New "Great American Ball Park" In Cincinnati Prepared To Dazzle! (1 Viewer)

What's your favorite baseball stadium/park?

From what I can read via the Internet, it sure looks like the Cincinnati Reds' brand-new home, Great American Ball Park (GABP), just might become a fan favorite by year's end.

The $290.3 Million GABP will open for business in just a few days. It's the Reds' first new park in 33 years.

I hope to get to see this great-looking new facility sometime this year.

Here's the Reds' new Ticket-pricing structure for the new stadium. (How does this rank with other facilities around the U.S.?) .............

TICKET PRICES:
-----------------
Non-Premium Seating:
Terrace Dugout $50
Terrace Infield Box $30
Terrace Box $25
Terrace Line $20
View Level Infield Box $16
Mezzanine Infield $16
Terrace Outfield $15
Mezzanine $14
View Level Box $14
View Level Infield $11
Bleachers $10
View Level $9
Outer View Level $5

Premium Seating:
Diamond Seats $225
Scout Seats $65
Lower Club $55
Upper Club $55
Club $50

With a "Premium" ticket, you get private restroom access and in-seat food & beverage service.

I can remember when a first-row seat at Riverfront Stadium cost just 4 bucks! (In 1972. )

I wonder how much a foot-long will be in 2003?
GABP will be offering deep-fried Twinkies!
Interesting, eh?

101 Interesting Tidbits About the new GABP!

Only been to 1 MLB game. Game 5 of the 1992 world series (damn Lonnie Smith grand slam). I was impressed by the SkyDome but that was 11 years ago.

Seating capacity: 42,059
Parking spaces: 850

Wow, with such limited amount of parking spots, is parking going to be like $25 or something?

In Boston...

$65-70 - box seats and infield roof box (99% season tix)
$50 - green monster
$44 - infield grandstand (beyond ~25-50 rows back, smaller, less comfortable seats -- but under cover)
$37 - right field regular and roof box seats
$27 - outfield grandstand (beyond ~25 rows)
$20 - bleachers
$17-$20 - standing room (same day, sold out games only)
$10 bleachers (same day, sold out games only)

And the premium pricing (a lot of these are only actually availible for season tickets) :

'Field seats'

Home plate - $275
Dugout - $250
Extended dugout - $225

And stuff with free food :

Suites - $220/seat (* 30 seats)
Upper suites $200/seat (* 20 seats)

The .406 club (the area closed in with glass behind home plate)

$110/seat (* 3 years * 4 seats required!)

And parking is $20-$30

So how do we afford to go to games? Well, buy nice seats to some games, and go down and get standing room only to a bunch of others. You can stand anywhere in the park (e.g., behind home plate is nice) and by the 5th or so, you can find seats if you want to. And you can park on the street for free and take the T, or walk.

It's a great place to watch a game... but the actual facilities are pretty poor, it's very cramped, and it's pretty nasty when it rains. I still love it though...

Only been to one, Shea Stadium in May 2002, and I had the time of my life. I was there on a choir tour, and we got to sing the National Anthem! Mets vs. Giants...meaning I was THAT close to Barry Bonds! What's even better is that the organizers said "People haven't applauded anyone so early during the National Anthem. Any time you're coming back to New York, you're welcome to sing the National Anthem again." And I'm not done yet... Castle Rock Entertainment was there to film scenes for Two Weeks Notice, the romantic comedy that came out last December. I haven't seen it yet, I'm waiting for the DVD. If you saw it and remember a scene in Shea Stadium where the crowd is booing, that was me and the rest of the crowd. How's that for my first experience at ANY professional level sports game!

Only been to three. Mostly, of course, Fenway Park, which has tiny seats sometimes oriented strangely (or obstructed), but you're always close to the action and - the great thing - there's never any doubt that it's all about baseball. Also, the new owners have made some real strides in getting the concourse areas more accessible. That extends to the entire area around the park, with cool street vendors, souvenier shops, and a sports radio station broadcasting out of a storefront.

Pac Bell is pretty spiffy, too, although it sometimes felt a little too much like an amusement park for someone brought up on Fenway. And a vital part of the ballpark experience was missing when I bought peanuts from a vendor and he walked up and handed them to me.

The Oakland Colisseum is somewhat underrated, I think. I only saw one game there, but, despite that ugly thing in center and the in-the-middle-of-nowhere location (one of the cool things about Fenway and PacBell is that they really are part of the city), once you get inside it's like, and I mean this in the nicest possible way, a great minor league park. Not flashy, but a good place to watch a game, with a surprisingly broad selection of snacks and short lines all around.

And, since this is a baseball post, the obligatory random diamond note: "Oh, the Phillies have questions, especially defensively: can Nick Punto play in the field every day in the big leagues, is Jorge Padilla capable of handling his demanding new position of designated hitter, and can Placido Polanco hit enough to keep his glove in the lineup?"

I was thinking of driving down to the Great American Ballpark open house today, but I'm going to Opening Day, so why bother, right?

Surprisingly, I've been to three now defunct parks (Riverfront Stadium/Cinergy Field, Memorial Stadium-Cleveland, Memorial Stadium-Baltimore). As for current ones, I've been to Sky Dome, Bank One Ballpark, Ballpark at Arlington, Dodger Stadium, Turner Field, Veterans Stadium, PNC Park, and Jacobs Field.

A lot of these newer parks have a certain amount of sameness, so I'm curious to see how GABP compares and differs. Dodger Stadium may not be as "nice" as some of the newer parks, but I thought the environment was pretty cool.

I just returned from the Great American Ballpark open house, since it's only three blocks from my apartment. The open house is the usual Hamilton County clusterfuck; they won't let you use the staircases to get to the upper seating levels, but you're welcome to cram 30+ people into the elevators to get up there. :rolleyes

That said, it is a beautiful facility, and feels much more intimate than Riverfront ever did. There really isn't a bad seat in the house, although the $5 seats don't have a view of their respective corners. You can still tell whether a line drive is foul or fair, but there's no way to know whether someone hits a home run over the corner wall until the cheering starts. The $5 seats at least have a spectacular river view.

I'm planning to go back later today when the crowds die down a bit, probably in the early evening. I'll remember to take my digital camera the second time, so I'll have some pictures to post by tonight.

IS this park supposed to favor more pitchers or batters?

Patrick, it's named after the Great American Insurance Company.

I went back down around 7:00, but they stopped allowing people inside at 6:30, even though the open house ran until 8:00. Oh, well. It resumes at noon tomorrow, so I'll try again and have photos up in the afternoon.

As for whom it favors, the left field wall is only 8 feet high and 328 feet deep. The outfield distances aren't very different from Riverfront at all. Center is still 404.

One of the things I appreciate is that it doesn't sound like a corporate named stadium although it is. Can't wait to see it next week.

Those ticket prices look great, I wouldn't have expected MLB tickets at any level for $5.

I'm amazed at how much the cost of attending a MLB game has gone up. I stopped going to games just before the last strike/lockout. We could get bleacher seats at Tiger Stadium for $5, and parking was another $5. Now, parking alone at the new Comerica Park is $20!

I have been to Tiger Stadium, Fenway Park and Exhibition Stadium (the former home of the Toronto Blue Jays). I preferred the charm and intimacy of the old ball parks like Tiger Stadium and Fenway, where you were right on top of the action.

It's been 10 years since I've been to a MLB game (or watched one on TV). I don't miss it one bit. I have been to a few minor league games in Myrtle Beach. It's inexpensive entertainment (the most expensive seat is $7.50, and parking is free).