AJM’s first look at Globe Life Field

I had my first in person look at Globe Life Field on Sunday. It is the first time I’d seen the stadium since it was under construction, and even then I only saw it from the outside while walking from Globe Life Park to my car (or vice versa) before or after a game. I’d obviously seen it quite a bit on television, and had seen photos, but this was my first time to check it out in person. My takeaway is that it is a nice park, I liked it, and I will enjoy attending games there.

I took photos so you could see what it was like. I was going to post this yesterday but the photos were not going into Chorus properly and were going into the article sideways so I finally gave up and decided to fix it today.

This is where I headed from the parking lot to an entrance:

I was coming from the south side of the park, and ended up entering from the West entrance.

The line was short, and upon getting my ticket scanned and walking in, this was the view:

The concourse level has a variety of concessions available, though I generally did not partake in them so I can’t speak to lines — I went once to buy water, and the closest concession stand was a vegan stand, and the line there was short, but, you know, its the vegan concession stand, so I’m not sure how representative it is.

My seats were in 117, which is the second level, but “second level” is a bit misleading because the seats are still pretty low and close to the action, as you can see here.

The new stadium has a capacity of 40,300, which is smaller than the old park, and as a consequence, one of the biggest differences I noticed is that the setup seems to have everyone closer to the field. The lower level doesn’t go very far back, and so the second level seats I was in were essentially the same view and distance as being in the upper half of the lower level seats behind home plate at the old park.

The roof was closed for the game — the temperature outside was in the 80s and sunny, and it was the type of weather where you would think they might have the roof open, but give it was supposed to top out around 88 I can see why they would feel like that might be a bit warmer than some folks would prefer.

It was nice and comfy inside, and as someone who has to drive a long way to get to a game, I do have to say its nice not to have to check the weather forecast and sweat whether I’m going to drive almost four hours only to have the game delayed for an hour or two or possibly see it canceled.

Folks have said it is really loud with the roof closed, but there wasn’t a ton of things to cheer about on Sunday, particularly offensively, so it was hard for me to gauge.

The big scoreboard in right field shows both speed and type of pitch, along with K rate and walk rate for the pitchers instead of ERA, which I thought was interesting:

There’s also a tall, narrow scoreboard just to the left of center field:

There were clearly lots of folks at the game — attendance was listed at 26,723, and its a Sunday day game, which you figure is going to draw pretty well. It didn’t, to me, seem crowded or cramped, and there weren’t lines in the bathroom (the men’s bathroom, anyway). There were no roaming peanut or beer guys — if you wanted food or drinks, you had to go to the concession stand. As I mentioned, I only hit up one concession stand, and so I can’t speak too much on the concession situation, though I’ve heard there are some long lines.

Finally, despite the mask policy, most folks I saw weren’t wearing masks, which I mention because that’s something that may impact your desire to attend a game right now (either positively or negatively).

Overall, it was a nice park, I liked it, and I look forward to seeing more games there. It is smaller and more intimate than the old park, and I think folks will enjoy it once they check it out.