The Future of Nats Park

[imref]

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2024/11/27/dc-sports-facility-funding-bills-washington-nationals-park-capital-one-arena

The Nationals Park legislation, led by Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, creates the “Ballpark Maintenance Fund,” which will “draw from several existing revenue sources to ensure reliable funding for repairs, maintenance and capital improvements” at the ballpark. The sources of revenue that will feed into the new maintenance fund include sales tax on purchases at the ballpark; rent that the Nationals pay D.C.; and leftover funds in a separate pot of money called the Ballpark Revenue Fund, which the city uses to pay off municipal bonds that funded the stadium and is ahead of schedule. The legislation is contingent on the Nationals agreeing to a lease that keeps them at the ballpark until at least 2054.

TalkNats notes that the current lease expires in 2037 and calls for tearing down the stadium to replace it a better one.

The original goal 20 years ago seemed to be to build a stadium on a very restrictive budget on public funding that would be paid back on high lease payments by the team plus entertainment taxes. By all accounts, this turned into one of the most successful ballpark districts.

But the stadium as designed missed the mark. At the time, MLB owned the team in 2005 and would try to find a buyer for the team back in 2006. The eventual owners (the Lerners) would have little say in the stadium since it would come "as is" for an opening in 2008.

As designed, the stadium was never going to be a Top-10 stadium and could have been as good as or better than PNC Park in Pittsburgh. That was a fail that DC allowed to happen.

Also, DC weather, with almost daily threats of rain in warmer weather that has affected 40% of the schedule, has been a deterrent for attending games. At one point, the team looked at retrofitting the stadium with a retractable roof, which just wasn't feasible.

With all this said, are there good alternate choices? You can't change the views now, you can't change the weather, but you better have a plan for the future.

So here's my plan: Don't extend the lease. Tear down the stadium at the end of the current term in 2037 and build a new one on the same site that is done the right way with iconic views of the US Capitol building, the Washington Monument, and the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge and river. The Commanders are looking for a new stadium. Make sure that their stadium could accommodate a baseball team for a couple of years so the Nationals could play there for 2038 and 2039. Plan ahead and build the best stadium in MLB.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Respectfully, I don't believe there's a way to restore views with the number of tall buildings that have gone up on Half Street, South Capitol, and Potomac Ave. It would have been nice if the property extended down to the Anacostia. That would have preserved view of the hills to the east and the bridge as well as the River.  As for the Capitol and the Washington Monument, you would more or less have to have a higher stadium, and it's already ridiculously tall.

There still may be merit to a tear down, but the views aren't going to improve.

[imref]

Tearing down the garages would improve the view. But I can’t think of much else.

[Count Walewski]

MLB stadiums are supposed to face northeast, which Nationals Park does, to minimize the disruption the setting sun causes to gameplay. That's unfortunately probably the least interesting direction for the stadium to face in that part of town.

[HalfSmokes]

The Commanders are not going to alter their new stadium in the slightest to accommodate a baseball team - why would they?

[English Natsie]

Views might be desirable, but I'm sure we'd happily look out towards derilict brick sheds if the in-the-park experience was great - best game sight-lines, atmosphere close to the action, ease of access and exit, and so on. How do we rate Nats Park as an experience? What would we change? Why would we change it? (thanks, Charlie...) 

[Count Walewski]

Nats Park Pros

• A truly vibrant neighborhood has sprung up around the ballpark
• The big ground-level entrance in Center Field seems fairly unique and leads to great crowd shots of people entering the stadium (and, I imagine, iconic shots of fans leaving a blowout loss early for the visiting TV crew)
• The approach to the stadium from the Metro to the CF gate via Half Street through a canyon of high-rises with bars and restaurants on the ground floor. There is energy in that canyon: fans pregaming, street vendors hustling, fire-and-brimstone preachers promising eternal damnation, etc.
• Metro and public transit access is okay to good. Service is frequent. The downside is that it's off to the side of the metro system, most people have to transfer lines to get there.
  
