Stadium Secrets

[bryan4967]

but RFK is in the middle of the ghetto. right next to the DC armory, in fact. Take the metro (orange line i think) to the Armory stop, then sprint to RFK to grab those $7 bleacher seats that are so in demand with the VA/MD suburb dwellers. for some reason blue moon and miller lite are the only beers served. next year we have a new ballpark opening on the anacostia waterfront, also the ghetto, but supposedly new ballparks revitalize former murder capitals of the country.

[john voight]

For the Oakland Colosseum, I have found that you can't go wrong when bringing a gat.

Seriously though, awesome thread. I have a question for the ATT (Ginats) park: the guy said you can get in for free along the right side of the outfield. Can you elaborate? Your directions were a bit unclear. I am not 100% aquainted w/ that side, but I believe the wall is a minimum of 20 feet, (you basically need to climb over the standing room?

[pauliewalnuts]

Anybody have any words of wisdom for a first-timer at Wrigley? I'll be there next weekend for the Braves series. We'll be sitting in the OF bleachers. I've heard that that there are no specific seats there, so whoever gets there first gets to pick wherever they want. Is this actually true?

Our hotel is in Skokie. By the time we got our tickets, all hotels were booked that were close to Wrigley except a few that were ~$500/night, which a little steep. The hotel website said the place was only 10 miles from Wrigley so that didnt sound too bad, but I know nothing about Chicago. Is Skokie a decent place to stay? We are going to take a cab to the games.

Also, any restaurant/bar tips would be appreciated. Thanks.

[mbillie1]

SHEA STADIUM:

I didn't see this mentioned and I'm not sure it's exactly a secret, but you can park under the flyover on Northern Blvd as long as you're 45 minutes early or so. It's free and it's significantly closer than 2/3 of the $13 or so parking spots, unless you park in the main lot (which is uber-congested lately due to the construction of Citi Field). Also, when the game is over, it's infinitely easier to get away since you basically just pull through to the other side of Northern and get on your way, missing at least 20-30 minutes of traffic and backup.

Edit: and if you sit in the Mezzanine on the extreme left field section (sec 32 I believe), the security guard there will let you move down to the Mezzanine box seats fairly early if nobody's sitting there and you're cool. I can't remember the guy's name and I don't want to get him in trouble but the seats are relatively cheap, give you a great view and you are almost always in M box by the 3rd or 4th inning.

[inside??]

Chase Field (Dbax): They have a food stand on the third base side called, "Taste of the Majors." They sell unique dishes from every National League park like Toasted Ravioli from St. Louis and Clam Rolls from SF.

[citanul]

paulie,

skokie isn't *that* far out. it's still a pretty long cab ride away.

the bleachers actually have a section or two now that have assigned seats, "bleacher boxes," but most of the bleachers are general admission and i'm assuming you know that's what your tickets are. if you want to get your choice of bleacher seats, lining up 90 min to 2 hours early in general. if i had my choice of bleacher seats, i'd go for left field just over the wall. good view, more home runs seem to get hit there.

depending on if it's a day or a night game, get to the neighborhood a bit early and grab a beer. the cubby bear, kitty-corner to the stadium, is actually not as horrible as you'd think, and has decently priced beers, lots of tvs, whatever.

it used to be that the only good hotdog stand in my opinion was the one just inside the main entrance behind home plate, to the right, but since they changed who runs the food concessions, there's now several places. i've never sat in the bleachers, so i don't know their access to food/concessions. i know they added a new bathroom out there or something! anyway, never buy a hotdog from a guy walking around with hotdogs, they won't have toppings beyond mustard and ketchup.

after the game, what you have to know is that basically every bar in the neighborhood is exactly the same. "faux irish" to "real irish." they all sell a zillion [censored] beers, and most of them have 1 or two good beers around. personally i like to go to a bar a bit farther away from the stadium if i go out after the game. for instance if you walk about 6 blocks west, you hit the street southport, which has many irish bars (some with decent food), but they aren't complete zoos like the ones on clark will be. (i'm a big fan of Cullen's, on southport.)

