Bonus stadium guidelines
Here are some interesting/funny things I found while scouring every team’s stadium guidelines for my previous post…
• The Blue Jays host an annual sleepover that includes dinner at night, breakfast in the morning, autographs from the players and baseball movies on the big screen. I think the White Sox have done this too and this is another idea I would fully endorse in Seattle.
• The Blue Jays specifically prohibit gang colors.
In cooperation with the Toronto Police Service, guests wearing known gang clothing and/or colours will not be permitted into Rogers Centre. Guests will be automatically asked to leave the premises, as noted on signs posted at gate entrances.
• The Brewers don’t allow “tube chip cans” in the stadium. However, at Coors Field, “potato chip or nut cardboard cans with metal tops or bottoms†are specifically permitted.
• Costumes are not allowed at Wrigley Field
• The Yankees don’t allow laptops in the stadium.
• Phillies banner/sign restrictions are hilarious…
a. Recognizing that Citizens Bank Park is a baseball ballpark and not a forum for public discussion, messages on banners and signs may relate solely to one or more of the following subjects, without any unrelated collateral content whatsoever: (i) the game and institution of major league baseball; (ii) a major league baseball team; (iii) the on-field activities and performance of a major league baseball player, coach or manager; (iv) the acts or omissions of the management and other non-player employees of a major league baseball organization, but only to the extent that such acts or omissions may relate to or affect its team’s on- field activities and performance; (v) the entity broadcasting a baseball game played at the ballpark and the acts or omissions of the announcers in doing so; and (vi) fans’ birthday, engagement, wedding, anniversary, get well, welcome home, congratulations or like messages.
b. Additionally, banners and signs may not bear a message that (i) is slanderous, (ii) is obscene, vulgar or indecent and inappropriate for viewing by children, (iii) contains “fighting words” likely to provoke a breach of the peace, (iv) contains commercial advertising or commercial product or service identification, or (v) contains derogatory matter relating to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, ancestry, physical handicap, marital status, or age.
Fighting words? Ha!
• Also, the Phillies ballgirls have their own Web site and blog.
• When a Pirate hits a home run at PNC Park, fans have the option to return the ball to an usher in exchange for an autographed baseball (mailed to them) signed by the Pirate that hit the home run.
• The Pirates laid out the guidelines for in-game replays:
Major League Baseball rules the following may not be shown: pitched balls not put into play (called balls and strikes), force plays at second base, “bean” balls and fights/arguments. Close plays may be shown once and only at regular speed.
• I’ll take “Things I Never Would Have Guessed†for $1,000, Alex.
Ebbets Field was an influence for Tropicana Field. The ballpark’s grand, eight-story-high rotunda entrance is designed from the very blueprints used for the rotunda at Ebbets Field, built in 1913.
That’s some good stuff.
Another oddity you from the Jays. It is their unwritten rule that you do not show any replays related to the other team. The exception is when the Yankees come to town and its a 50/50 split for fan base. Then you see replays of Yankees HR’s, nice plays etc.
I’m assuming that thing about replays with the Pirates is replays on the jumbotron at the park, right? That can’t be TV rules.
Yeah, at the game.
In a season like the last one, lots of content like this is wonderful. It’s good anytime, but it’s wonderful in dark times like these.
I doubt it’s advertised on their website, but I was pretty infuriated when my girlfriend and I went to Dodger stadium earlier this year.
We’re college students so we decided that we would buy the cheap bleacher seats and we didn’t have a problem watching the game from high up. The problem arose when we tried to walk around the park. I’ve been traveling to baseball stadiums around the country and seeing them and sightseeing.
But…
At Dodger stadium you aren’t allowed to walk around the stadium! We couldn’t leave the upper level to get down to the bottom! I explained to them that I was an avid baseball fan, and that I had come from Seattle and was just interested in fully experiencing their stadium and they gave us road blocks for about 45 minutes.
