Nationals Park

The following entry is a recap of my first trip to Nationals Stadium:

- The commute to and from the field is manageable if you put some thought and preplanning into it. Sounds obvious, but it gets tricky.

Here are the key points to remember: find a place where you'll have free and safe parking, access to metro, and the ability to dodge traffic on your way home. Be sure to check traffic reports for any major accidents on the way to the stadium and monitor the DC United website in case they also have games that night. A DCU game will cause huge amounts of traffic around RFK, which is a place where Nats fans can park and shuttle over to the stadium; DCU games can also clog up the metro. Give yourself added time in case this occurs. Or just hope they build a new stadium around Poplar Point. Do not assume the metro will always work.

- The Stadium is incredible and probably one of the best in Major League Baseball. Kudos to the DC government for building it and getting it done on time.

As a lifelong DC resident, I am simply amazed the DC government convinced baseball to send them a team. Here you're talking about a government that simply cannot do anything right. Whether it's a chronically late bus system which kills people due to bad driving, or a public school system which spends more money per student than any city in the US yet still has declining SAT scores, the DC government is a case study in institutional failure. And that's putting it lightly. Murders, AIDS, drugs run rampant in this city and have been for years.

But the DC Government came up in the clutch and built this thing in a year. Pretty incredible if you ask me. All for the cost of 611 million dollars, half of what it's costing the Yankees for their new stadium. And thanks to the DC tax-payers, the Lerners now have a free stadium which should be paid for in twenty years. Solid deal for the new owners.

I could say a lot about the stadium and how awesome it is: the scoreboard is a giant high-definition TV, the field is lush, the seats are shiny and new, ect. But the best part of the stadium is the selection of food and beer combined with easy access to your seats. The seats, once you're in them, give you spectacular views of the Capitol Building or the Anacostia River. Clearly the park was designed to show off its waterfront proximity and location near the epicenter of power. Success on all counts: it was beautiful.

- Similar to the point above, the Nationals team does not do justice to the stadium built for them. Hopefully this will change with the new owner and increased fan interest.

The Nationals suck. Plain and simple. We have the second lowest payroll in baseball, and lack a single player batting over .280. For example, Chipper Jones has more RBIs than the first five batters in the Nats lineup right now. Our batting line-up wouldn't make the tail-end of an average American league team. Add terrible pitching and an injured closer on top of the horrible batting. I doubt we'll have a single player win over 10 games this year and I am not even kidding.

And yet we have an owner whose been a given a stadium and has a lot of money. So why doesn't he sign some big name players and make the Nats good right now? I suspect they will sign a big name player, but for now they have no pressure to do so. The majority of Nationals tickets are sold to corporate sponsors and regular fans do not factor into the equation right now. And why should they? Businesses and lobbyists are footing the bill for now. 80% of the season tickets have been sold to lobbyists or corporations.

There's nothing wrong with that, but I'm just saying the Lerners don't have an angry or vocal fan-base to put up with right now. These seats are being used to entertainment purposes, and not for serious fans. That may change, but for now it's just cell-phone fans, similar to FedEx field. In the meantime I suspect the Nationals will stick to low payrolls and developing a farm system. Stay tuned.

- DC baseball fans have a steep learning curve in front of them -- a book on how to be a baseball fan by the Red Sox Nation should be mandatory reading for all season ticket holders.

• The Nats would score and the fans would barely react. Yet the stadium was almost completely filled. What gives?
  
• No one knew how to sing, "Take me out to the ball game" during the 7th inning stretch.
  
• No one booed the opposing team's best hitter or pitcher.
  
• I saw more suits (including my suit) than baseball caps
  
• Fans left way too early (5th and 6th innings), even when the Nats started to rally.
• There was not a lot of excitement or chatter in the lines flowing into or out of the games; people were just hi-tailling it in and out of the stadium...conspicuous lack of camaraderie among fans

- The tickets are reasonably priced, but I fear they may rise dramatically over the next few years. The food is a terrific deal, but like the tickets, their prices may increase over time.

For $7.50 (tax included) you can buy a plate of nachos the size of Nick's head. It could literally feed a family of four or just me for an entire inning. You could also get beers for 7 bucks, and instead of getting them in cheap plastic bottles, you could get them in take-home cups which were pretty cool. I got four - one black, red, white, and blue. That was awesome.

The selection of food was excellent - you have Five Guys burgers, Ben's Chili Bowl, Hard Times Cafe, and multiple places to get wings and chicken strips with fries. Five Guys burgers is something of a legend around DC and I'll have to take Babcock there to verify this claim of excellence. White Castle and In-and-Out Burger may tie with Five Guys for the best burger chains on the East Coast, but this hypothesis may have to be tested by RoomofZen authors before it's validated.

The ticket prices are very reasonable. For 40 bucks we got seats between the right field foul pole and first base, about 20 rows from the field. I've always wondered if women get better looking the closer you get to the field or the closer you get to the Sky Boxes. Again, RoomofZen authors will have to test out this claim in a scientific setting. But ticket prices can always go up and I fear that may happen very soon. Good deal hardly ever last. Stay tuned.

(note: I am looking forward to trying the 5 dollar seats in the upper-deck. If I have some Skoal, maybe I will throw an Upper-Deck while sitting in the Upper-deck....awesome)

- The surrounding area is growing like crazy, but still needs to get it's act together. Many things could be added near the stadium to improve the fan experience before and after the game.

I've only been to a few Red Sox games, but the thing I remember about them was the atmosphere of the fans walking into the stadium. It was electric and fueled by a combination of anticipation, booze, and intense camaraderie among the fans. I don't particularly like the Red Sox but I definitely had fun going to the games and walking around the area afterwards. Why? A ton of sports-fans and a ton of awesome bars.

Nationals stadium needs to build a series of sports bars around the stadium if it wants to replicate this type of experience at Fenway Park. When you get off the metro and walk into the stadium, there is a row of buildings that could easily turn into a row of restaurants and bars. I hope the Nats get them turned into bars so fans can really make a night out of the new stadium.