Nationals Park Review

With my hometown Phillies playing in DC for the first time this year, I took the opportunity to visit the brand new Nationals Park. Before I share my experience of the new stadium, I present these two caveats: 1) The Phillies went 0-12 with runners in scoring position and got blanked 4-0, so that severely dampened my enjoyment of the game. This may have biased my opinions of the ballpark experience somewhat. 2) The bar has been set progressively higher over the last 15 years for new stadiums, starting with Oriole Park at Camden Yards just up the street in Baltimore.

Parking: F
Don't even get me started with this. Forget about paying $40 to park in the garages next to the stadium. Or even $15 to park in a ghetto half a mile away. You can purchase advance parking passes online for these tiny lots because they often sell out. But be prepared to pay additional convenience fees, processing fees and ridiculous charge of $2.25 for the ability to print out your parking pass online. All of this will add up to more than $7 in additional larceny on top of the parking cost you'd pay on site. (By the way, the Nationals box office wasn't even aware that they offered this online service when I called them to inquire about the morality of said fees.)

Hidden in the depths of the Nationals web site is information about something called the "Nats Express." It would be helpful if the service was called something like "Free RFK Shuttle," because that's what it is. The Nationals have thoughtfully arranged for free shuttle service from the abundant parking lots at RFK Stadium, where the parking is also free. (And did I mention abundant?) Comfortable motor coaches conveniently await you upon your arrival and take you on a 7-minute ride toward the new Nationals Park. But I emphasize the word toward the stadium. The shuttle stops and drops you off over a half mile away from the ballpark. This is inconceivable that they would drop off passengers so far from the gate. Why isn't there a dedicated lane reserved for the shuttles to drop off fans next to the box office the way that say, the dozen chartered motor coaches were seemingly allowed to do that night? It's clear that they don't want the service to be too convenient, lest it siphon off potential parking revenue and the associated convenience, processing and internet printing charges.

Location: D
Sure, there is convenient access to the park from all the major highways, but without anywhere to park your car, what's the difference? This isn't what anyone would call a "downtown ballpark." It is nestled between abandoned warehouses, an office park and a sewage treatment plant. Talk about a low rent district. The neighborhood is truly unsightly and I don't think there's much hope, even with some investment in an "entertainment district." As you walk up to the park, there isn't that goose-bumps moment when the stadium first comes into view. Instead you see two concrete parking garages and service entrances. And did I mention the sewage treatment plant?

Seating and Sightlines: C
I purchased seats in the lower bowl, right behind third base and about 3/4 of the way up. The tickets had a face value of $63 ($50 if purchased as part of a full season plan) even though I got them for $25 a piece off StubHub.com. So these were pricy seats by any standards, yet I was staggered by the narrow width of the chairs, and the complete lack of legroom. And these are seats in a pretty prime location.

Sitting down into the seat for the first time, I felt my hips graze both armrests -- and I'm a slender guy. It made me wonder how many french fries I had just eaten. The width and depth of these seats was reminiscent of older parks like Fenway or Yankee Stadium, which were built before Americans got fat and the average male was five feet two inches tall. You can't sit comfortably in these seats without your legs and elbows bumping into your neighbors. And the rows are so narrow that it's impossible for people to pass by you to get to the aisle. Even if you stand up to let people out, you can suddenly find yourself participating in a ballroom dancing lesson with a 300 pound drunk. Oh, and my seat, in addition to being cramped, was really uncomfortable. My butt was numb by the sixth inning and my back was still sore the next morning. If you go to a game here, bring a seat pad. Or better yet, wear a bulky diaper since you won't be able to exit your row and get to a bathroom.

The sightlines to the field are not great, but they aren't awful either. They were better at RFK. Say what you will about the aesthetics of the cookie-cutter stadiums of the 1970s, but those ballparks had amazing sightlines from almost everywhere. The seats down the lines in this new park just aren't angled enough toward the field to avoid giving you a stiff neck. And the stratospheric upperdeck is not only really, really tall, it is also set very far back from the field giving you the sensation of watching the game on Google Earth. But I'm sure those hundreds of empty seats right behind the plate have a great view that no one can afford to appreciate.

Value: F
The tickets range from $5 in the grandstands to $325 behind the plate. Yes, $325 dollars, each! I wonder if that includes "convenience" fees. This ticket price is the epitome of major league greed. For that much money, I could literally buy a roundtrip flight to Los Angeles, purchase a ticket for a box seat at Dodger Stadium, and still have enough money left over for a couple of Dodger Dogs and a beer. And that is a much nicer stadium with a beautiful view of mountains and palm trees.

The $325 seats behind the plate weren't the only ones conspicuously empty during the game. There were large patches of seats in the lower bowl and the first deck that were completely empty. Meanwhile, the upper deck was quite full. To me this says that there is clearly price resistance for many areas of the stadium that are simply over-priced.

Plus, I feel compelled to point out in a curmudgeonly way that the Nationals are charging these outlandish prices to see a last place team play next to a sewage treatment plant.

Scenic Views: C
From the upper deck in right field, you can get a peak of the Capitol dome. From the left field upperdeck concourse next to the bathrooms, you can see the Washington Monument in the distance. But aside from the Washington Monument and the Capitol dome, Washington, DC has a purposefully insignificant skyline. So there really isn't much to look at anyway -- not like the bay vista of AT&T Park in San Francisco, the seven bridges of PNC Park in Pittsburgh or the snow-capped Rocky Mountains of Coors Field in Denver. Did I mention the sewage treatment plant located behind home plate?

Food: B-
There seemed to be a really wide selection of food representing all corners of the USofA. I had a chicken fingers which were quite good. The chili dogs looked very appetizing. I just didn't want to end up wearing one on my shirt. The biggest issue I had with the food was the confusing service. The concession stands at Nationals Park need to do what most other stadiums now do, which is to let you pick up your food and then move out of the way to pay at a separate register.

If you don't want to get up to weave through those confusing food lines (or can't because you are wedged into your seat), you can buy your food from the dozens of food vendors constantly plying their wares. I'd never seen so many roaming food vendors in my life. If one more loud-mouthed beer or ice-cream salesman stopped to block my view of the game, I was going to stab him with a cotton candy stick.

Overall: D
As disgusting and dilapidated as RFK was, I have to say that the overall experience was better there than in the new park. In fact, I have to say that attending this game was probably the most unpleasant experience I have had in any of the dozen major league parks I have visited. There is simply nothing redeming or charming about the place that gives you cause to tolerate the lack of convenient access or to justify the prices.

The design of the stadium incorporates all of the familiar features now prominent in these new ballparks. There is a huge high-definition scoreboard in the outfield. A fancy out-of-town scoreboard. Quirky angles to the outfield fence. A glass-enclosed restaurant in the outfield. Open concourses. Luxury boxes galore. And a massive team store. But this ballpark offers nothing unique. If anything it has a very sterile and white-washed feel. It is a new cookie-cutter ballpark of the 21st Century.

Unfortunately, Nationals Park is situated just 40 miles from Camden Yards in Baltimore. It's not fair to compare the two parks, because they simply don't compare. Everything that Camden Yards has to offer in fan experience and urban aesthetics, Nationals Park lacks.

I can only smolder over the thought that so much taxpayer money was spent to build the Nationals' ballpark in such a weird part of DC and that fans are charged truly astronomical prices for an incredibly unsatisfying and uncomfortable experience.