• I haven't been to a ton of other stadiums lately, but the availability of premium food options seems at least OK if not good. By this I mean concession stands rather than the PNC Diamond Club buffet. Stadium seems to do a good job of getting iconic local restaurants to open branches inside the stadium.

Nats Park Cons

• The view over the outfield is of a parking structure, though they've spiced it up with giant posters of the players.
• The acoustics have always seemed off to me. The music and the announcers are not as loud as at other stadiums.
• The implementation of fireworks is lame. The fireworks come from behind the stadium so a ton of fans have to go sit in somebody else's seat to see the fireworks. And of course all the issues with how they can only shoot off fireworks a few times per year.
• Have you ever entered the stadium other than through the CF gate? The other stadium entrances seem underused and a lot of them seem to be closed except for the playoff games. This leads to huge crowding at the CF gate.
• What's iconic about the stadium? When you see that warehouse, you know you're in Baltimore or San Diego. When you see those bridges you know you're in Pittsburgh. When you see those arches with the flags on top of them you know you're in the Bronx. Is there anything at Nats Park that immediately tells you that you are unambiguously in Washington DC? What's the stadium's schtick? Wrigley Field and Fenway Park are all about being old, Kauffman Stadium is about water fountains (KCMO has more water fountains than any other city on Earth, it's their thing), Dodger Stadium has weirdly become an architectural curiosity in its old age as little else from that era has survived.
• The approach by car is an absolute nightmare

[HalfSmokes]

If you can park at McNair, it’s fine coming from Virginia by car.

[imref]

Game views are as good if not better than any other stadium i've been to. Open concourses are fantastic as well.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

game views are a real strength. Basically, i think the inside of the place is pretty good. A nice mix of seats and concessions. concessions strike me as high for the basics but pretty reasonable for the higher end items and local vendors.

As for entrances, i regularly use the entrance off Potomac near the garage and the bike valet. It has stairs, so maybe tough for folks who aren't spry, but that is used a lot. I think the Cap Street entrances are for folks who come from McNair, walk down South Capitol, or maybe come over from Audi Field and some of the new development. 1st base entrance is probably designed to handle more flow and is the 2nd biggest, but really is only used by fans on the 3rd base side, I think. The lack of water taxis right now probably is part of the issue.

It is not friendly for cars, but relative to Fenway, anything is friendly.

[HalfSmokes]

It’s a good place to watch a game, it is not itself an attraction. I kind of like having a park built for regulars not tourists

[Count Walewski]

Yeah the openness of the concourses is a nice touch. At a place like Miller Park in Milwaukee, you can't see the game from a lot of the concourse. You'll step out to get a hot dog and suddenly you're in a mall.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Even if you really can't see the field from most of the stands at Nats Park, you always feel like there's a game going on with the cut outs. You hear the sound

[imref]

Brutal: https://www.talknats.com/2024/11/28/oh-the-d-c-government-now-is-willing-to-make-repairs-at-nats-park-with-strings-attached/

[Natsinpwc]

The article fails to mention that the basketball/hockey ownership paid for the current arena and that the Nats ownership did not.  Sure Ted made some noise. But the Nats ownership has to be willing to negotiate. They can’t get everything they want. I think the uncertainty about selling the team is the major factor.

[wj73]

Friends going to Nats Park for the first time have asked me what to expect. I tell them that it was built with a very limited budge, leading to hard choices. The designers chose to emphasize the in-park game day experience, hence the good sightlines, open concourses, etc. But that left very little of budget to do much with the outside of the ballpark.


Given the limited budget, I’d have made the same decision to do as much as I could with the interior of the park, while resigning myself to a pretty generic exterior.

[Natsinpwc]

Also in discussing Capital One versus Nats Park, the former is ten years older. Not sure what the hurry is with renovations to a twenty year old stadium. Orioles Park mentioned in the article is even older.

