. It would have been the perfect pack in game; instead, it's a $10 purchase that I can only recommend tepidly for folks who want to see everything their new system can do. You've also got the special Nintendo Switch 2 Editions of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, each of which are packed with performance enhancements and some nice quality of life improvements. If you've never played them, congrats: you can now experience the two of the best Switch games ever made, running the way they always should have. And if you own them already and are ready for a replay (or, let's be real, still haven't beat either of them), you can upgrade your existing copy to the Switch 2 version for $10 each or as part of your Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership. Speaking of Switch Online, Expansion Pack members will also get access to a handful of Nintendo GameCube titles alongside the dozens of NES, Super NES, Game Boy, Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis classics already available on the service. The selection is limited to just F-Zero GX, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Soul Calibur II (featuring Link!) at the moment. I'm happy with this, because I really like Soul Calibur II. For everyone else, know that the library is slated to gain more essentials like Super Mario Sunshine and Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance over time. Then you have the third party stuff, which includes blockbusters like Street Fighter 6, Cyberpunk 2077, Yakuza 0 and Hitman World of Assassination that skipped the original Nintendo Switch. These are some great games, and their inclusion is a big deal for folks that only play on Nintendo and want to see what else is out there besides Mario and Zelda. If you already own a PS5, Xbox Series X/S or a good PC, their inclusion likely won't do as much for you (unless you really like the idea of taking these games on the go). Of course, like any new console, the Switch 2 is only going to get more big games over time. The next big exclusive is July's Donkey Kong Bananza, which promises some satisfyingly destructive platforming. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4, Madden NFL 26 and Star Wars Outlaws will help fill out the third-party selection this summer and fall. The latest Mario Party and Kirby games are getting Switch 2 editions, and the much-anticipated Metroid Prime 4 with launch for both Switch systems at once. Looking further into 2025 and beyond, you can expect some promising new Kirby and Zelda spin-offs, and even a new exclusive from the Dark Souls team called the DuskBloods that will almost certainly be infuriatingly hard. As it stands now, there's plenty of great stuff to play on the Switch 2, particularly when you factor in its back catalog of thousands of Switch games. But you won't be missing out on a ton if you decide to hold out for that next Big Thing. It's pricey, and hard to find right now At $450, the Switch 2 is $150 more than the original Switch and $100 more than the OLED version. While I don't think that's an unreasonable price compared to the $500 PS5 and the $600 Xbox Series X (which recently got a price bump), it's still more expensive than its predecessor and may be out of range for some folks. But perhaps the bigger issue is that the Switch 2 is just hard to buy right now. As of this writing, both the $450 base console and $500 Mario Kart World bundle are sold out at most major stores like Walmart, Best Buy and Target, with occasional restocks happening for short bursts of time. I've seen a good amount of folks online find success by just going to their local store, but your mileage may vary there. I fully expect the Switch 2 to become easier to buy later this year, but just know that you'll have to do some savvy online hunting to score one right now. Even if you do get your hands on a system, you'll probably notice that the typical Nintendo Switch 2 game price is more than you might expect. Mario Kart World alone costs a whopping $80 (that's $20 more than the typical first-party Switch game) while Donkey Kong Bananza goes for the same $70 price tag that's become commonplace on other consoles. It's hard to pin all of this on Nintendo — pretty much everything is getting more expensive lately — but it does add even more expense to an already premium-priced console. The Nintendo Switch 2 is without question one of the best consoles I've ever gotten my hands on and the best Nintendo Switch yet, retaining everything that made the original a staple in millions of households while adding some welcome quality of life improvements and a few innovative, delightfully Nintendo-ey features. And hey, that new Mario Kart game is pretty dang fun. If you're a Nintendo diehard, you've probably made up your mind already; heck, maybe you were even lucky enough to score a Nintendo Switch 2 preorder. If you're still on the fence, the question of whether you should spend your nights trawling multiple retailers for a $450 Nintendo depends on what kind of gamer you are. I can't overstate how great a purchase this is for folks who somehow missed the boat on the original Nintendo Switch — you'll have access to one of the greatest game libraries ever assembled, while still being future-proofed for all the cool new stuff. And if you only game on Switch, get ready to finally see what the hype over Cyberpunk 2077 or Street Fighter 6 is about. Heck, if most of your Switch diet consists of playing games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Splatoon 3 and Fortnite online with friends, you just might find the Switch 2 worth it for the radically improved social experience alone. But for the less fanatical Nintendo player, especially one that games on other platforms, there's nothing wrong with waiting it out right now. The system is only going to get more big games, and it hopefully won't be long before you can buy one without obsessively tracking restocks across multiple screens like some sort of evil villain. Even if that'd make Bowser proud. How much does the Nintendo Switch 2 cost? How much does the Nintendo Switch 2 cost? The base Nintendo Switch 2 costs $450; there's also a $500 Mario Kart World bundle that includes the system's marquee launch game. Does the Nintendo Switch 2 have an LCD or OLED display? Does the Nintendo Switch 2 have an LCD or OLED display? The Nintendo Switch sports a 7.9-inch, 1080p LCD display. There's no word yet on whether we'll eventually get an OLED model. Does the Nintendo Switch 2 support 4K? Does the Nintendo Switch 2 support 4K? Yep! Games like Mario Kart World and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild can be played in 4K in docked mode on compatible TVs, and even support High Dynamic Range (HDR) for extra-vibrant color. Keep in mind that you'll be limited to 1080p in handheld mode, however. CNN Underscored has a team of writers and editors who have many years of experience testing, researching and recommending products, and they ensure each article is carefully edited and products are properly vetted. Senior tech editor Mike Andronico has been covering gaming for more than a decade, and has been doing tested reviews of Nintendo consoles since the Nintendo 3DS (which is still in his top five). For this review, he spent six grueling days playing lots of video games both solo and with friends in order to see just how well the Nintendo Switch 2 holds up.
