Loading ...Nationals Park
Written by Akshay on February 22, 2008 – 10:43 amBecause the Braves will have the privilege of being the first away team to play a regular season game at the Washington Nationals’ new stadium, we’ve decided to give a preview of the stadium for the upcoming season.
Nationals Park obviously gets its name from the team, but about 100 years ago, the former Washington Senators were also called The Nationals and their stadium, the former Griffith Stadium, was also called Nationals Park. Accessibility to the park is also a lot better than Turner Field, as Washington is a lot more commuter-friendly than Atlanta. One of the metro stations drops people off about a block away from the stadium, meaning parking and congestion around the stadium will be a lot more manageable than other stadiums.
The park itself will seat 41,000 fans, about average among baseball stadiums. They have also built 66 suites and will have several other amenities in the stadium. Among them are a grove in the center field pavilion containing cherry blossoms and a statue grove containing statues of past Washington baseball greats: Walter Johnson (Senators), Frank Howard (expansion Senators) and Josh Gibson (Negro League’s Homestead Grays).
Another interesting note about Nationals Park is that it will receive LEED accreditation once done. LEED accreditation will make it the first and only park in the Majors to receive it so far. LEED is a rating system for “green” building and environmentally sustainable construction.
Now, onto the dimensions of the park. The construction of the field is very similar to RFK stadium, but because no game have been played there, it will be tough to tell whether the stadium favors pitchers or hitters. The reason they are probably avoiding saying anything yet is because of the Citizen’s Bank Park fiasco. When the Phillies built their park it was thought that the wind would blow in from left field meaning a shorter porch would make sense since it would be harder to hit to that area. Of course, once it was built they found out the construction of the stadium and a building outside of the park in the left field area altered the flow of the wind and started pushing balls out of the park making it very Ryan Howard-friendly.
The left and right field walls are 330 feet from home plate. The center field fence is about 410 feet from the plate and the power alleys are 380, a little bit easier to hit out of than Turner Field, but still long enough that a hitter would need some serious power to get there consistently.
If you’re a George Washington U baseball fan, you’ll get a chance to see the ballpark first since they’ll play the first game at the new stadium. The Nationals will play an exhibition game against the neighboring Orioles followed by the March 30th game against the Braves.
Tags: Nationals Park, Opening Day, Washington Nationals
Posted in General | 7 Comments »
By Jonathan on Feb 22, 2008 | Reply
I’d like to get up to this stadium some time this season. Just to check it out and see what it’s like firsthand. Looks pretty promising from everything I’ve seen about it so far.
By Smitty on Feb 22, 2008 | Reply
Excellent piece.
And for trivia, where did the first two incarnations of this team wind up? In other words, what two teams did the original Senators become?
Smitty
By Colin on Feb 22, 2008 | Reply
I agree Jonathan – looks like a very interesting new ballpark. Nothing quite like Tampa Bay’s is shaping up to be, but it’s not bad at all. Maybe we can hit this when we’re up in the area for the Richmond trip.
By Patrick on Feb 22, 2008 | Reply
The fans of DC definitely deserve a new ballpark. Not just because of the condition of RFK stadium, but bacause of how they support the team. I have been to 21 different MLB ballparks and I had the opportunity to visit RFK and watch the Nationals play. One of the unique things about going to different ballparks is that some are built to look good on tv, but in person look a little different or aren’t what you expected. RFK Stadium was one of those parks. The names you see on the outfield wall are athletes from the DC area, not just baseball. In fact, baseball players only make up a few of the names. Half of the entire lower level stands rotates to convert the seating for soccer games (or football when the Redskins played there). This means that half of the entire lower level is make up of cheap metal flooring with old seats. The upper level seats are not physically attached to the upper level concourse, so you had to walk across a large catwalk to get to your seats. The stadium’s equipment was old and loud. The gift shop was located outside the stadium in a mobile home converted into a gift shop. Since professional baseball or football had not played in RFK for several years, the area was extremely run down. You had to drive through abandon construction projects to get to the parking lot and then walk a long way to get to the stadium. There were several other things, but I think you get the point. With all this, you would expect that nobody would be there. NO WAY!!! The place was packed! This was also after they had been there a couple years. The fans were into it and the place was rocking. Also, I believe the Nationals were in 3rd or 4th place at the time. The franchise has done a good job of getting the public interested. Even walking around DC, you could see people with Nationals caps on. They have also done a good job with reaching the youth and getting them excited. I’ve seen the Devil Rays play at Tropicana Field and although it was an increadibly wierd stadium, the facilities were in better condition than at RFK and the Nationals have been able to draw bigger crowds every year. Some might say that Tampa can’t draw crowds because they lose, but that hasn’t ever stopped Chicago from drawing a packed house for decades. My point is that the franchise and its fans have shown that they can support the team no matter what conditions they play in and the new stadium is something that has not just been given to them, but something they earned.