if you're looking for real food, and close to the stadium, one of my favorite secrets of the area is Tuscany. a small chain, with 2 or 3 locations, Tuscany serves very decent italian, at totally reasonable prices, and is like 15 feet from wrigley. amazingly (or not) you can almost always just walk in and get a seat, even on days of games when the neighborhood is nuts. that's because everyone comes and goes to the bars, and ignores this place. it's basically across clark from the north end of the stadium. (north west corner.) while i haven't been to it, uncommon ground, just a little farther north on clark than tuscany, is supposed to be quite good, and has live music often.

if it's not insane somehow, the goose island brewery, just south of addison on clark, is good pub food, with a good selection of chicago brewed beers. on clark you will find mixed in with the bars a variety of chinese (chen's is quite decent), indian (there's some buffet, can't really give a review), sushi (shiroihana has exactly what you expect of a sushi place with all you can eat options), etheopian (if you're in the mood), italian, mexican, and nicoisian, (next to each other in a strip, these three are good, but wallet friendly), and i'm sure there's a thai place somewhere around, there always is.

other "secrets" to wrigley i've found... tickets can frequently be found for face price on the cubs site even when you don't think it's going to happen. there's scalpers up to 1.5 miles from the stadium along addison to the west, but you can usually get the best prices from some guy with 500 tickets standing right next to the stadium. if you're gong to a day game during early months of the season, and sitting in the lowers, sit on the first base side, toward the outfield. it stays sunny over thre much longer than on the other side. if you want to go to the memorobilia shop, i think going a little before the game is probably the time when you'll get the shortest lines.

that's all i can think of right now. hope that's helpful.

[jtown1010]

Turner Field: Atlanta, GA

You can always get really good ticket prices from scalpers after the first couple of innings. They will usually negotiate with you, and often go as low as $5 for a decent seat. You can also get standing room seats for $5 and sit at the restaurant in left-field. When games sell-out, they have $1 "skyline" seats on the very top row of the upper-deck, but there are plenty of better places you can sit for free and get a good view of the game.

When you are looking for a parking space, don't be scared to go into one of the "blue zones" or "green zones" without a pass. A lot of the time the guys will let you in for the $10 cover, sometimes they may need a little incentive, but it can save you a good 1 mile walk. There are cheaper places to park around the backside of Turner Field, if you are travelling North on I-85 the first exit for Turner Field gets backed up really bad on game days, there is another exit after the first one that goes to the back side of Turner that is less congested and has cheaper parking.

The best value for concessions in my opinion are the large hot dogs, and the bigger beers. A light drinker could probably be just fine from 1 32oz beer, for about $7.50. They have huge hot dogs for $5.50, they are pretty filling and a good way to get a little sobriety working for you after a few drinks. So you can enjoy a day at the ballpark for about 35 bucks, not that bad.

[Guy Incognito]

[ QUOTE ]
Turner Field: Atlanta, GA
When games sell-out, they have $1 "skyline" seats on the very top row of the upper-deck, but there are plenty of better places you can sit for free and get a good view of the game.

[/ QUOTE ]

Note that the skyline seats are walk-up tickets, and don't go on sale until a few hours before the game starts.

I haven't been to a game in a year or so, but my "secret" parking spot was the YMCA lot. I believe it's the closest $5 lot, and it's fairly easy to get in/out if you're coming in from the north/west. Also, it's convenient to the hordes of scalpers that hang out around Central and Abernathy (they're not allowed to work around the stadium, cops will nab them)



My favorite seats are the infield terraces, you can probably get these for $20 or less from the scalpers (depending on how long you want to wait). Another plus to these seats is the back seats are shaded, very useful during the summer day games.

[lippy]

Another thing to add that I think is universal; ushers don't check your ticket stub if you're holding food.

[danlux]

For all stadiums, wear cargo shorts and buy about 5 16 oz. plastic beer bottles (of whatever kind they sell there). Put 1 in each cargo pocket, 2 in your back pockets, and if you are wearing a hoodie you can put one in the hood.

After they scan your ticket, slowly turn around and act like you're talking to someone so they don't see the beers in your backpocket. Go off to the side, unload beers, and you have 5 beers for the price of one inside the game.