I’ve seen rankings of “the best places to watch” whatever live sport, but it is a fact that the sports teams most prefer are usually the same ones they liked when they were under ten years old. There is something nostalgic about the best baseball diamonds or hockey rinks that just might be hard to capture in a simple ranking.
For my money, I miss the old Montréal Forum. The cheap beer and amazing Kwinter hot dogs no longer available AFAIK. The unparalleled atmosphere and sense of ceremony. And the fact the 1993 Habitants were an amazing team. Montréal has not seen its like for decades and it is a national tragedy a Canadian team hasn’t won a Stanley Cup in the modern era (even if many players in the league still come from Moncton, Medicine Hat or Moosonee).
It was Yankee Stadium. The old stadium, not the new. In theory the new stadium is nicer but I had some great times in the 70s-2000s.
The Bleachers were such a great bargain, parking was reasonable, I knew ways to get to and from the stadium that weren’t too bad. I occasionally got box seats that were excellent. The stadium had so much history. So many legends.
{I moved the thread from IMHO to the Game Room as sports related}
Fenway Park - old and dilapidated in many ways, but I’ve never been to a major stadium where you are intimate with the field. The old Boston Garden had a similar feel, but it really was a pit near the end.
Yes, Fenway! I’ve been to 7 or 8 MLB parks, and none of them have that feeling when you come through one of the tunnels and see the field. The worst was probably where the Padres used to play…Comcast?
The Red Sox Portland, Me AA level park is nice too.
Wrigley Field, the home of MLB’s Chicago Cubs. I lived in the Chicago area for several years and attended quite a few games there in the 80s and 90s. I even saw them win once!
Great stadium, easy to get to by train, and a nice neighborhood to hang out in after the game.
The course itself runs right into the town almost with the 18th green viewable by pedestrians nearby. here’s a google link
When the Open is played there that part is sectioned off for paying spectators but the rest of the year you can saunter down the road and watch the general public playing and hitting into the green. (in fact you can walk all over the course with multiple public rights of way)
I haven’t been fortunate enough to watch The Open there but I’ve visited the town a few times and it is a lovely place to be.
I’ve been to both twice. I’ve been to each on far too cold of a night. Brutally cold. I’ve been to both for fairly nice day games. Wrigley is a much nicer stadium than Fenway. It isn’t even close.
The Fenway area is fine though for hanging out in compared to Wrigley. Wrigley is better but it isn’t as lopsided. Honestly Yankee Stadiums are not a great are to hang out in, especially back in the 70s through early 90s. It is much better though starting mid-90s.
Camden Yards is a pretty nice area to hang out at. The Inner Harbor is nice. Babe Ruth Museum is walking distance. Very nice modern stadium and just as intimate as Fenway without the obstructions.
Speaking as someone who’s seen games in something like 17 still-existing major league baseball stadiums, I second (third? fourth?) Wrigley Field as just a wonderful wonderful place to see a game.
Camden Yards is great, too. So for that matter is PNC Park in Pittsburgh, where I saw my first three games this last summer. Those are my three favorites at the moment.
Lambeau Field, the home stadium of the Green Bay Packers. It’s located in a neighborhood, and many people (including me) park out in the neighborhood, and walk into the game – as you walk in, you stroll past the tailgaters in the parking lots.
The atmosphere there has always been classic football, and now that they’ve expanded it, it gets seriously loud.
The only downside is that most of the seats are still bleachers – it’d require them to reduce the seating capacity significantly in order to put in actual seats, and as 95% of the stadium’s capacity is allotted to season tickets (and no one wants to give up their season tickets), it’s unlikely that the bleachers will ever go away.
I’ve been in 12 of the current MLB stadiums. Probably my favorite was PNC in Pittsburgh; it was extremely cool to take a boat from our hotel to the ballpark. Plus, it’s an excellent place to watch a game.
Wrigley is a cool venue, and hanging out in Wrigleyville after the game was quite the experience. I also liked Oracle Park in San Francisco.
I’m glad I went to Fenway (4 games), but it’s not really a great place to watch a game. In 3 of the games we sat down the right field line, where the seats face the outfield (not home plate), and they’re damn uncomfortable. The concourse is extremely narrow and always crowded.
But my favorite venue for watching a game is Arrowhead in KC. I was there for MNF in 2014 when the Chiefs beat the Pats and the crowd set a record for the ‘loudest crowd roar’.
I’ve developed a fondness for Q2 Stadium, the small-cozy-yet-hip stadium here in Austin for Austin FC. Wish there were more food options though.
I went to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, thinking I would like it (attended 2 Cowboys games there) but it’s a rather weird place. It’s enormous and impressive, but the inside is all kinds of strange art, a very non-football vibe, a head-scratching “What were you thinking, Jerry?” feeling. More like a museum or storage warehouse than a football stadium.
I’ve been to 29 of the 30 MLB ballparks. The only one I’m missing is the Atlanta Braves, currently in Truist Park. More accurately stated, I’ve been to the home ballparks of 29 of the 30 teams. E.g., I’ve been to Shea Stadium but not to Citi Field. I won’t go out of my way just to see the Mets again in that newer ballpark.
My first was Yankee Stadium in 1969. The House that Ruth Built. I’m from Upstate New York. And my second was Fenway.
The “hallowed, holy shrines” are Fenway and Wrigley. But while hallowed, they are old and yes, some of the seats can suck. And some of the sight lines too.
The best for my dollar are, alphabetically by team, Camden Yards, Comerica Park, PNC Park, and Oracle Park.
For PNC Park we stayed in a downtown hotel and walked across the Roberto Clemente Bridge (closed for games). And we (the wife and I) had upper deck seats near 1st base to enjoy the panoramic vistas. A great experience.
Oracle Park is fantastic. The upper deck views of the bay and the east bay hills are beautiful, and the lower deck intimacy is good. But living in/near San Francisco for decades now, I am biased. But when they built it in 2000, they did a fantastic job.
Finally, even though I grew up in the northeast and learned how to drive in snow and ice, one of the coldest and most miserable I’ve ever been in my life is at a summer night game at Candlestick. Foggy day games there can be colder than a witch’s tic, too. At Candlestick, the 49ers had better weather there than the Giants did. Such is our weather here.
Up until 2017, my favorite place for a live sporting event has been Notre Dame Stadium. I’ve seen really amazing games there, and the atmosphere defined college football for me. Then in 2018 the renovations were complete, adding three student center buildings to the sides of the stadium, completely destroying any semblance of history or character to it. Games there are now exercises in corporate Mickey Mouse pandering, creating the most contrived artificial atmosphere I could imagine at a football game.