Last week, I updated the webpage with a few things that I’ve been meaning to get to for a while…First, I wanted to figure out a way to update reviews if I’ve been back to the stadium. I didn’t want to ruin my initial review, so for any place that I have made a return visit to, there is an addendum of sorts at the end of the review. This pretty much sums up if there is anything new or that has changed (like the scoreboard or new food, etc.). Rankings were also updated to reflect if good or bad changes were made. Those rankings are always so tough for me, because it is so subjective. Coming up with a number to give each category is difficult, but I’m a numbers guy and that’s why I do them.
I did tweak the ranking system a little bit. For the “Game” section (5 points), if the home team wins, they’ll get an automatic 3 points. I know that people would like to see this become “Bonus” points, but the whole purpose of attending a sporting event is to see a game and if the game sucks, well the experience isn’t 5-star (unless of course that 90-60 blowout comes in the championship game!). “Accessibility/Parking” (8 points) is also a hard category because of the mass transit options. Now accessibility is worth four points and that includes driving to the game AND if there are any other easier ways to get there. Parking is the other four and that includes availability, quality and in/out procedures. Last thing I did was went back and gave a default 2 out of 4 points in “Banners” to expansion or new teams…because it’s not fair to give a 0 in the banners section if a team just started. These rankings don’t always reflect my personal feelings towards stadiums (example, I love Jerry Uht Park in Erie, but it ranks quite low), however it gives me a nice way to quantify everything. And yes, I realize the whole thing is quite dorky.
Other website changes include the addition of a “What’s New” section located on that top bar and I tweaked that “Reviews Reorganized” section to reflect those return visits.
Onto the Schedule, which took a week for me to get planned and organized. First thing is Citi Field. I’ve had to put it off a few times, but FINALLY I should be making a game there on August 1st. It’s only a 1:30 drive from me from home, but it’s much easier to go to a game when I’m already out on Long Island visiting in-laws. Our week vacation has been tentatively booked and we’re heading to Florida at the end of August. We’ll be in Deerfield Beach (right near Boca Raton), visiting my wife’s grandparents at the beginning of the trip and then making a drive to spend four days in Orlando to do a lot of the non-Disney stuff. I liked my baseball-college football combo from last year, so we’ll try it again. A couple Florida League games in Jupiter and St. Lucie with an opening college football game on September 4th in Orlando as Central Florida takes on South Dakota (a week later they have NC State…that would been nice to see). Let’s just hope that the ghosts of Florida 2004 don’t ruin this, because the threat for a storm is certainly there.
Later in September and October, we’ll try for a few back to back new visits. My wife has a bacherlotte party somewhere in New England (Boston or Woonsocket, RI, not sure where yet). So I’m going to drive and stay somewhere else on my own while checking out some football. Saturday will either be a Boston College or Brown game and then I’m going to try hard to get to Gillette Stadium…just to see my Bills probably get thrashed by the Patriots. I don’t even want to get into a tangent on how terrible this “rebuilding” project is going. Then late in October, my brother and I are looking get in a NYC metro doubleheader for hockey: Prudential Center to see the Sabres play the Devils on the 23rd and a Rangers game in MSG on the 24th. Hopefully all of those plans hold because there’s a lot of stadiums in there that I’m really looking forward to.
