Welcome Home, indeed!

March 29, 2008

Wow, that was nice! I had a blast running into so many friends, old and new. Like a family reunion, the hugs were passed around freely! It definitely felt like a welcoming home. Or maybe a housewarming party. The Nats made it better by winning their first game in Nationals Park against the Orioles, even if it didn’t count. Being allowed in so early gave me an opportunity to finally check out every angle and nook and cranny of the park. [Photoset] A big shoutout to everyone who said hello, even if I had no idea who you were! Comment, people! Early and often!

So how did it go? Well, there were a few glitches, of course, but overall, it was awesome and beautiful! A few observations:

• The concession lines were long. Really long. Throughout most of the game. On the main concourse behind centerfield, they were so long that it was hard to walk through because the Nachos line and the Nats Dog line across the concourse ran past each other, blocking the through-way. I think part of it may have been the throngs checking out the food offerings and may lighten up over time. It seemed half the fans were in the concourses instead of their seats throughout the game.

• Fans were confused about how to enter/exit concession stands with freestanding points-of-sale as it wasn’t clear where to go in (apparently there should have been two lines at Papa Johns pizza and there was one).

• Concession workers seemed a little overwhelmed, but that will probably iron out over time. I chose Papa Johns because it had the shortest line, but they didn’t have the pizza boxes prefolded and skipped me to serve the kid behind me the same pepperoni pizza I ordered before him.

• I chose Papa Johns for the short line after waiting in the much longer Five Guys line until I heard they were out of french fries (in the 4th inning)

• The ceiling in the women’s bathroom became quite a topic of conversation among those of us in there to use the facilities. I don’t think black was a good choice of color :-) The warehouse look could be cool, but everyone noted it looked like it’d been through a fire. I asked a guy if the men’s bathroom looked like that and he said yep.

• The pitch speed on the scoreboard wasn’t working

• I need to get used to finding where the ball/strike count is shown and how it’s displayed. But that’s obviously my own adjustment. I wish the pitch speed was somewhere more in my line of sight as well so I don’t have to turn to look at the scoreboard after every pitch.

• Another in my season ticket group mentioned he would like to see the batter’s average and statistics shown on the scoreboard during their at-bats, like maybe across the bottom or make the picture smaller to add more text next to the birth info.

• The seats were surprisingly not too cold! The cupholders, awesome as they are, do add a level of difficulty and knee knocking when trying to pass people to get to your seat

• The concourses are definitely nice and the stadium feels compact - in a good way. I love the picnic table area behind center field.

• Season ticket holder parking was a breeze in and out. In fact, it seemed like there was hardly anyone else in our garage. We got in and out quickly and easily, minus driving around the tidal basin and nearly scoring 100s of points on tourists streaming across the street randomly. The line for the Nats Express looked kinda long - I’d be curious to hear how that experience was.

• The sound quality was perfect inside the seating bowl. Clear, crisp, and loud. I couldn’t hear it on the upper or lower concourse, though.

And a funny - I was planning on using the song, “The Boys Are Back In Town” if I did a video on the players’ arrival at their new home (which, as you know, I didn’t). Mr. Chatter thought that was cheesy and ‘had been done before’. I still thought it would have been great. They played it over the PA between innings at the stadium! Ha!

I didn’t bring the right lens to actually shoot the game, so there aren’t many game photos in the set. I cancelled the reservation on the holy-grail lens. Maybe I’ll get to use it another time this season.

Great to see everyone and welcome home! Were you there? What’d you think? If you go tomorrow, I highly recommend going as early as you can get in. Getting to explore the stadium for hours on end is quite a treat. Plus, it wasn’t so crowded that standing down by the dugout and getting a closeup view of the players taking batting practice was a breeze and not an exercise in elbowing people for room.

Posted in Gameday, MLB, Stadium, Washington Nationals