Stadium Report Cards: Wrigley Field

Final entry from my summer road trip.

Team: Chicago Cubs
Location: Chicago, IL
League: NL Central
Built: 1914
Capacity: 42,157
My event: Regular season game, vs Atlanta Braves

1. Outdoor Design

One of the most classic ballparks in baseball, the outer design is awesome. It is very unique, easily identifiable as the great Wrigley Field. The classic red sign out front is priceless. Of course, it also looks old.
8/10

2. Indoor Design

Once again, it is a classic look. It isn’t quite as nice inside though. The concourses are small and old, the transportation system (ramps and such) is bad. The seating is awful. Our seats were right below the upper deck, and you can’t see much of the field. Despite the tradition, it was an uncomfortable experience inside the stadium.
6/10

3. Prices
The prices were very respectable.
8/10

4. Food
The Wrigley Field food was awesome. All of the ballpark classics, plus some great Chicago classics.
9/10

5. Staff
The people at Wrigley are part of the reason it is so great. We went on a tour hours before the game, everyone was so nice and helpful. When we went on the field, the staff was very calm and easy-going, as were the Cubs players themselves.
10/10

6. Cleanliness
Well, you can’t be too clean when you’re almost 100 years old.
4/10

7. Parking
The parking around the stadium is kind of a mess. My tour bus just parked on the street nearby, there aren’t many lots nearby.
3/10

8. Atmosphere
The atmosphere was basically a 15/10. It was incredible. It was the type of thing you could feel, and everyone was having a great time. I thought it couldn’t get any better, until the Cubs won. I wasn’t a Cubs fan going into the game, but I was when I came out.
10/10

9. Playing Surface

The one field I have actually been on. It is ok, but still has an old feeling to it.
6/10

10. Scoreboard

It couldn’t see the scoreboard very well from my seats due to the overhang. There are small scoreboards under the decks for the people in the seats, but they are bad quality. The classic scoreboard was pretty cool, they still change the numbers out by hand.
6/10


Wrigley gets a 70, thanks to a great atmosphere and a great staff. And that concludes my summer road trip!

Stadium Report Cards: US Cellular Field

Bmac continues with his roadtrip a summer ago.

Team: Chicago White Sox
Location: Chicago, IL
League: AL Central
Built: 1991
Capacity: 47,098
My event: Regular season game, vs Cleveland Indians

1. Outdoor Design

It has a unique look from the outside, but nothing too great. It follows a modern/retro mix that offers a unique look.
7/10

2. Indoor Design

There are a few unique aspects such as the scoreboard, but overall, it is very basic. The outfield area is very nice. There are interesting statues and pieces of history scattered about that provide a nice feeling of tradition.
8/10

3. Prices
Just about average for an MLB park.
7/10

4. Food
Most of the food could be found at any old park. They did have some unique food though. Nothing too great.
7/10

5. Staff
Perhaps it was because I was wearing a Twins hat, but everyone seemed…the opposite of friendly. No one helped out or spoke much, it seemed a little unwelcoming.
4/10

6. Cleanliness
About what you would expect.
6/10

7. Parking
There is tons of parking around the stadium, lots right outside. They were fairly priced.
9/10

8. Atmosphere
The only time I even noticed there was a crowd was when the White Sox homered. The rest of the time, is was almost silent, the only noise coming from the PA system. Music was played during every pause in the action. It was not exciting at all.
4/10

9. Playing Surface.
It seemed fine, but appeared to be a little worn out. It did have a cool pattern though.
7/10

10. Scoreboard

The famous scoreboard was cool, but the graphics quality wasn’t too great.
7/10

So that's a 66. Things like the Staff and Atmosphere did bring it down a lot to the level of the Trop, and Rogers Centre.

TCF for MNF

Well! as a result of the last stadium related post, the Vikes are playing at the U of Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium. It's really the high point of the whole season so far, it's fair to say everyone is excited about this game. About a week ago, the stadium looked like this.

They swept it up, and got it to playing condition. I got a text from TC today saying it was snowing. Now, it looks like this.

As you can see from the picture above, people are excited. Apparently Old Man Favre is starting, so that should make fans even more excited. Unless you wanted him out. Which I could understand...

New!

Stadium report cards are now on a scale of 100! It was getting too crowded with 20 stadiums within 10 points. I'm in the process of changing them, so gimme a minute.

Metrodoomed

Well, the 29 might've gotten worse. A snow storm last weekend has broken the Metrodome. 17 inches of snow fell on the bubble, and that was enough to make it break. As you can see from this video, things went down.


The roof broke just in time for 2 home games. The Giants were in town to play that Sunday, which was rescheduled to the next day. Now, the Vikings will play the Bears at TCF Bank stadium. 15,000 man hours were put in to ready the on campus stadium.

This is a call to Viking ownership. The team has been linked to moving to Los Angeles, and as the last post I made says, the Dome is old, and crappy. A new stadium is needed. Maybe they can play at TCF while they build it, and then have a new state of the art stadium.



Here is a proposal they once had, and should be built. It would be weird not having a team in Minnesota, I hope they stay.

