After attending the baseball games Friday and Saturday, the Spring Game and the Sugarland concert afterwards, here is my opinion on what I saw.
First, let me start by saying it has been a while since I have been back to a baseball game so I was really amazed at how much it had changed.
The Friday night game was a great night for baseball, temps in the low 70's, perfect to watch a game. While the crowd was about what I expected for the game, the crowd support is almost completely dead. It was honestly embarrassing compared to what I remember it being. I sat in the chairbacks and the people sitting around me had no interest in following the game. This was a purely social outing for them and they spent all their time screaming at other people they new that were walking by and inviting them up to sit around us. That was no problem since there were so many empty seats. It was annoying as hell to be watching the game and have these guys sitting in front and behind us turning around in their seats and screaming past us about what their mama and sister say and who said this to aunt Sally. But, I am pretty sure we were using their tickets so there was nothing we could do about it.
Couple of things:
I feel like we have cheapened the game. What I mean is, all of the walk up music, the sound clips after a foul ball or an out, the freaking rap music in between innings, it is all ******** that somehow does not seem genuine in any way and does not seem to fit in at the game. Yes, I realize the walk up crap and all that is how a lot of pro games are now and is the new thing to do but it just does not fit.
Crowd Support is at an all time low. The lack of any excitement in the stands was amazing to me. Why the hell, we feel it is required to play some type of freaking rap music between innings is beyond me. It doesn't fit with the fans that are attending the game or the players playing the game. It was just annoying and seemed way out of place but we HAVE TO find something to get the fans back in the game.
Saturdays Baseball Game:
WE HAVE TO GET A TICKET EXCHANGE IN PLACE YESTERDAY!!!!! I cannot stress this enough, the bleachers on both the 1st and 3rd base sides were full while the Chairbacks sat 1/2 empty. We were lucky enough to sit in the chairbacks but there were a ton of empty seats. 7 on my row alone.
One small thing, the analog clock on top of our scoreboard was never changed after the time change. This is not a big deal but if you were trying to keep up with the time to get to the football game, the time is wrong by 1 hour. This would seem to be something simple to fix and I am amazed it has take this long since the time changed to actual correct the time.
Our baseball team played great although some of the loudest cheering from the crowd was screams of "swing at the damn ball, it is impossible to hit it if you don't swing" and my favorite was all the complaining when we would bunt the ball. I feel a lot of our fans pain, we do not play an exciting brand of baseball, not even close. We try to play small ball and while a win is a win, fans like hard hit balls and we bunt the ball every opportunity we get.
We left the game in the 12th to head to the football game, but all around the baseball games were fun and our kids had a blast.
The Spring Game:
We walked in and the baseball game was still in extra inning which was great because they had the game and Jim Ellis on the HD screen and it was neat to watch it waiting for the game to start. The spring game was the spring game. I don't give a damn if they had a 60 yard field or a 200 yard field, it was still a spring game. After the first few possessions it is boring.
I could not tell you how the 3rd quarter went because I stood in the line to get a coke and some popcorn for my kids for 45 minutes. If Scott Stricklin had been standing in front of me, I would have taken his loafers off and beat him with them. To open 1 concession stand on the West side was just plain dumbass ****. The fans were furious and the people working the concession stand were apologizing saying "we are sorry we were not expecting this kind of crowd." I find this absurd, scott has been tweeting out that we had 15000 tickets sold and they expected a good many walk up ticket purchases. This was a big mistake on his part and he should catch some hell for this. I honestly missed an entire quarter for a coke and popcorn.
Sugarland:
You guys can argue right or wrong and how bad it was but I give him credit for trying something new and out of the box. Was it a band I was dying to see, no. But, my wife and kids loved it and it was really an enjoyable night at DWS, even if you were not a Sugarland fan. Fans were packed in around us and really seemed to enjoy it, young and old. It was a pretty neat experience and something new that had not been tried.
I did not understand a couple of things. 1st, why set the stage up on the North end? If the stage was set up on the South end they could have used the HD Screen and shown the concert on it. Most concerts now have video boards so there is not a bad seat in the house. We did not use the video board at all for the concert last night (This may have been sugarlands call and not ours) but even if we had, you would have had to look at the opposite end of the field to watch the board.
Before anyone goes crazy, yes I realize our locker rooms are on the South end and that is probably why the stage was set up on the N but still, it would have made the concert a little better. We did not buy floor tickets and since there was no video, I am pretty sure that was sugarland that played but hell, it could have been look-a-likes.
2nd, why the stage was set up the way it was. On the West side, if you had tickets in Section E or F, you could hardly see the stage. They could have easily not sold tickets in those sections and sold more tickets at on the South end of the E and W side. The way the stage was set up there were white tents on each side of the stage that blocked the view of 80% of the stage. This was not a big deal because it was easy enough to move to another seat and get a view but why sell tickets that offer you little to no view of the concert? That did not make much sense but I am going to assume they learned a lot about what not to do if they choose to do a concert again.