The good news was that we eventually annoyed them enough that they gave us good seats just for being so persistent. And though the act of charity was appreciated it still left me with a sour taste in my mouth that they would be so boneheaded about letting people walk around the stadium.
Interesting about Ebbets field. I just watched part of Ken Burns’ series “Baseball”, and learned that Ebbets cost slightly over $750,000.
I build custom homes on the west coast. I have built media room additions that cost that much.
Okay, maybe not anymore, but once upon a time.
Note: The media rooms were much smaller than Ebbetts; better sound, graphics, seating and food.
Downside: No live baseball.
zvazda,
Wow. Jarred a memory. Grew up in California, remember THE SAME thing in the 70’s. Definitely at Chavez Ravine but I think also at Candlestik.
Oooh…Brewer Nation cracking down on that evil corrupting influence of canned Pringles! 🙂
Actually, though, I kinda like that Blue Jay sleepover night idea. (Granted, it does help to have a built-in hotel as part of your stadium…however, I’m sure the M’s could probably work something like that out with the Silver Cloud as well.)
Fighting words? Ha!
Well, aside from the fact that “fighting words” have a fairly precise legal meaning in US jurisprudence, the history of fighting and Philadelphia sports teams in general, and the Phillies in particular, is such that I’m not surprised they have more elaborate rules than most places. I don’t think they put a jail into the basement of the current stadium (which they had, and used, in the old one) so they need to keep things from getting out of hand.
Yes, they’ve done the sleepover at Comiskey. I remember it being advertised on the Jumbotron when I was there a few years ago. Safeco would be the perfect place for it, since it’s open-air while still being impervious to rain.
Yeah, the Kingdome (1976-2000) did the same thing when the Mariners played there. And for those of you who can remember, it wasn’t because there was a shortage of seats (10,000 people a game in a three-tiered 50,000 seat stadium). It was what impressed me about Safeco Field as much or more than the stadium itself. The whole attitude towards the fans was different, including setting up coffee kiosks so people could wait around until the traffic thinned out.
I actually like that coffee kiosk idea…good way to “sober” some folks up somewhat before they head out.
Actually, people sleep on the field in sleeping bags. But I just thought of something that could ruin a sleepover in a hurry…how late/early do trains run by Safeco? That’d be one hell of an alarm clock!
The Phillies ball girls are almost all from New Jersey.
Weird.
I’ve seen the advertising for Toronto’s sleepover (I see a lot of Jays games). It seems really popular.
Until 2007, they also had $2 Tuesdays. The upper deck seats all cost $2 each for any Tuesday game or any weekday day game, except on holidays. There were some complaints that the weekday day game price encouraged truancy, but I suspect they just dropped the idea when the team got better.
That’s awesome. A few years ago I went to a Mets game with some friends. It was a Friday night and we walked up to the ticket booth and asked for the three cheapest tickets. The lady told us it was $6, so we figured it was $6 each and she was like “No no no…$6 total!” I was shocked. I nearly froze to death, but we watched Aaron Heilman throw a one-hitter against the Marlins.
one of my earliest memories of waiting in the security line at Safeco was the sight of two college kids being relieved of the bottle they’d tried to bring in, in a Pringles can.
I have been reading this blog since about mid-season, just lurking and soaking up the knowledge and opinion. Thanks for your efforts and the insights of the writers and all the commenters, even those I disagree with. Funny now that I should choose to delurk to comment on what might seem to be a trivial note.
The Blue Jays gang/clothing restriction struck me as useless. I understand the value they seek to protect, but their rule might net only the most obvious offenders. Red or blue bandannas anyone?
I wonder if they realize that gangs all across North America wear licensed pro-sports garb, especially team hats, jackets, and numbered jerseys as a show of neighborhood pride and affiliation or membership with certain gangs? These items are NOT worn as a show of fandom for the particular team they are wearing. Apparently it’s an element of gang culture to use team names as acronyms for their neighborhoods and gang names, without any geographic relationship to the actual team location.
