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Message: [QUOTE="sutomcat, post: 3892114, member: 27"] Nice report. I went last night as well. It was my first time in the ballpark since the renovation. I was impressed as well. Seems like everything has been painted orange or blue (good color scheme for this area). Lots of options for watching the game besides sitting in a traditional seat. Sitting at a table in the many areas where this is an option, sitting on the artificial turf berms near the foul poles, standing in the bar area, etc. I sat in a normal seat. They are wide and surprisingly comfortable. So much more so than the aluminum benches at the dome. A bunch of random comments…. I had read that you could walk all the way around the stadium once inside post renovation. I didn’t see that as an option. Even if you could, it would be at ground level, where you can’t see anything. I was bummed by this a bit. There are two concourses in the stadium. The lower one provides access to the box seats. The upper one provides access to the upper deck. There are some seats between them. They extended the upper concourse past the left field foul line, behind the outfield fence, and this is where the outdoor bar is. It seemed very popular. Lots of fans there. Lots of fans everywhere…didn’t hear a number for attendance but I would guess it was around 4000. They extended the lower concourse beyond the right field foul line behind the fence to provide access behind the right field fence. I guess that area is devoted to tables. Good place to watch a game and eat. The enclosed restaurant is close by in foul territory. I believe they added big mostly glass garage style doors to the restaurant that can be opened on nice days. One or two were partly open last night. Looked like a foul ball had broken one of the big windows. Whoops The cost for tickets starts at $14. That seems pretty high for this area. Especially for families. I wish they added some outfield bleacher seats and sold them at a lower price. I think that would be really popular and well received. It looks like they still could install them under the bar beyond the left field fence. Hoping someday they extend the lower concourse behind the right field fence so bleachers can be added there. That would require building over the SMets bullpen. Cool that the bullpens are located behind the outfield fence in left and right center. They have clear walls there so you can see when relief pitchers start warming up. The scoreboard behind the left field is nice. No replays but it can show pictures and provides a lot of info. My favorite: the speed of each pitch and the velocity of batted balls. They are using a 20 second clock on the pitchers this season. It encouraged faster play, which I liked. Some pitchers routined ignored the clock and exceed the time allotted to get a pitch off and were not penalized. It was Dollar Thursday. Hotdogs, coneys and sodas were a dollar each. Draft beers were 2 dollars. The cups for the sodas and beers were small. 8 ounces I think. The lines were long and the concession staffing was not impressive with the speed they serviced their customers. I got in the shortest line mid game of game 1. There were probably 40-50 people in front of me. Maybe 20 people actually placed orders and paid. It took 20 minutes to get through those 20 orders and get to me. Not good. But I guess when you go to a game on dollar day and try to buy stuff for a dollar, this is going to happen. Every employee I encountered was very friendly. Jason has done a great job changing the culture of the organization. The Simones seemed intent on hiring the gruffest, unlikeable people they could to staff the ballpark. I was not impressed by the selection of food or the pricing. Hotdogs and coneys are normally priced at $4. Sausages are $7.50. Small beers are normally $8 and large ones $10. The hotdogs and coneys appeared to be Hofmans but they weren’t hot, even though they were taken off the grill and put in a bun, put in a wrapper and handed to me in a matter of seconds. The buns were actually pretty nice. Fresh and real rolls. Not that I could eat them…. I saw nachos were also available. Saw you could get a hotdog with chili, and I think you can get one with Mac and cheese. It looks like there is pizza available but it is really low quality. I know you can get a little helmet of ice cream too. Peanuts, Cracker Jack and (I think) cotton candy were $4. I saw popcorn but it was not listed on the menu. Nothing was less than $4, even bottled water and sodas (normal price). I don’t have a problem with fairly high prices but I wish if they are going to price food like that, there would be more variety and better quality. How about some local stuff people like and expect like salt potatoes. Chicken riggies. Twin trees pizza. Gianelli sausages served State Fair style. With a big grill where you can smell the food. BBQ chicken. Chicken wings. Philly cheesesteak sandwiches. It is great what they are doing with craft beer and for all the beer enthusiasts out there, this is a great place to check out. Just hoping a little thought and effort could be made for the rest of the fans out there. This was my first time being part of a relatively big crowd, with no one wearing masks and it felt weird. I was kind of uncomfortable. But it also felt very good to be able to sit without a mask on, eat a hot dog and feel normal again. That was the best part of the experience. [/QUOTE]

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