Stadium and Arena Visits

The loaded hot dog has become the “it” stadium food option over the last few years

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With more than ten years of stadium visiting under my belt, there are certainly changes I have noticed since the start of this millennium. Some good, some bad, almost all of them geared towards the almighty dollar. Here are a few that stick out:

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……1.  Food Options - In the past, it was expected that an arena or ballpark had nachos, popcorn, peanuts, hot dogs and some sort of standard American beer. Now, go to any stadium of significant capacity and you are bound to find specialty items at many concession stands. This is a definitely a good thing as the options make for a better experience at the game. The minor leagues have got into it too and you can find surprisingly unique and occasionally decent food even at a small, local place. Things are great for the beer snobs as well with microbrews more common. One item that has really stuck out everywhere I have gone lately is the……

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……2.  Loaded Hot Dog - Maybe because this is the easiest thing to do and fool the customer into thinking its “special”, but everyone seems to be adding these hot dogs with a hundred topping options to the menu. Not sure how the hot dog took off as the food to do it with. From Akron’s huge and loaded dog to a hot dog in Toronto featuring maple syrup and baked beans, I feel like I’ve seen it all. But then the next stadium has something even zanier

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……3.  Home Plate Seats – I hate this one. This definitely has skyrocketed over the last ten years as MLB teams now have turned the seats closest to the infield into specialty seating, complete with food service and (in newer ballparks) clubs or lounges. It’s an awful trend again geared towards money and away from the casual fan. It also looks terrible on TV, where scores of these expensive seats sit embarrassingly empty. I hope it is shameful to these teams come playoff time as their ballpark doesn’t even look full since the most broadcasted seats are those behind home plate.

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……4.  Sponsoring of Everything - The VIST Financial Plaza, The Bud Light Bar, The Farmington Bank Fan Assistance Booth. We have all become accustomed to the ugly corporate names attached to stadiums, but now businesses are infesting our stadiums with their name plastered everywhere. From contests to lounges to even walkways, that old business model of name recognition rears it’s ugly head. Make it stop!

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……5.  HD Videoboards - This is one for the good (mostly). Teams and cities seem to have no problem lately spending the couple million to upgrade their scoreboard and make sure the video screen is of remarkable high quality. As a fan this means great things, like clear instant replays and live game video, more room for stats and a high-def look at Kiss Cam! (just kidding). I say it’s mostly good, because it can be a deterrent and distraction if operators aren’t careful in constantly utilizing it. This happens in Buffalo, where the First Niagara Center can be as quiet as a church because fans are gazingly staring up at the center scoreboard with jaws dropped at some silly production.
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Good bye old Veterans Stadium look-a-like and hello PNC Field in Scranton

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On to baseball for updates on The List and after the opening of Marlins Park last year, all is quiet this season on the ballpark front in the Majors. Seems to be a stalemate with Oakland and San Jose as the Giants are being big babies and not allowing the move, thus the A’s are stuck in a football stadium for now. In the affiliated minors, there is one ballpark opening and it is a good one. Birmingham opened Regions Field and with a downtown location and a forthcoming Negro Leagues museum, the place looks great. The Barons move from the suburbs as the Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover will still host that town’s high school football games. It also will continue to host the SEC Baseball Championship this season. Meanwhile, up in Northeast PA, after a year of playing on the road, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre baseball team is back home in Moosic. A huge renovation essentially re-did the ballpark and a re-branding of the team to the RailRiders makes the return to PNC Field. When I make return here, I’m not sure yet if this will count as a new stadium or a re-visit (sorry for all the “re’s”). 

There were some notable name changes this year and the main one is a team name. Reading ridiculously changed their nickname to “Fighting Phils“. This is a team that plays in an old ballpark and should stick with tradition. I can’t stand the new moniker and accompanying team logo, which is based off their hot dog vendor. Elsewhere, we finally have a consistent name for Pensacola’s park that opened last year: Pensacola Bayfront Stadium. Ahhh, much better. In Jackson and Peoria, sponsors have dropped and a more generic stadium name is now being used, I’m guessing temporarily. Peoria was interesting, because I thought O’Brien Field was named for a person, but instead it was an Auto place sponsor. In the California League, one of the best ballpark names is sadly no more. The ballpark for the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes is now LoanMart Field instead of The Epicenter. Man, that was a great name. Good news is that just 70 miles away over the San Gabriel Mountains, the opposite happened in Lancaster, where that ballpark lost it’s sponsor and is back to being known as The Hangar, in reference to the team and city’s aviation history.

Switching sports to soccer and the lower divisions, Cary’s WakeMed Soccer Park was added to The List as a renovation brought the capacity to the stadium up to 10,000. It has always been a first-class place and I hope to visit at some point. Also, the New York Cosmos are back and they will play this season at Hofstra’s Shuart Stadium. This is a team that certainly has much bigger plans as they want the MLS and the MLS wants them. Plans are already in place for a proposed Queens stadium. Many of the teams in the NASL have aspirations for the big leagues and current teams FC Edmonton and Fort Lauderdale are looking into new stadiums. Pittsburgh has even moved into a small new pitch. The location and view is terrific, but I have no idea how they could have the room to expand that into an 18,000 seat stadium.

