Seemingly every year, a new stadium makes its debut in an American professional sports league. And every year, they are bigger, better and more expensive. Oh, and bigger.

Each new park is the result of years of planning, stacks of blueprints, and, of course, millions and millions of dollars. In a new, unprecedented tab, Cowboys Stadium broke the bank, totaling over $1 billion for construction costs. With all of that, you would think Jerry Jones' new temple to his team would be absolutely mistake free. Unfortunately, you'd be wrong.

It turns out that the jumbo-HDTV scoreboard, a monstrosity stretching 160-feet long and climbing 72-feet high, sits too close to the field of play, a fact that became glaringly obvious in last week's debut game against Tennessee, when the Titans A.J. Trapasso blasted a punt into the bottom of the screen.

The Cowboys' gaffe is just the latest example of the Top 10 Stadium Design Flaws. The catwalks at Tropicana Field, right field in the new Yankee Stadium and seats behind pillars in Lucas Oil Field remind that no amount of money or planning can make a superior stadium.

Baseball is a game meant to be played outdoors. Domed stadiums all seem to have different problems, but none more than Tropicana Field, the home of the Tampa Bay Rays. The Trop has four catwalks hanging from the roof that are part of the support structure and are used for mounting lighting and speakers. Making matters worse, the catwalks are lowest in the outfield, ranging from 59 to 194 feet above the playing field, and frequently get hit. When the lower and larger two catwalks, labeled the C and D rings, are hit, it counts as a home run, but if the higher and smaller of the catwalks, the A and B rings, are hit, the ball is still in play. Overall the catwalks have been hit over 100 times, and luckily, more often than not, it is the C and D rings which are hit. But over 20 balls have struck the B ring, and remained still in play.

Tampa may not know how to construct a legendary baseball park, but surely New York does, right? Not quite. When the Yankees opened their new stadium this year it was intended to be similar to the old Yankee Stadium. In fact, the distances to all the fences are exactly the same. But when new Yankee Stadium opened, something was different. A startling number of home runs were leaving the right field of the ballpark. Through the first 23 games at the stadium, a record 87 home runs were hit.

The reason for all the home runs: a simple design flaw. The right field wall in the new Yankee Stadium is set on a straight line, rather than a gentle curve like at the old ballpark. A study by AccuWeather in June of 2009 concluded that 20% of the homeruns hit at the new stadium would have stayed in play at the old ballpark because of the curved right field corner and 10-ft fences.

But perhaps the worst offender in new stadium designs are seats with obstructed views. Both the new Cowboys and Yankees Stadiums are guilty, but Lucas Oil Field is the chief offender. It's difficult to find much worse than Section 433, Row 13, Seats 27, 28 and 29 in the Colts new home. It's hard to imagine the level of disappointment you'd feel after trudging up those stairs, only to learn that these were your seats.

The Indianapolis Star sums it up nicely: "If you're on the aisle, it appears you will have the ability to lean to the left or right -- the way Peyton does when he calls an audible, to see around the post. But if you're in the middle, chances are your elbows will be in your neighbor's popcorn if you try to lean too much."

On the plus side, you don't need to worry about getting hit by a punt.