Best/Worst Stadium Experiences

[Chef2]

Best absolutely has to be Arrowhead.
Easy peasy parking.
The tailgating.
The smell of the food hits you from a mile away. It's incredible.
Most of the people are next door neighbor friendly, even if you're an opponent.
And this is OUTSIDE the stadium.
Inside........it's very easy to get around. Not a bad seat in the joint, and it's louder than any other event you've been to.

 

[CD Boogie]

Best absolutely has to be Arrowhead.
Easy peasy parking.
The tailgating.
The smell of the food hits you from a mile away. It's incredible.
Most of the people are next door neighbor friendly, even if you're an opponent.
And this is OUTSIDE the stadium.
Inside........it's very easy to get around. Not a bad seat in the joint, and it's louder than any other event you've been to.

The Meadowlands blows, both for getting to and from and the tailgating experience.

 

[Cosmo]

This will probably be slanted toward our team biases, but whatever.

Best: Capital One Arena for Caps/Wizards games. Metro lets you off right under the arena, and if you decide to drive, there are multiple cheap garages within a half-mile walk. Lots of restaurants and bars within a block or two of the arena, and the in-arena experience is great. ... Another vote: Siegel Center at VCU.

Worst: FedEx Field sucks. And quite honestly, the experience of going to a game in Blacksburg ain't great either. The parking is a mile away and getting out of town after a game is a slog.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

Arrowhead is the best fan experience I've ever had.
Noise soup is one thing but when the fans know exactly when to create it, it's a touch above.

Worst: Old Yankee Stadium. A urine-stanking dump.
I'll never forget walking into the john as a kid and somebody was actually pinching a loaf in one of the sinks- and no one seemed to care.

 

[CD Boogie]

Arrowhead is the best fan experience I've ever had.
Noise soup is one thing but when the fans know exactly when to create it, it's a touch above.

Worst: Old Yankee Stadium. A urine-stanking dump.
I'll never forget walking into the john as a kid and somebody was actually pinching a loaf in one of the sinks- and no one seemed to care.

That's no exaggeration. That place reeked of ****, like the ushers had coated the aisles with it before each game.

 

[DanOregon]

I almost enjoyed the experience of sitting in one of those seats at Fenway - I'd heard they were uncomfortable and they lived up to the rep.
Cubs game - bleachers - maybe I just got lucky both games I went to but the people I sat around were tremendous.

 

[Liut]

Chicago Stadium. Loved it. Miss it. Second place: St. Louis Arena.

Worst? Cannot really think of one.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

The best place to watch baseball I ever experienced was to leave the baseball press box at Tiger Stadium and go down to the old football press box for when the Lions played there. Only accessible to press and stadium personnel, but it was great on a summer afternoon.

 

[Batman]

Worst: Old Yankee Stadium. A urine-stanking dump.
I'll never forget walking into the john as a kid and somebody was actually pinching a loaf in one of the sinks- and no one seemed to care.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

When the list of all-time dumps is named, the actual Orange Bowl should not be forgotten.

 

[playthrough]

Agree with how cramped Fenway is for a game, but my brother and I took a tour the morning of our game and had a great time visiting the Monster seats and going on the field. I'm almost more into stadium tours now than seeing games -- it's the only way I can get into press boxes now, haha.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Agree with how cramped Fenway is for a game, but my brother and I took a tour the morning of our game and had a great time visiting the Monster seats and going on the field. I'm almost more into stadium tours now than seeing games -- it's the only way I can get into press boxes now, haha.

The Monster seats are a terrific novelty. Great place to watch a game -- once. Judging hits or outs by listening to the sound of the wall is not optimal.

 

[DanOregon]

**** smell aside - loved my trip to the old Yankee Stadium knowing that it was the same field where so many remarkable things happened. Now outside of Lambeau, Fenway and Wrigley, it's pretty much just college football stadiums that have that same allure. Shoot, just watching the Raiders in the Coliseum last week took me back realizing I saw Stabler play there, Reggie Jackson, Rickey Henderson, Vida Blue. The connections to previous generations of fans is something no sound system, video board or suite can compete with.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

I think the appeal of history and nostalgia varies from venue to venue. Nobody in Philly was sad when the Vet came down. It had tradition galore, but the old Boston Garden was a pesthole. Took a Cub Scout pack on a guided tour in one of its last years. They had us wait in the lobby due to some photo shoot. A rat the size of Secretariat wandered by as we stood there.

 

[Roscablo]

**** smell aside - loved my trip to the old Yankee Stadium knowing that it was the same field where so many remarkable things happened. Now outside of Lambeau, Fenway and Wrigley, it's pretty much just college football stadiums that have that same allure. Shoot, just watching the Raiders in the Coliseum last week took me back realizing I saw Stabler play there, Reggie Jackson, Rickey Henderson, Vida Blue. The connections to previous generations of fans is something no sound system, video board or suite can compete with.

Two of my favorite stadium experiences ever were Fenway last year and Lambeau this year. Part of it was the knowledge that those are about the only places left with that lasting history.

 

[swingline]

One of the worst was Busch II when it still had turf. Ungodly hot and humid — but the beers were $4 then, so it was a push. Busch III premium seats around home plate are fantastic.

Any Fenway seat down the lines sucks because you have to shift in your seat to see the action, and the seats are so small they seem designed for little people.

I've seen some of the most stunningly sexy women while watching a Cards-Cubs game in Wrigley's bleachers. My girlfriend at the time was pretty damn hot, too, so we were in good company. Well, she was.

I damn near got vertigo climbing down from my upper level seat in whatever it's called where the White Sox play.

At a Rockies-Cards game in Denver, I got a girl to take topless pictures of herself with my disposable camera.

Anaheim stadium was pretty. Sort of.

Kauffman Stadium's fountains are great.

Saw a Giants-A’s game in whatever the Giants stadium is called now. Beautiful views of the water and just a beautiful park all around. It was cold in July.

Seattle was cold in July, and being in the nosebleed seats — hi, Moddy! — didn't help.

The Frontier League Evansville Otters stadium was nice. Tickets and beer were plentiful and cheap, so it wasn't a bad way to spend a sultry summer night.

 

[Captain_Kirk]

Chicago Stadium for a Black Hawks game. The national anthem was chilling.

Arrowhead for the reasons mentioned in the first post: tons of real estate for parking and tailgating. The party truly starts right there.

Always loved Old Comiskey Park. For me, had that old time feel the others of that era didn't. In a Field of Dreams kind of way, it almost felt like Ruth and Gehrig were going to pop out of the dugout and step to the plate.

 

[playthrough]

I went to a doubleheader in old Comiskey's last year -- two things you'll never see anymore. Then went to a game at the new Sox park the next year and sat in the last row of the upper deck behind the plate -- indeed, that was almost terrifying getting down. Didn't they adjust that later?

 

[RonClements]

Best: Lambeau Field and PNC Park. The best venues in their respective sports.
Worst: Citi Field. That place has zero redeeming qualities.

Related: There is a stadium rankings chapter in my Home Run On Wheels book and proceeds benefit foster care organizations.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Old Mac Court in Eugene fits both categories. An absolute firetrap and dump, no parking, the people behind you had their knees in your back and there were several thousand bad seats, especially in the balconies. But when it was packed and jumping there was no better place in the world to watch a college basketball game.

Their new arena has all the bells and whistles possible but has the atmosphere of a Costco.