cheeses_h_rice
09-22-2002, 01:20 PM
Me and the wife headed up to Cheeseville yesterday for a chance to see the Brewers lose their franchise-record 100th game vs. the Giants. We joined up with another couple with our $12 upper deck seats and headed over. Traffic into the parking lots was 100x improved vs. our visit in 2000, the last year of County Stadium, when a lack of proper roads and lack of properly trained staff resulted in a 45-minute death march into the lots.
In a word, Miller Park is enormous from the outside, due to the huge, arched tiers of its movable roof. I liked the walk into the park, crossing over a little ravine as you approach the stadium's outfield area. We decided to go around to the very front of the park to get a view of most of the outside, and it appears that the Brewers folks crossed every "t" in the book as far as having shops, restaurants, outdoor food/beer tents, etc. Entering the stadium, you feel like you're heading into a large indoor stadium, with just a sliver's view of the field in front of you, and shops-a-plenty all around you. Everything was super clean and nice and new; it felt a bit sterile yet probably comforting for your average family.
We headed up 2 levels of escalators for our seats that were midway up the UD on the 1B side. The UD is not quite as steep as Comiskey, and with the 4 tiers of seats (vs. Comiskey's three tiers, which includes the very small 300-level) there aren't nearly as many rows in the top level of seats, so it seemed less intimidating. Sight lines were comparable to Comiskey. Looking around, Miller Park is crammed full of scoreboards, signs, and of course, Bernie Brewer perched up on his tower. Miller's scoreboard was THE thing that makes Comiskey look a bit passe. They have an enormous video screen with the best clarity I have ever seen at a sporting event -- it was like HDTV or something. When someone comes to the plate, all the player's stats are right there underneath his photo -- no having to scan 2 different places to find out what he's done this year and earlier in the game. When the Giants had 2 guys up in the 'pen, I looked up and in the bottom right corner, it showed who was warming and whether they were lefty or righty. The only things "missing" were the pitch speeds (shown on a smaller scoreboard on the 3B and 1B sides) and the results of other games that day (NL scores are on the left field wall, and AL scores on the RF wall -- tough to read depending where you sit). Also, on a Giants grounder to the SS, he made a bad throw and Sexson couldn't handle it, but the scoreboard never said who the error was attributed to.
Last night was Fan Appreciation Night, but they made everyone stay an hour after the game in order to give away the final 10 prizes, including a 2002 Mustang. What a joke -- everyone around us was grumbling and groaning as they had to wait 2 full minutes for the winner of each prize to come down and personally pick it up. Must. Milk. Promotion. For. All. It's. Worth. Reinsdorf would have been proud.
Anyway, as far as value, I thought that at least with our cheap seats, it was a slightly better value than Comiskey. $6 parking is the biggest savings; food and drink are comparably priced. But, I believe that the nice seats at Miller are a lot higher than Comiskey.
As far as quality of baseball, the Brewers are just awful. I guess I'll stick with the Sox, for the time being. But I must say, going to see a game in April or when it's raining would seem a LOT more enticing knowing there's a closeable roof up above -- probably the biggest advantage this park has over Comiskey.
Except for that scoreboard.
In a word, Miller Park is enormous from the outside, due to the huge, arched tiers of its movable roof. I liked the walk into the park, crossing over a little ravine as you approach the stadium's outfield area. We decided to go around to the very front of the park to get a view of most of the outside, and it appears that the Brewers folks crossed every "t" in the book as far as having shops, restaurants, outdoor food/beer tents, etc. Entering the stadium, you feel like you're heading into a large indoor stadium, with just a sliver's view of the field in front of you, and shops-a-plenty all around you. Everything was super clean and nice and new; it felt a bit sterile yet probably comforting for your average family.
We headed up 2 levels of escalators for our seats that were midway up the UD on the 1B side. The UD is not quite as steep as Comiskey, and with the 4 tiers of seats (vs. Comiskey's three tiers, which includes the very small 300-level) there aren't nearly as many rows in the top level of seats, so it seemed less intimidating. Sight lines were comparable to Comiskey. Looking around, Miller Park is crammed full of scoreboards, signs, and of course, Bernie Brewer perched up on his tower. Miller's scoreboard was THE thing that makes Comiskey look a bit passe. They have an enormous video screen with the best clarity I have ever seen at a sporting event -- it was like HDTV or something. When someone comes to the plate, all the player's stats are right there underneath his photo -- no having to scan 2 different places to find out what he's done this year and earlier in the game. When the Giants had 2 guys up in the 'pen, I looked up and in the bottom right corner, it showed who was warming and whether they were lefty or righty. The only things "missing" were the pitch speeds (shown on a smaller scoreboard on the 3B and 1B sides) and the results of other games that day (NL scores are on the left field wall, and AL scores on the RF wall -- tough to read depending where you sit). Also, on a Giants grounder to the SS, he made a bad throw and Sexson couldn't handle it, but the scoreboard never said who the error was attributed to.
Last night was Fan Appreciation Night, but they made everyone stay an hour after the game in order to give away the final 10 prizes, including a 2002 Mustang. What a joke -- everyone around us was grumbling and groaning as they had to wait 2 full minutes for the winner of each prize to come down and personally pick it up. Must. Milk. Promotion. For. All. It's. Worth. Reinsdorf would have been proud.
Anyway, as far as value, I thought that at least with our cheap seats, it was a slightly better value than Comiskey. $6 parking is the biggest savings; food and drink are comparably priced. But, I believe that the nice seats at Miller are a lot higher than Comiskey.
As far as quality of baseball, the Brewers are just awful. I guess I'll stick with the Sox, for the time being. But I must say, going to see a game in April or when it's raining would seem a LOT more enticing knowing there's a closeable roof up above -- probably the biggest advantage this park has over Comiskey.
Except for that scoreboard.