Stadium and Arena Visits

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Thirteen years ago, I moved to New Jersey and a nice perk is being an hour or two (depending on mode of transportation) from New York City and all it has to offer. Being a huge tennis fan, I couldn’t wait to make it to the US Open, but year after year, it just never worked out. While watching the tournament this week, I kept getting this deep urge to see it live. Ignoring my usual long-range scheduling and planning, I decided just 24 hours prior that I was going to Queens. The Men’s Semifinal match-ups were enticing, the weather was perfect and I had a half-day at work. After waiting until the last minute for price drops on the secondary market, I got a single seat way up in the rafters way of Arthur Ashe Stadium and after reading this ultimate guide, I made my trip in.

Plotting the best way to reach the tournament always has multiple options and I decided to take NJ Transit from Denville. It’s a longer trip then my normally-preferred method of driving to Secaucus and then taking a 10-minute train in, but a $30 parking lot on weekdays deterred me from that option. What I didn’t realize was that Denville has a $3 parking charge Mon-Fri, as like everything with all modes of transportation around the Tri-State, local knowledge is needed since things aren’t always exactly clear. I had seven minutes to make the train and I couldn’t find the pay station in time (in the secondary parking lot, which I didn’t know was the paid one) and made the split-second decision to just get on the train anyway instead of waiting another hour for the next one. Thankfully, my wife was out-and-about and she kindly was able to drive to Denville and move my car along with paying for the spot, thus avoiding a ticket and fine. With that taken care of, there was one more train needed as I got off at Penn Station and opted for the slightly more expensive Long Island Rail Road to reach Flushing Meadows. This was faster than walking eight blocks to get the 7 subway. And with that I had finally arrived!

Watching this tournament my whole life, it was special to walk around and see everything: the fountains, the Arthur Ashe statue, Court of Champions. I spent awhile on the grounds and really enjoyed the amount of plaza’s that allowed for fans to take it easy between play. There are tons of food options and of course, it comes at a hefty price. I considered splurging and getting the long-time signature cocktail, the Honey Deuce. Just couldn’t bring myself to spend $17 on a drink. Matches on all the outer courts were juniors and I wanted to take one in, but at this point, it was 3:00 PM and I wanted a tour of Arthur Ashe before the first Semi began. My plan is to go back next year and just do Armstrong and Grandstand, which is when I’ll do official stadium reviews for those. Heading into Ashe, I gazed up at the behemoth, knowing my end seating result was going to be a hike. The climb up thankfully involved escalators (going down does not), however, I was disappointed to see that the lower-level concourse was reserved for only patrons with seats there. That meant that all of the upper seats, at least 10,000 and probably more, have to squish through a single concourse that lacks a lot, namely comfort between sets. That’s a horrible set-up. As far as inside the stadium, some have called it the “Worst Stadium in the Country“. I wouldn’t go that far as there are some positives. For one: the roof and roof support adds a huge layer of comfort for fans as the extra shade is huge. Most tennis stadiums in North America, lack shade. Also, the stands are nicely steeped and that creates a favorable angle to seeing the court. However, that steepness is also a negative because the stadium is way too freakin’ big and it is a hike and a half to get to the top of the upper bowl. It is extremely rare to see Ashe completely full and it was unnecessary to have that many seats, thus leading to pretty crappy, unintimate views for so many. Then, you also have abundant catering to the high rollers as the small (but insanely priced) lower-level is followed by two rungs of suites and then you finally get to the more distant seating bowl for the regular folk. Despite all the negativity, it was special for me as a tennis fan to finally sit in this stadium for a match.

Made all the better was a mouth-watering semifinal card that first featured Nadal and Del Potro. While absolutely respecting what Rafa has done, I’ve never been a huge fan and I was pulling for DelPo in this one and it was fun to savor all the Argentine fans in the house. The first set was what I expected, a grueling and entertaining battle that lasted over an hour featuring booming ground strokes from DelPo and ridiculous speed by Rafa. Then, in the second, DelPo took over and at the end, it was noticeable that something wasn’t right with Rafa given how he was rushing serves. I took out by zoom camera to watch the chair closely and sadly, he needed to retire. Disappointing, but I was happy to at least see a quality set. That also meant I didn’t have to debate leaving early in the second match for train-catching purposes. The nightcap featured Djokovic and Kei Nishikori, two guys I really like. With Novak, he’s my favorite of the Big 4. He’s very personable and quite involved with fans and kids (love this clip), but I never understood why the crowd doesn’t warm too him and it makes me feel bad because I know he desperately wants that love. If Roger or Rafa are playing an underdog, New Yorkers never pull for the dog, despite their normal love for one. But with Novak? They always do and that was apparent with a huge urging on with Kei. Some might argue it’s because in this instance, they wanted to see more tennis after the short early match, but I’ve seen this before and it was more than that. I whole-heartedly gave some encouraging yells to Nole (always wanted to do that) and he dominated this match. His flexibility is so amazing to see in person. His 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win capped a memorable day. I can’t wait to get back to Flushing Meadows in future years to experience the other stadiums in the complex. 

