Saturday, May 21, 2011

Stadium Report Cards: Shea Stadium

The last of Nick's 3 reviews. This is the Mets' old dump.

Team: Shea Stadium
Location: Queens, New York, NY
League: Major League Baseball(NL East)
Built: 1964
Capacity: 57,333
My event: Regular Season game, New York Yankees

1. Outdoor Design

An old and crappy look for an old and crappy stadium. It had a nice touch of blue going around it but it always looked like the paint was wearing and chipping. You could see in the supports as well how old Shea really was. It is not good looking on the outside.
4/10

2. Indoor Design

The stadium had a nice color scheme with the seats but it is one of the very few qualities I found to be enjoyable. Otherwise the inside is as crappy as the outside. The team store was in a tent and the seats had bars going around the top of them making me feel trapped and uncomfortable in my own seat. Not a feeling I want to have at a ball game. If you sat in the upper rows you could feel the stadium rock anytime a plane flew over and I thought to myself that the stadium could give way and collapse at any time.
4/10

3. Prices
Prices were fair for an MLB game. Good seats at an affordable price .
6/10

4. Food
Overly priced average ballpark food that some Met fans deemed un-edible. One guy sitting next to me had a burger and after taking one bite he said it tasted like “regurgitated ass”. Even the beer was not worth the price. My dad and I had only two each and we both left Shea that night sick to our stomach’s and we did not chug them or anything. Just two.
2/10

5. Staff
Staff was friendly and somewhat welcoming. Did smile once in a while but not often. They were at least very helpful.
5/10

6. Cleanliness
Shea was never clean. It was an old stadium but it seemed to me like no one even tried to take care of it. The bathrooms smelled so bad I couldn’t even go in there to take a leak. A fellow Met fan said “If you get past the smell the floors are another challenge. There is so much piss and vomit on the floors that you need a rowboat to get through it all. Trash and spills everywhere you went; It was disgusting.
1/10

7. Parking
Not bad but most fans took the train in because it was easier and cheap too. Caused long lines at the gates.
7/10

8. Atmosphere
It was a Subway Series game so fans were into it. The Yankee fans did get quiet after the Mets went up big early and didn’t make much noise at all in a 11-2 Mets win. The Mets fans were electrified and excited the whole night. The win led to the teams first ever sweep of their pin striped rivals and would be the highlight of their underachieving season so Mets fans enjoyed it.
8/10

9. Playing Surface
Shea used Kentucky blue grass and had a nice design of the cap logo in the outfield.
7/10

10. Scoreboard

Good quality on a nice scoreboard that stood out. Had the Manhattan skyline on it with a ribbon on the twin towers, that now sits on the Shake Shack at Citi Field, and I felt it represents the team well for Mets is short for Metropolitans so it represents the city like the team.
8/10

A harsh 50/100. That is 4 worse than the Metrodome. I never thought it was any good, but this was kind of surprising. I predicted 63, but that's still 13 more than what it was. I'll try and get another part of the stadium tour done tonight. My sister better do this for me, if not I can have someone I know to fill in.

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