It was a rainy day along the Hudson for my visit to Army

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I don’t look at bad weather games as a badge of honor. For me, they are a huge obstacle and inconvenience in the world of stadium visiting. Trying to take pictures, writing some notes and protecting my souvenir program from precipitation can be a challenge. Not to mention the issue of getting to a stadium, where if I’m not familiar with the area, can suck in bad weather. Being a meteorologist, I have a deep passion for the weather, but I would rather enjoy it either forecasting from my office or watching from the comforts of home. With that said, here are the stadium visits that I had to bear down on:

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OUTDOOR EVENTS

1. Michie Stadium – This could have been worse as rain held off until a few minutes into the game, which allowed me to get some initial pictures. But once it started, a continuous wind-driven rain sullied one of the best settings for college football. Major tip of the cap to the wife, who sat thru this whole game. I guess rain is better than snow, as the high elevations around West Point had significant snow three days later.
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2. Sam Boyd Stadium - Early September is still quite hot in Vegas and this day was no exception. The high reached 103 degrees at McCarran Airport and when I got to Sam Boyd Stadium on the outskirts of the city, it was still 96. What an odd feeling to be sitting at a night football game sweating and feeling the need to consistently drink water.
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3. Notre Dame Stadium - Perhaps the most famous of my bad weather games…This was the only time Notre Dame has had a weather delay. A pretty nasty squall line moved through South Bend and lightning caused the game to be delayed 2 hours and 10 minutes. Though the wait was quite long, I didn’t mind the extra time to wander the famous stadium’s concourses. Plus, it was much more comfortable for the second half as we lost the oppressive heat.
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4. Coca-Cola Park – Hail is an exciting phenomena for a meteorologist (especially an East Coast one). We all desperately want to see it during a storm and this was the day I saw some bigger than dime-sized. One inch diameter hail fell earlier in the day as we were at Musikfest in nearby Bethlehem before the game. It set the stage for a wet, chilly evening in Allentown’s new ballpark…but the earlier success made it worth it.

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INDOOR EVENTS

1. Bell Centre – Just a college kid who didn’t know any better. A very unusual April Ice Storm left Oswego, NY covered by an inch of ice the morning of April 4, 2003. Yet, unfazed, I spent an hour de-frosting my car and detoured our way through closed roads to make it up to Montreal. Probably not the smartest move. It wasn’t much better in Quebec as sleet pelted us on our journey through downtown. All was forgotten once inside to see the most famous team name in hockey.
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2. MAC Center – This also ranks up there in the list of dumb drives. Cancelling this Ohio trip may have been the right move, but somehow I made to all three Northeast Ohio venues during a 4-8 inch Lake Effect event that made the roads a mess. The short daytime trip from Canton to Kent was the worst and yet I even stopped in Akron during the inch per hour snowfall to ensure an outdoor photo of Rhodes Arena, a facility that would be visited at night.
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3. Louis Brown Athletic Center – I was not going to miss this game, even for a blizzard. Well, it wasn’t quite a blizzard, but a decent winter storm dropped six inches across North and Central Jersey. This guarantees a 12 hour work day, yet the hours were conducive for me to get to Piscataway for a 4 PM start between Rutgers and Syracuse. Best part of the stadium visit: This
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4. TD Bank Sports Center  - No wintry weather on this visit, instead rain and lots of it. A continuous downpour made driving on the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut for the first time not fun. As I watched the rain fall through the interior windows of Quinnipiac’s gym, a crappy ride home was inevitable. A night-time ride on I-95 with random flooding and giant puddles…not good times.
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Let’s start with indoor football and I will spare you with listing all of the franchise and league changes, instead jumping to the stadium effects on The List. Probably the most intriguing move takes place in Kansas City, where the AFL’s Brigade folded and the Sprint Center goes back to being tenant-less. There are plenty of events to keep that building busy, but it’s quite amazing how after nearly six years, there is still not a franchise to call this place home. The building that was replaced by the Sprint Center as Kansas City’s main indoor facility, Kemper Arena, returns to action. The Renegades of the CPIFL will play there this season, however the life of the historic arena looks to be fading as there are plans to tear it down. In Omaha, pretty much the same situation is taking place with the Civic Auditorium as that facility sadly looks to meet the wrecking ball in 2014 with the CenturyLink Center having taken center stage. Unlike KC, the Omaha Beef left the Auditorium for the new smaller arena in suburban Ralston. Staying on that same theme, Cincinnati Gardens finds itself off The List as the Cincinnati Commandos folded.

There are two arenas that now have a home team as opposed to just being a facility that calls basketball tournaments home. In Tulsa, the Oklahoma franchise in the CPIFL will play in the Convention Center (also home to the women’s C-USA basketball tourney). The Midwest seems to be a popular place for indoor football and we’ll stay there as the Lincoln (NE) Haymakers will now play at the Pershing Center. Lastly, the lone brand new venue making an appearance is in San Angelo, where the Foster Communications Center becomes more than a place to see the rodeo as the Bandits of the LSFL will play in that arena.