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We arrived in Houston on Friday and since it was a midday flight that encountered delays, it was pretty much a travel day and nothing else. Saturday was when we spent our time touring the city and with the hotel being right downtown, we began by walking the area. I was surprised at how empty it was. I learned that the Central Business District is just that, a section of skyscrapers for MF 9-5ers and then the area is pretty much done. That made our walk a little creepy, given how desolate it was. We went through a few parks, including Sam Houston Park, which didn’t feature anything worth seeing. We did find the Museum District to be enjoyable and the Metro Rail made for a simple ride to this section of the city six stations to the south. The Museum of Natural History was our lone destination and it took the whole day as it was a huge place. I didn’t like all the optional costly add-ons, but I did love the in-depth museum itself, which rivaled the one in NYC.

We were thankful to miss evening thunderstorms as my Dad and I headed to BBVA Compass Stadium for the Dynamo game that had no weather delays.  Our hotel shuttle dropped us off in the EaDo section of the city and we saw a small street fest outside the gates before heading in. I love the orange flavor of the stadium and the constant color scheme gives the place character. It’s a nice stadium with a design that features a bit of creativity and solid sightlines all around. The structure is a double-decker that is in the shape of a rounded rectangle. There are a few minor negative notes, my primary one being the cheap and slightly uncomfortable seats. I’ll detail the other negative stuff in the official review, which is posted as I had some spare time to write while on the 7-day cruise that we took following this game.

The crowd was light on this Saturday Night and there were more empty seats than bodies in them. You would think geography would make a Houston a great soccer city, but that just isn’t the case. The Houston Chronicle newspaper furthered that point by burying the game recap on Page 11. While the attendance number suffered, the fans there made up for it with noise and passion. The problem was that they went too far. The Dynamo picked up an early red card and way too many acted like morons the rest of the night. It started with streamers being thrown onto the field after every call against the home side. That evolved to all out shenanigans in the 90th minute as full beer cans were directed at the referee who attempted to go to video review (and smartly left the area). Total idiots and it’s the ugliest crowd I’ve seen at a game in person. Sporting KC got the win and Houston got the distinction of finishing the night with a club record for yellow cards and red cards. That unfortunately will be a lasting memory from an otherwise solid soccer stadium.

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I spent most of last week in Cleveland for a work-related Snow & Ice Symposium. The show went well and so did the host city as I really enjoyed my time in Cleveland. The hotel was downtown, which afforded me the opportunity to sight-see during down time and there were many nice spots to walk around in. Of course, the big attraction is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and it indeed was a great place to check out. Also, all of the city’s major league facilities are within relative walking distance and I took an exterior look at all three (Progressive Field, Quicken Loans Arena and FirstEnergy Stadium). The Indians were on the road, but luckily there are a couple of minor-league options nearby and I fortunately had Thursday Night free to venture to one. The town of Eastlake is about 20 minutes east of Cleveland and it is home of the Lake County Captains, a single-A team in the Midwest League. Rush hour was not crazy and that afforded me time to see the Boulevard of 500 Flags. After a quick walk through that, I grabbed a dozen donuts for later from local favorite Biagio’s and then went over to Classic Park. I averted the ridiculous $8 parking lot by utilizing n a $5 private lot that was just as close.

Before giving a brief review, I must preface that with how Classic Park came to be, because it’s not good. Long story short, in the early 2000s, former Mayor Dan DiLiberto strongly pushed ahead with the building of a ballpark to bring a team to the area. He lied to citizens in saying that this would not involve taxpayer money. Surprise, surprise, it did. To the tune of the entire project costing over $30 million, which put Eastlake in significant debt, resulting in the city cutting services and jobs, not to mention creating a significant distrust between citizens and local government. This is a story that plays out many times across America, no matter how many times it happens in other places.

It is unfortunate, but this is a stadium review website and we’ll mostly stick to that. I feel really crooked in saying that the money spent resulted in a beautiful ballpark, but it did as there were no shortcuts here. I really liked this facility. The brick and sand exterior gives off a towering presence and then inside, the blue seats go well in an intimate seating bowl. The concourse is at the top and protected overhead by the suites and the walkway continues on to go around the outfield, which has some nice open spots. Given their proximity to Lake Erie, the team is called the “Captains” and several touches on the nautical theme give the ballpark some character. There’s the Lighthouse in the outfield, the human mascot Captain Kenny and of course, calling the bathroom, the “Poop Deck”. There are a few things I didn’t like (which will be noted in the forthcoming review soon to be found on the right), but overall, Classic Park is a good one. This Thursday game featured a relatively low number of fans and that’s too bad as they missed a good game. Lake County was cruising until the 8th inning when Jalen Washington hit a towering two-run shot for Fort Wayne that tied the game. We went on to extra innings, where I saw the new format that the minors are using. A runner begins the inning at 2nd base, in an attempt to limit the number of extra innings. If a side goal was to reduce game-time, I don’t see that helping since this added element adds more strategy and slowed delivery. Both teams put the run across in the 10th and then the TinCaps got two in the 11th. They finished off the Captains with a rare 6-3-5 double play. I will say that the game was nicely fast-paced before extra innings and I even thought there was a chance we’d finish this 7:00 start in daylight (Ohio is in the western part of the time zone and the time of year was near Summer Solstice). Check back later in the week for the full review.

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