Stadium Report Cards: Metrodome

Here's a segway to my next post... Our resident Minnesotan TC comes up again.

Team: Minnesota Vikings
Location: Minneapolis, MN
League: NFC North
Built: 1982
Capacity: 64,111
My event: Regular season game, vs Dallas Cowboys

1. Outdoor Design

It looks like crap. It's just dirty, old cement. While the roof was still up, you could see that it was on it's last legs. Certain panels were beginning to bulge out and it was starting to look deformed. Just a really boring and uninspiring place.
4/10

2. Indoor Design

Equally crappy. The only thing I like about it it the fact that everything is symmetrical. Otherwise it's just blue seats and more dirty cement.
4/10

3. Prices
Prices are just average, maybe a bit better than most NFL stadiums.
6/10

4. Food
Again, more averageness. Burgers, hot dogs, brats, etc. Tastes fine.
5/10

5. Staff
. Everyone is helpful, and more than happy to escort the occasional drunk fan. Can't complain with any of them.
8/10

6. Cleanliness
Not really all that clean. Dirty cement that they try to look nice by buffing it out and polishing it. But there are always muslims sweeping up the concourses, constantly, never seen anything like it.
6/10

7. Parking
There are plenty of lots around the stadium, but kind of spendy. Getting in is easy, getting out is a nightmare. We literally waited 45 minutes to get out of the lot.
3/10

8. Atmosphere
It's incredible, really I can't describe it. They crank up the music to unnecessarily high levels and the crowd's just into it the whole game. It makes up for how crappy the building is. Dome field advantage right there.
10/10

9. Playing Surface.

They just got new turf this year, so it looks better than past years where you could see more wear around where the infield used to be when the Twins played. Just a pretty average looking field.
7/10

10. Scoreboard

don't know if it actually qualifies as a scoreboard. There's like this videoboard that's barely bigger than the TV in my living room, and the scoreboard is the same size, but in plain yellow light bulbs. Really professional, eh? There were ribbon boards installed along the edge of the upper deck a few years back, and they look nice. But still...
1/10

TC Counted... 54. Ouch. Well, luckily he went to a game before the accident. I'm sure it would be worse now.

Stadium Report Cards: TCF Bank Stadium

Our friend TC comes through for us!

Team: Minnesota Golden Gophers Football
Location: Minneapolis, MN
League: Big Ten
Built: 2009
Capacity: 50,805
My event: Regular season game, vs Southern California

1. Outdoor Design

It's beautiful. The brick exterior matches both the basketball and hockey arenas which are right next to TCF Bank Stadium. The only thing I wish they did was use gold lettering like they do on other venues.
9/10

2. Indoor Design

The inside layout is nice as well. I like how the seats are maroon and gold and spell out "MINNESOTA" on both sides. The stadium is in the shape of a horseshoe, and at the "top" of the horseshoe there's a charming little plaza with some shrubs and things, it's also where the main scoreboard resides.
8/10

3. Prices
The prices are a little on the expensive side, if you ask me. We sat in the upper level and the tickets were $60, which is at the most pretty fair. But $5 footlongs cost $10 there, so you tell me if that's right
6/10

4. Food
The food is just regular stuff. I had a brat and kraut, which was tasty.
8/10

5. Staff
The staff was really, really nice. Everyone was really helpful and friendly. There's this museum area that you need to show your ticket to enter and exit, and my friend didn't have his but they let him in anyway.
9/10

6. Cleanliness
It rained the previous night, so the ground around the seats had some puddles. Other than that everything was clean as a whistle, like every stadium should be.
8/10

7. Parking
There are lots surrounding the stadium, but they seemed like a pain to get into. The traffic is horrible so getting out was also a struggle.
4/10

8. Atmosphere
Sports Illustrated put free magazines in everyone's seats, so after every touchdown people would toss them in the air and it was raining SI's. That was pretty cool. But other than that no one was really into it during the 4th quarter when the Gophers were done for.
6/10

9. Playing Surface.

The field is turf, and it looks pretty good compared to the condition of other turf fields. They outline the numbers in maroon, which I like, the rest of the field was pretty standard.
8/10

10. Scoreboard

This thing is awesome! It's one of the largest in college football, I think in the top 5. There's also a smaller one on the other side of the field, which has closed captioning.
10/10

That is a 76/100 which is pretty good. The aesthetics like parking brought it down.

Take me out to the Bowlgame

Here is a little look at some MLB stadiums that hosted a college football game. In the same weekend, Northwestern and Illinois played at Wrigley, with Notre Dame and Army hooking up in the Bronx. As far as I can remember, those games are the only regular season games played in a converted stadium. 5 current MLB stadiums hosted a bowl game in the 2000s. Here are 4 of them, because Sun Life Stadium hosing a football game isn't that special, because they have one nearly every weekend.

Northwestern-Illinois @ Wrigley Field


Notre Dame-Army @ New Yankee Stadium


Beef O'Brady's Bowl @ Tropicana Field


Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl @ AT&T Stadium


Former International Bowl @ Rogers Centre


And finally, for one year in 2000, the Insight Bowl was played at Chase field.


I might do a post on the new Qatar Stadiums for you all! Comment, please.