For example, several years ago I attended a presentation given by officers of the Washington, D.C. Southeast Precinct. It’s a fairly violent seciton of DC, and the officers mentioned specifically the use of Dallas Cowboys (no coincidence we were in Redskin country!) paraphernalia as being relevant to some Crip affiliate in New Orleans or Nashville (or some other southern city) where the neighborhood they represented was known as “Blue Star” IIRC.
I know, a trivial point, but I always wonder if the folks that seek to protect the values inherent in the “ballpark experience” by regulating their crowds (much as our beloved home team does) really know how to accomplish what they’re after. Just saying. Now back to lurking.
David
The Phillies ball girls are almost all from New Jersey.
It’s right across the river, and Jersey girls don’t grow up without learning to apply makeup. How many of the M’s ballgirls are from the eastside burbs, across the water?
When the Metrodome was built in Mpls they etched a slogan into the one wall that read “We Like it Here!” which a lot of people found funny because it sounded so defensive and lukewarm. Like “you may not like it here, but we do”…”we don’t want to go out on a limb and go as far as to say we “love” it here, but we do like it.” It really was typical of the scandanavian Minnesota mindset and a lot of people didn’t see why it was so funny (like a lot of Minnesotans don’t get and really don’t like the movie “Fargo.”)
It was no big deal though, some people laughing at it, some people not really getting it, until the Twins made the world series for the first time and the national press came in and saw the slogan and starting making fun of it…well, the minnesotans couldn’t have that, it’s one thing to have a minnesotan laugh at you but to have a New Yorker laugh at you…so a few days after a few articles came out about it, they covered up the slogan with a big banner or poster or something, again, something that is really typically Minnesotan, and that was the end of that.
The thing I miss the most about the Kingdome was the general admission for the outfield. First come, first sat.
the Dodgers have done this as well– oh, and Woodland Park Zoo does it too 🙂
I believe it is State Law.
Great post!
In the old days at the Kingdome the general admission bleachers (pretty much everything in the outfield from foul pole to foul pole) were separated from the rest of the higher paying fans. We couldn’t wander into their areas, but they could get into ours (and out again) with their ticket stub.
The Kingdome had a season or two of $3 tickets in “Perry’s Perch” (the 300 level behind homeplate). That was a hefty jump from our usual $1.50 bleacher seats, but with those tickets we could sneak down to the empty sections behind the dugouts to watch the game.
The Everett Aquasox have a boy scout night at the park where the scouts camp on the field after the game (no campfires!). I think they might also have a girl scout night too.
eddie, speaking of the Metrodome, I remember from my one visit there that its entrance from street level is also elevated up to the concourse level — what would that be, 3-4 stories? I.e., the field level is sunk below ground level.
Not so the Kingdome, from what I remember. Wasn’t the entrance at field level, and you had to climb, climb, climb those outside ramps to get to any seating level?
Regarding the Jays $2 Tuesdays, I believe they ended this promotion after this year was completed. This was due to the hammer time fans that started fights in the stands on opening night, jumped onto the field etc. They continued with $2 Tuesdays for a couple more Tuesdays but the seats were all alcohol free zone seating.
Im a life long M’s fan and now a student at ASU (aka Pedroia State). I recently have gone to Chase Field home of the Dbacks or whatever they choose to be called these days and hated the experience. The stadium although new is terrible. There are these bright and obnoxious signs around the 200 level facade (like on the ground in pro soccer games) that just ruin the game. There are also big boobied girls who throw out free stuff. The whole experience doesnt feel like baseball. It seems 100% fake. Unlike Safeco where the subtle beauty blends seamlessly into the beauty of the game and Elliot Bay.
Maybe the most notable example of this was the use of White Sox/Raiders/L.A. Kings gear back in the early-90’s — which became so prevalent that if you actually were a fan of any of those teams, your life was likely to be in jeopardy if you were caught wearing their gear in certain neighborhoods.