Petco Park transformed into tennis arena for Davis Cup

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The offseason of transformations continues as Petco Park in San Diego goes from baseball stadium to tennis arena in preparation for the Davis Cup matchup between the United States and Great Britain this weekend.
Previously this offseason we've seen Fenway Park in Boston, Yankee Stadium in New York and Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles transformed into outdoor hockey arenas. That obviously wouldn't work real well in San Diego, and wouldn't make a lot of sense from an attraction standpoint unless the Anaheim Ducks came down for a game. Tennis, on the other hand, works perfectly and plays right into the southern California weather.
Here are a couple shots of the completed project courtesy of the Padres official Twitter page.

Court is ready. We're ready. Who's coming to be our home field advantage? pic.twitter.com/NhWBegfinB
— US Davis Cup Team (@USDavisCupTeam) January 27, 2014
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#PetcoPark is ready for the @DavisCup pic.twitter.com/DD55p1hmTR
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) January 28, 2014
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Wait! It's not officially ready until Padres general manager Josh Byrnes and assistant GM A.J. Hinch give it their seal of approval.

#Padres GM Josh Byrnes & Asst. GM @ajhinch get their turn on the @DavisCup court tonight. #DavisCup starts Friday! pic.twitter.com/GrBY4a8BiX
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) January 30, 2014
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Now it's ready.
And to be honest, it looks pretty awesome. Especially on the overhead shot. It's pretty amazing they could squeeze a makeshift structure that large into a relatively small space on the field. It gives you a greater appreciation of just how large baseball stadiums are and how much ground outfielders truly have to cover out there.
The tennis pros seem to share that impression, including U.S. team captain Jim Courier.
From NBC San Diego:

"I think this is one of the most unique and beautiful settings that we'll experience in our lifetime," said Courier. "This is spectacular to be able to be in this ballpark and then just have an incredible tennis facility pop up out of nowhere."
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Construction of the temporary tennis stadium started earlier this month. Red clay was trucked in and temporary grandstands built to seat roughly 8,000 fans for the three-day event.
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The event will kickoff Friday with stars such as John Isner for the U.S. and Andy Murray for Great Britain taking part. They were all on hand Wednesday checking out the facility. But it turns out they weren't alone.

Thanks for coming to Petco Park for your morning workout @Jmanziel2 & @WhitAthletix! #ItallhappensatPetco pic.twitter.com/cAvGaUf7kP
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) January 29, 2014
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Super Bowl in New York. Hockey in Los Angeles. Snow in Atlanta. And anything but baseball at Petco Park. Nothing makes sense anymore!
BLS H/N: Eye on Baseball

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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