Welcome to CitiField

Last night I attended my first game at the new home of the Amazing New York Mets, CitiField. I have to say, the place is magnificent. In every way, the stadium will take its place among the great new stadiums in the league. Honestly, I was much more impressed with it than I was with the new Yankee Stadium.

One feature present in both stadiums is the fact that you can see the game while purchasing food and drinks. The teams went to great lengths to understand that the average fan gets up just over two times per game to get food and drink. In that time, the same fan misses more than 2 innings of the game. The goal of all the newer stadiums being built, is to allow the fans to continue to enjoy the game while spending money on food, drinks and souveniers. So, all the new stadiums are built so that while at the concessions, you miss as little of the game as possible. And indeed, they have shown that people now get up just over three times per game for concessions and miss less than 2 innings of the game (closer to 1.5 innings). Translation, happier fans spending more money on beer and hot dogs.

So why did I like CitiField better than Yankee Stadium, well, the answer is more than just because my NY Mets play there. In my opinion, and I spoke with a few of the people who I know who have been at both and they agree, CitiField has more of a fan friendly atmosphere, especially for the children. At Yankee Stadium, unless you get there several hours before the game and tour monument park, there is nothing else but the game. And that used to be great. But now, the modern parks are packed with the fan experience. CitiField has on the field level, behind center field, a place for children to play t-ball, and run the bases and see themselves on a large jumbo tron as the play. They have batting cages for the kids, a dunking tank, and even a video game area where you can play one of the baseball videogames (I think it was MLB, but not sure.) This is they type of fan experience they have brought to Camden Yards, and Citizen Bank Ballpark in Philadelphia. But it is conspicuous by its absence at Yankee Stadium.

Both had amazing food options, but I think CitiField had even more choices. Citifield, in addition to the usual hamburgers, hot dogs, sausage and peppers and and beer, had a fish place (lobster rolls, crab cakes, fried fish sandwiches) a barbecue stand, Mexican food, a shake shack, and several other great food options, although, I did have a hard time finding Carvel on the upper levels.

The seats at Citifield were really nice. The entire stadium is built so that it angles towards the pitcher's mound. All of the seats make you feel more on top of the game than Shea Stadium was.

Overall, I was really impressed with CitiField, and the Mets 7-5 victory over the Phillies! Mike Pelfry settled in nicely and overcame a first inning run by the Phillies and pitched decent, giving up 2 runs, and no strike outs. The Mets got home runs by Beltran, Wright and Reyes, and survived a poor blown call by the umpires, when they took away a double play in the eighth and instead awarded Victorino second on shortstop interference during a run down play. That lead to a Jayson Werth home run off of Feliciano, but K-Rod closed the door in the 9th to preserve the Mets' fourth straight victory.