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PHOENIX -- The additions of pitchers Zack Greinke and Shelby Miller had the Arizona Diamondbacks facing upgraded expectations this season.When the team took a step back instead of forward, something had to change.General manager Dave Stewart and manager Chip Hale will not be back. Chief Baseball Officer Tony La Russa will be, though its unclear in what role.Coming off a second disappointing season, the Diamondbacks parted ways with Stewart and Hale on Monday in the latest shake-up for an organization seeking consistency.We did not see the trend line moving in the right direction, Diamondbacks managing general partner Ken Kendrick said.The Diamondbacks won the World Series in 2001 and had a brief resurgence a decade later by winning the NL West.Arizona has been in a steady decline since then, posting five straight non-winning seasons.The Diamondbacks brought in La Russa in 2014 and among his first moves was bringing in Stewart and Hale, elevating them to positions they had never held at the big-league level before.Arizona went 79-83 last season and was expecting better things after signing former AL Cy Young Award winner Greinke to a $206 million deal and trading for Miller.Instead, the Diamondbacks took a step back. They started slow and never recovered, finishing with a 69-93 record to miss the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season.Now the franchise will be searching for a fifth GM and fifth manager since 2010. The team is deciding on what role La Russa will have, but Kendrick said it will not be manager.We want to have more consistent baseball and championship-caliber baseball, year-in and year-out, Diamondbacks CEO Derrick Hall said.A four-time 20-game winner as a player, Stewart had previously worked in the front offices for Oakland, San Diego and Toronto before landing his first general managers job.Hale played seven major league seasons with Minnesota and the Los Angeles Dodgers before getting into coaching. He worked as Bob Melvins bench coach for three seasons before being hired as a big-league manager for the first time with Arizona. He previously worked nine seasons in Arizonas organization and spent two seasons with the New York Mets.Arizona has made some questionable moves over the past couple of seasons, including an $8.25 million contract with Cuban right-hander Yoan Lopez, who has considered leaving the game.The Diamondbacks also were criticized for the deal that brought Miller to the desert, which sent outfielder Ender Inciarte and shortstop Dansby Swanson, Arizonas top draft pick in 2015, to Atlanta. Miller struggled his first season with Arizona, going 3-12 with a 6.15 ERA.Arizona did pull off the most surprising offseason deal prior to the 2016 season, luring Greinke away from top teams that had been pursuing him. Greinke showed flashes of still being one of baseballs best pitchers, but was inconsistent most of the season. He won a team-high 13 games, but also had a 4.37 ERA, second-highest of his career.Arizonas pitching staff struggled as a whole, finishing with a baseball-worst 5.11 ERA. 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MINNEAPOLIS -- At the top of the Vikings shiny, new $1.1 billion football palace, there is a ring of glass separating the seating bowl from the roof that the team and the stadium designers call the clear story.At night, when U.S. Bank Stadium is lit up, the clear story gives the visual impression that the roof is floating. And on sunny mornings, the large windows allow sunlight to flow in from the east, bathing the seats on the other side of the stadium in a yellow glow.The clear story is one of the many calling cards for architects of the stadium -- and one that almost didnt make the cut: With the cost of the project rising, Mortenson Construction told the Vikings that eliminating that particular feature would save the team $800,000.At the time we were over a perceived budget. They said, `Well, wed like to accept that, said John Hutchings, sports principal-in-charge at HKS Sports and Entertainment.We said, `Over our dead body. ... It was a decision that we fought hard to keep. We didnt win all of them, but that was one that was pretty important for the overall look of the stadium.The discussion was one of the countless debates that come with designing, approving and building a stadium of this kind of size and scope.In the end, HKS won that tussle. Vikings owner Mark Wilf pointed to that clear story as a sign of the additional investment the team put into the project to try to achieve the world class designation that the franchise has used to describe it from the stadiums infancy.The first official event is Wednesday, an international soccer exhibition that has sold more than 55,000 tickets.When you weigh those millions of dollars versus the span of a building like this, we wanted to make sure that in five or 10 years this building wouldnt be instantly obsolete. We want this building to last for decades and generations to come, Wilf said.Things like letting in that light, hundreds of decisions like that, our whole team really made sure to implement that vision that the fan experience were to be maintained.There were other points of contention. Some designers preferred to have a scoreboard hanging over the field like the famous giant boards at the home of the Dallas Cowboys.The Vikings wanted to have video boards above the lower bowl in both end zones so that fans didnt have to crane their necks upward to see replays.And the huge glass doors on the west side of the stadium that open to allow fresh air inside the fixed-roof facility weree initially proposed to go from the plaza cement up to the very top of the stadium, some 240 feet high.ddddddddddddWe got the numbers back and they said, `No way can we do that! a smiling Hutchings said. They said, `What would it take to have the biggest ones in the world? We said, well they need to be 100 feet tall.And there they stand now, five doors ranging from 75 feet to 95 feet tall and 55 feet wide.It never became personal, Vikings chief operating officer Kevin Warren said.We had some very tough and tense disagreements. But we always moved forward. At the end of the day, we knew we would get this done and build an incredible building that one day would revolutionize how professional sports franchises handle their buildings and how fans get a chance to watch their teams.In the end, an architectural marvel was born. Sixty percent of the roof is made of a translucent material called ETFE that allows the sun to pour in and create the feel of an outdoor venue.The cramped concourses and scarce bathrooms of the Metrodome are a distant memory, replaced by the open-feel, amenity-loaded stadium that features a giant glass wall looking toward the downtown Minneapolis skyline.The seats are the closest to the field in the NFL and a one-of-a-kind retractable section can be moved to allow baseball to be played indoors.When they showed us this design, we were just blown away, Wilf said.The Vikings first game will be an exhibition against the San Diego Chargers on Aug. 28, with the real curtain raiser coming on Sept. 18 in a Sunday night game against NFC North rival Green Bay.And then, of course, the big show is not far off: The Super Bowl will be held at the stadium on Feb. 4, 2018.More than 200,000 people visited the stadium for an open house that was held last weekend.Initially, the Vikings pledged $477 million toward the project, with the rest coming in public funding. By the end of it, the team contributed an extra $125 million to add the bells and whistles it wanted.This project had its share of pushing and pulling in that respect. But look at this place, said John Wood, senior vice president of Mortenson Construction.When you compare it to some of the NFL facilities being built right now or being planned right now, its a bargain.---Online:AP NFL website: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-NFL ' ' '