Overall we had a great time and a great experience. On the way home my kids were asking when we could go back and to me that is what it is all about.
First, let me start by saying it has been a while since I have been back to a baseball game so I was really amazed at how much it had changed.
The Friday night game was a great night for baseball, temps in the low 70's, perfect to watch a game. While the crowd was about what I expected for the game, the crowd support is almost completely dead. It was honestly embarrassing compared to what I remember it being. I sat in the chairbacks and the people sitting around me had no interest in following the game. This was a purely social outing for them and they spent all their time screaming at other people they new that were walking by and inviting them up to sit around us. That was no problem since there were so many empty seats. It was annoying as hell to be watching the game and have these guys sitting in front and behind us turning around in their seats and screaming past us about what their mama and sister say and who said this to aunt Sally. But, I am pretty sure we were using their tickets so there was nothing we could do about it.
Couple of things:
I feel like we have cheapened the game. What I mean is, all of the walk up music, the sound clips after a foul ball or an out, the freaking rap music in between innings, it is all ******** that somehow does not seem genuine in any way and does not seem to fit in at the game. Yes, I realize the walk up crap and all that is how a lot of pro games are now and is the new thing to do but it just does not fit.
Crowd Support is at an all time low. The lack of any excitement in the stands was amazing to me. Why the hell, we feel it is required to play some type of freaking rap music between innings is beyond me. It doesn't fit with the fans that are attending the game or the players playing the game. It was just annoying and seemed way out of place but we HAVE TO find something to get the fans back in the game.
Saturdays Baseball Game:
WE HAVE TO GET A TICKET EXCHANGE IN PLACE YESTERDAY!!!!! I cannot stress this enough, the bleachers on both the 1st and 3rd base sides were full while the Chairbacks sat 1/2 empty. We were lucky enough to sit in the chairbacks but there were a ton of empty seats. 7 on my row alone.
One small thing, the analog clock on top of our scoreboard was never changed after the time change. This is not a big deal but if you were trying to keep up with the time to get to the football game, the time is wrong by 1 hour. This would seem to be something simple to fix and I am amazed it has take this long since the time changed to actual correct the time.
Our baseball team played great although some of the loudest cheering from the crowd was screams of "swing at the damn ball, it is impossible to hit it if you don't swing" and my favorite was all the complaining when we would bunt the ball. I feel a lot of our fans pain, we do not play an exciting brand of baseball, not even close. We try to play small ball and while a win is a win, fans like hard hit balls and we bunt the ball every opportunity we get.
We left the game in the 12th to head to the football game, but all around the baseball games were fun and our kids had a blast.
The Spring Game:
We walked in and the baseball game was still in extra inning which was great because they had the game and Jim Ellis on the HD screen and it was neat to watch it waiting for the game to start. The spring game was the spring game. I don't give a damn if they had a 60 yard field or a 200 yard field, it was still a spring game. After the first few possessions it is boring.
I could not tell you how the 3rd quarter went because I stood in the line to get a coke and some popcorn for my kids for 45 minutes. If Scott Stricklin had been standing in front of me, I would have taken his loafers off and beat him with them. To open 1 concession stand on the West side was just plain dumbass ****. The fans were furious and the people working the concession stand were apologizing saying "we are sorry we were not expecting this kind of crowd." I find this absurd, scott has been tweeting out that we had 15000 tickets sold and they expected a good many walk up ticket purchases. This was a big mistake on his part and he should catch some hell for this. I honestly missed an entire quarter for a coke and popcorn.
Sugarland:
You guys can argue right or wrong and how bad it was but I give him credit for trying something new and out of the box. Was it a band I was dying to see, no. But, my wife and kids loved it and it was really an enjoyable night at DWS, even if you were not a Sugarland fan. Fans were packed in around us and really seemed to enjoy it, young and old. It was a pretty neat experience and something new that had not been tried.
I did not understand a couple of things. 1st, why set the stage up on the North end? If the stage was set up on the South end they could have used the HD Screen and shown the concert on it. Most concerts now have video boards so there is not a bad seat in the house. We did not use the video board at all for the concert last night (This may have been sugarlands call and not ours) but even if we had, you would have had to look at the opposite end of the field to watch the board.
Before anyone goes crazy, yes I realize our locker rooms are on the South end and that is probably why the stage was set up on the N but still, it would have made the concert a little better. We did not buy floor tickets and since there was no video, I am pretty sure that was sugarland that played but hell, it could have been look-a-likes.
2nd, why the stage was set up the way it was. On the West side, if you had tickets in Section E or F, you could hardly see the stage. They could have easily not sold tickets in those sections and sold more tickets at on the South end of the E and W side. The way the stage was set up there were white tents on each side of the stage that blocked the view of 80% of the stage. This was not a big deal because it was easy enough to move to another seat and get a view but why sell tickets that offer you little to no view of the concert? That did not make much sense but I am going to assume they learned a lot about what not to do if they choose to do a concert again.
Overall we had a great time and a great experience. On the way home my kids were asking when we could go back and to me that is what it is all about.
