I was pre-disposed to not like the new Citi-Field. The reason was this: I couldn't be more tired of the fashionable baseball stadium as museum to, or better -- mausoleum of, a game that people used to enjoy. Obviously Baseball's rich history and grand tradition is something that differentiates it, and that Major League Baseball is wise to market, but in too heavy a dose it sucks the life out of the game.
Having gone to my first game there, there were certainly things I liked. I liked the fact that the stadium is physically on the street. With any luck, auto-body row will, over the next few years, be replaced by bars and restaurants. I liked the vertical-ness of the stadium. The upper decks are far more on top of the field then they were. Finally, the expansiveness and openness of the vending areas is pleasant and smart.
One of the things the new Yankee Stadium, I'm told, does wonderfully is that it feels very much like the old Yankee Stadium. There was no attempt at that with Citi-Field. Instead, it is supposed to feel like the old Ebbets field. Having the Jackie Robinson Rotunda as the centerpiece no doubt strengthens that feeling. The Mets, themselves, of course, never played in Ebbets field and Jackie Robinson never played for the Mets. The architecture is less a homage to the Mets, or even the Dodgers, then to the self-indulgent owner of the Mets, who, evidently, grew up a Dodger fan.
The most off-putting influence on citi-field is the Phillie's Citizens Bank Park. While there are many nice features of CBP which could have sensibly been imitated, the Green (seats) and Maroon (usher's uniforms) color scheme was emphatically not one of them.
Symbolically, perhaps, the most disheartening feature was the short shrift the scoreboard got. Three quarters of the space is taken by ads. More space was alloted to a Chevy ad then to out of town scores, lineups, current batters stats, etc combined. A good chunk of the stadium has no view of either the (tiny) scoreboard or the jumbotron.
In sum, to go to Citifield is to be reminded of the disregard in which the Mets hold their fans.
