Which word?

[sarahmichigan]

Say you were writing this sentence:
"The local VFW had raised the funds to build a baseball diamond that took up half the park's ______"

Which word sounds most natural here? Would you fill the blank with:

A. square footage
B. acreage
C. property
D. other- specify in comments

Comments

[dare2grok.livejournal.com]

I'm responding without looking at the other comments first, so that my opinion isn't influenced. Then I'll compare mine to others.

I believe the most appropriate answer is "acreage." "Square footage" IS a measure of area also but it's typical application isn't really with land area, as much as "acreage" is. "Property" isn't appropriate, because it is a more general term which, when applied to a piece of real estate, implies not only the land but also the fixed structures on or in it. There isn't an "other" term I can think of that serves as well as "acreage", to express the total land area of a piece of real estate.

It can be noted that the scale of land area could make "acreage" inappropriate. For instance, measures of large areas of land, such as those incorporated in cities, regions, states, continents, etc., are typically expressed in square miles, not acres.