Changes are [...]]]> Cheney Park, home of the AAA Tacoma Rainiers since 1960, may be in line for a $30 million  facelift. The team, the PCL and the city all appear to be working harmoniously towards some major improvements that will update an historic facility, and ensure the future of Tacoma baseball for another 20+ years.

Changes are planned for the dugouts and press boxes, as well as a new grandstand superstructure, concessions and a restaurant. The fate of the wooden reserved seats, that had originally been brought up from San Francisco’s Seals Stadium, was not disclosed.

The Tacoma Rainiers are the Seattle Mariners AAA club, and drew just less than 5,000 fans a game in 2009, which places them 4th from the bottom in attendance in the PCL. Sacramento led the league with an average of more than 9,100, and Colorado Springs trailed with just 4,350 per game.

The Rainiers finished atop their division for the first time in 4 years in 2009, but were bounced from the playoffs by the Sacramento River Cats in the Pacific divisions’ playoffs. Sacramento was then dispatched by the Memphis Redbirds for the PCL title.

After a 4 hour drive, interrupted by the temporary closing of I-85, we made our way to Gwinnett Stadium on Saturday night, to watch the Gwinnett Braves and Charlotte Knights square off in a late season match-up.  Per the Gwinnett website, I punched the ballpark address into my GPS, [...]]]>

Gwinnett Stadium - Lawrenceville, GA

After a 4 hour drive, interrupted by the temporary closing of I-85, we made our way to Gwinnett Stadium on Saturday night, to watch the Gwinnett Braves and Charlotte Knights square off in a late season match-up.  Per the Gwinnett website, I punched the ballpark address into my GPS, but it really gave us the long way around.  You’re much better off by taking the Buford Drive exit off I-85 than meandering for miles through the surrounding suburb as we did.

The ballpark is brand new this year, and while it had everything you would expect from a family friendly entertainment mecca in suburban Atlanta, I found the whole stadium itself to be unremarkable.  There was a good size crowd, yet they really didn’t seem to have an efficient traffic plan for getting people in.

Once we were in and parked, the most amazing thing about the park in total was the number of tailgaters that had clearly been out already for a few hours.  I’ve tailgated minor league games before, and it’s a lot of fun, but generally the rest of the crowd looks at us funny. In Gwinnett, people had grills going, and their UGA tents up, and were having a good old time like it was a college football Saturday.

The outside of the park was not particularly distinguished…  It’s a single level park, with the only upper deck seating being luxury suites and a party deck.  It’s built into a sloping piece of land, so the field is well below street level, and there are berms and patios in the OF area that are 50 feet or moe above the playing surface.

There’s a solid, but unspectacular scoreboard in right-center, and the outfield walls are reminiscent of Turner Field.  Beyond thew walls, there’s a brick wall in left, necessitated by the slope, and right field ends in grass berms.

Inflatable City

Here’s something interesting about the layout…  many times when new parks are built, they do their best to try and take advantage of a natural backdrop – like the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, or a downtown vista.  There’s nothing to see in or around Gwinnett, so instead, the outfield is ringed with the largest collection of inflatable amusements for the kids.  I counted at least 10 different attractions, and it makes for the most unique skyline.

One odf the things I was most interested to see was the diverse set of concesions available throughout the park. I was a little disappointed to find a number fo the stands were closed, even through the park was at “Berm Tickets Only” capacity on a Saturday night. My guess is that they opened with the idea of one of the most diverse ballpark menus around, and it was probably hard to maintain.

Of the available options, “Choppers Corner” was the most consistently crowded, and it offers only the most pedestrian options (hotdog, burgers, nachos, beer).  The hotdogs were very good – high quality Hebrew National franks, but they had clearly been pre-made, and the buns were crushed. We also tried the garlic fries from the “Catcher’s Mitt” stand, and they were quite good, and not too greasy or overwhelmed with the garlic like you might find at ATT Park in San Francisco. Later in the evening, I tried the Chicken Philly sandwich from “Georgia 44″.  Tasted fine, and was a quality size portion… but way to much bread for the amount of sandwich filling involved.

Our seats were down the 3rd baseline, just beyond the infield.  Unfortunately, the seats were oriented with a view towards centerfield, so watching the batter/pitcher matchup meant craning your neck all night.  In a new park, this is unforgiveable.  the last major league park to make this mistake was new Comiskey, and it’s been the bane of that stadium ever since.  However, seats and aisles provided decent personal space, and a cupholder.

I’d also recommend buying the cheapest ticket you can find, and sitting where you want.  the ushers did not seem interested in enforcing seating, as we saw dozens of people in our section have to re-seat themselves when the rightful ticketholder arrived.

When the Braves decided not to renew their lease for their AAA team in Richmond, this park was built in less than a year in order to be open on time.  I think it’s fair to say that it feels a bit rushed at this stage, and I’d hope they’d try to complete some of their vision in the upcoming offseason, as well as make a few tweaks to increase enjoyment for the game watching public.  There’s plenty of potential here, I just don’t think they’ve realized all of it yet.

Final Score: 80/100

After the housing crash and the stock market debacle, I guess $2,500 a game tickets weren’t exactly investment grade anymore.  New stadiums have always been about luxury boxes and corporate revenues, so this shouldn’t be a big surprise.  the Yankees shouldn’t care much either, as the bulk of their real revenue comes [...]]]>

Yankee Stadium

After the housing crash and the stock market debacle, I guess $2,500 a game tickets weren’t exactly investment grade anymore.  New stadiums have always been about luxury boxes and corporate revenues, so this shouldn’t be a big surprise.  the Yankees shouldn’t care much either, as the bulk of their real revenue comes from TV, not “butts in seats”.