Travis Sawchik at FanGraphs talks about how new stadiums put upper deck fans father away from the action.
All professional sports compete with HD television and streaming in their efforts to draw fans to the ballpark. And the most affordable seats, the places where many have their first experiences as fans at a major-league game, are far removed from the action and the sensory experiences of the game: the sound of ball meeting bat, the chatter on the field, and all the other incidental noises that accompany the game. Each new stadium has been noted for its lack of obstructed seats, but it’s the absence of obstructed seating and the increase in luxury suites that has devalued the experience for all those unable to sit in the lower bowl. While the retro era is an improvement from the cookie-cutter, multi-purpose generation of stadiums, we haven’t truly returned to a period of classic ballparks — like Wrigley Field and Fenway Park — which were notable just as much for their intimacy as their idiosyncratic design.
My late uncle Anthony bought season tickets in the previous Yankee Stadium in the third deck behind home plate. The seats hung out over the lower deck, and you were right on top of the action. (I also had a boss that would take her family to one game a year, and that’s approximately where they sat.) When the built the new stadium, the upper deck was pushed back so far that my uncle no longer wanted the seats, especially for the price they asked. He stopped going.
The life of stadiums keep getting shorter, so maybe this can be corrected in the next round.
When Comerica Park opened, the Free Press had a graphic overlaying a cross section of Tiger Stadium snd the new park. The front row of Comerica’s upper deck is further from the field than the back row of Tiger Stadium was.
Tiger a stadium was a dump with few amenities, but for simply sitting and watching the game (which is why I go) it was hard to beat.
“Travis Sawchik at FanGraphs talks about how new stadiums put upper deck fans father away from the action.”
Farther
Ballparks built over the past two decades serve two main requirements: (1) provide lavish experiences for high rollers, (2) serve as scenic sets for television broadcasts.
The first requirement means inserting extra floors of luxury boxes below the upper deck, resulting in Sawchik’s complaint. This is particularly visible at Nationals Park and Comerica Park, and it also effects AT&T Park, Safeco Field, Citi Field and many others. (The effect is even more pronounced in new stadiums for other sports, such as Levi’s Stadium [NFL 49ers] and Philips Arena [NBA Hawks] where an entire bank of sideline grandstand has been omitted in favor of a tower of luxury boxes.)
The second requirement means limiting TV pictures that show too many empty seats. Pushing the upper deck higher and higher has the delightful side-effect of placing it out of view in most shots, relieving the pressure on the team to sell those increasingly undesirable seats. As professional sports continue their transformation from in-person experiences to television shows, you can expect these trends to intensify.