[varoadking]

Wonder if Mark will try to get the District Council to chip in on player salaries?  That's the most glaring need with this organization...if you can even call it an organization at this point...

[tomwvr]

personally I like nats park it has a great game day set up to watch games. Everyone talks about Camden Yards, other than the Warehouse the stadium is not very good for watching a game . Caves in coverage and steep out field upper deck.
The best stadium Ive been to is PNC park in Pittsburg. But Nats park is really good for watching games

[welch]

Nats Park is a fine ballpark. I've seen all three versions of Yankee Stadium, and the new one has advertising bill boards around the outfield that make it feel smaller. Also lacks escalators, since you enter on ground level and have to climb about four flights to the concourse. Citifield has a big escalator, but it has Met fans.

Best baseball park was Griffith Stadium, certainly. In the upper deck, you felt like you were hanging over the infield.

Finally, A park does not need anything to say "This is DC". A ballpark has one job: gives fans baseball, and Nats park does that well.

[shoeshineboy]

I honestly don't get the complaints about the views of the Capitol and monuments. First, even if fully visible, those would be far enough away to not be much. Sort of like.a thimble on a window sill. I can see those building up close any time I want. When at a game, I want a view of the what is happening on the field, and the park has that along with the open concourse. Now that they built up the neighborhood around it, it is time to rethink the parking garages. But DC doesn't have a skyline, so it was never going to deliver some great view unless it was built on a fake island in the river.

[imref]

I honestly don't get the complaints about the views of the Capitol and monuments. First, even if fully visible, those would be far enough away to not be much. Sort of like.a thimble on a window sill. I can see those building up close any time I want. When at a game, I want a view of the what is happening on the field, and the park has that along with the open concourse. Now that they built up the neighborhood around it, it is time to rethink the parking garages. But DC doesn't have a skyline, so it was never going to deliver some great view unless it was built on a fake island in the river.

My only complaint, and it is a minor one, are the garages. The stadium would just look better, IMHO, if they weren't there. IIRC there was a big fight over the garages that almost killed the stadium deal. One side wanted them underground, the other didn't.

But yeah, it's a great place to see a game. It's relatively easy to get to the stadium. The scoreboard is good. Concessions are decent (except for the cost). And there's now a lot to do around the park.

Maybe fix the freaking scoreboard clock if we want to pick nits?

[blue911]

I love the view of the field when you enter through the centerfield gates.

[1995hoo]

....

Maybe fix the freaking scoreboard clock if we want to pick nits?

I have a nit to pick that I'm sure a lot of fans have either never noticed or consider trivial: The seat numbers run backwards. That is, the section numbers run anticlockwise around the field. Section 100 is out in left center and, if you stand at home plate facing center field, the section numbers run around to your left on up to Section 143 in right center. But the seat numbers run in the opposite direction—they run clockwise, restarting in each section. So suppose you have seat #1 in your row in Section 402. You would expect to find that on the aisle that separates 401 and 402. But you won't. Instead, it's on the aisle between 402 and 403. The seat numbers are in the wrong order relative to the section numbers—the seat numbers run right-to-left. Compare to Verizon Center, for example. My season ticket for the Caps is in Section 209 and I have seat #1. It's on the aisle that separates us from Section 208. Both the section numbers and the seat numbers run in the same direction (left-to-right). I think most people's minds are conditioned to left-to-right because that's how we read.

[machpost]

My only complaint, and it is a minor one, are the garages. The stadium would just look better, IMHO, if they weren't there. IIRC there was a big fight over the garages that almost killed the stadium deal. One side wanted them underground, the other didn't.

I think it would be a huge improvement aesthetically if they were to figure out a way to plant foliage on the sides of the garages that face the interior of the ballpark, covering them in green during the season. I've seen it done elsewhere, though it might be a challenge considering the local climate.