Monday, 31 March 2008 19:40 by
Dave It was good. Very good.
I’m talking about Nationals Stadium, where I got to see the Nationals plays their first regular-season game Sunday night against the Braves. I’d by lying if I said I wasn’t cynical heading downtown Sunday afternoon; stadiums never open with everything finished, parking was expected to be a nightmare, and D.C. is, well, D.C. Something was going to go awry.
I was wrong. Traffic flowed smoothly to RFK, where we parked. We walked directly to a bus and boarded without waiting, and within 10 minutes, we were at the stadium. We avoided the Metro because they are notorious for underestimating capacity. But we ran into another Loudouner, Dr. Dave Stewart, who took the Metro and said everything went fine.
Inside, the stadium was better than expected. Lots of room, lots of places to eat, lots of restrooms. Our seats were in the nosebleed section, but there was an escalator up to the heavens, and the sight lines were great. The scoreboard is a huge HD monster, and displays there were clearer than anything I’ve seen in a major league sports stadium.
It was, simply, a world-class facility. I know The Washington Post panned its architecture in today’s paper, but this stadium wasn’t designed to be a work of art. It’s your basic overstuffed La-Z-Boy, easy on the eyes, and built for comfort. By comparison, go to a Redskins game at Fed Ex Field. Nationals Stadium is already better on day one than that facility is a decade later. The Nats have also figured out parking and customer service better than the Burgundy and Gold. On Day One.
Most of us thought the real test of the stadium would be going home. Eveyone came early, so it wasn’t a big surprise that traffic went smoothly. But going home went just as well. This became important when one member of our party, whose initials are Paul Draisey, announced in the bottom of the seventh that it was late, cold and nothing more exciting was going to happen. We walked the three blocks to where the buses were waiting, immediately boarded, and were in our car no more than 10 minutes later.
This allowed us, as we were turning on to 395 to head home, to turn on the radio and hear Charlie Slowes call Ryan Zimmerman’s dramatic ninth-inning home run to win the game. As fireworks are going off in the distance, Draisey claimed that hearing the ending on the radio while seeing the fireworks from the road was “almost as good as being there.” Draisey is the early leader in this year’s “most ridiculous phrases uttered” contest.
Not everything was fantastic. A trip to the most popular concession stand – Ben’s Chili Bowl – will run you $17.50 for a hot dog, fries and a drink. By comparison, our group pulled into the Golden Arches in Ashburn before starting the trip and ordered 10 double cheeseburgers and five soft drinks, feeding five people for about the same money. But the demand was there. The average wait at Ben’s was 30 to 40 minutes the entire game.
The Nationals also blew it when it came to memorabilia involving the first game at the new stadium. When they played their first game at RFK, a nice commemorative coin was given out. Sunday night, you got a small towel which said “Welcome Home. Nationals Park Inaugural Game. 3-30-08.” The towel reminded you of what you’d wipe your hands off with after changing the oil in your car. Someone referred to it as a “crappy” towel, but honestly, it wasn’t that nice.
All in all, it was a tremendous first impression. Now the team has to win. The stadium’s great, but this area won’t support a loser (unless you play in the NFL and overpay free agents every year). Two games in, however, the team is 2-0.
That’s good. Very good.
Currently rated 5.0 by 1 people
- Currently 5/5 Stars.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Sunday, 30 March 2008 00:45 by
Dave It certainly looks like the perfect storm.
I'll be leaving later today today to join Paul Draisey and a few other friends at the Washington Nationals' first regular-season game in their new ball park. Draisey, who is afraid they will run out of half-smokes at the Ben's Chili Bowl concession stand, has ordained that we will leave at 3:30 for an 8 p.m. game.
On the news Saturday night, there were picutres of huge tie-ups at the Metro station, a weather forecast with temperatures dropping into the 40s, maybe even the 30s, and it might rain a few times during the game.
Should be fun.
It could also be a lot like last year, when Ron Kitzmiller and I took the WAGE van to RFK for a live remote. And in case you forgot what a dysfunctional lot we were back then, here's this week's podcast:
Be the first to rate this post
- Currently 0/5 Stars.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5