On a side note: I’m still not sure what the outcome of the new Tampa stadium will be. If you remember, Montreal’s stadium was supposed to have a retractable fabric roof but it never actually worked and they still could not draw a crowd. Sure, Tropicana Field is really odd and the team made due with what they had, but it takes more than a new stadium to draw crowds over the years. The Marlins say that Dolphin Stadium is not in a good location to draw crowds, but Miami Dolphin fans don’t seem to have a problem and Super Bowl will even be there in 2010.
By Jonathan on Feb 2, 2009 | Reply
I'd like to get up to this stadium some time this season. Just to check it out and see what it's like firsthand. Looks pretty promising from everything I've seen about it so far.
By Colin on Feb 2, 2009 | Reply
I agree Jonathan – looks like a very interesting new ballpark. Nothing quite like Tampa Bay's is shaping up to be, but it's not bad at all. Maybe we can hit this when we're up in the area for the Richmond trip.
By Patrick on Feb 2, 2009 | Reply
The fans of DC definitely deserve a new ballpark. Not just because of the condition of RFK stadium, but bacause of how they support the team. I have been to 21 different MLB ballparks and I had the opportunity to visit RFK and watch the Nationals play. One of the unique things about going to different ballparks is that some are built to look good on tv, but in person look a little different or aren't what you expected. RFK Stadium was one of those parks. The names you see on the outfield wall are athletes from the DC area, not just baseball. In fact, baseball players only make up a few of the names. Half of the entire lower level stands rotates to convert the seating for soccer games (or football when the Redskins played there). This means that half of the entire lower level is make up of cheap metal flooring with old seats. The upper level seats are not physically attached to the upper level concourse, so you had to walk across a large catwalk to get to your seats. The stadium's equipment was old and loud. The gift shop was located outside the stadium in a mobile home converted into a gift shop. Since professional baseball or football had not played in RFK for several years, the area was extremely run down. You had to drive through abandon construction projects to get to the parking lot and then walk a long way to get to the stadium. There were several other things, but I think you get the point. With all this, you would expect that nobody would be there. NO WAY!!! The place was packed! This was also after they had been there a couple years. The fans were into it and the place was rocking. Also, I believe the Nationals were in 3rd or 4th place at the time. The franchise has done a good job of getting the public interested. Even walking around DC, you could see people with Nationals caps on. They have also done a good job with reaching the youth and getting them excited. I've seen the Devil Rays play at Tropicana Field and although it was an increadibly wierd stadium, the facilities were in better condition than at RFK and the Nationals have been able to draw bigger crowds every year. Some might say that Tampa can't draw crowds because they lose, but that hasn't ever stopped Chicago from drawing a packed house for decades. My point is that the franchise and its fans have shown that they can support the team no matter what conditions they play in and the new stadium is something that has not just been given to them, but something they earned.
On a side note: I'm still not sure what the outcome of the new Tampa stadium will be. If you remember, Montreal's stadium was supposed to have a retractable fabric roof but it never actually worked and they still could not draw a crowd. Sure, Tropicana Field is really odd and the team made due with what they had, but it takes more than a new stadium to draw crowds over the years. The Marlins say that Dolphin Stadium is not in a good location to draw crowds, but Miami Dolphin fans don't seem to have a problem and Super Bowl will even be there in 2010.