Best/Worst Stadium Experiences

Candlestick Park was the park of my childhood. Everything they said it was, and worse.

 

It wasnt just the cold - it was the oddly timed gusts out of nowhere - the kind of cold that seeped into your bones no matter how many layers you wore.

 

As Exhibition Stadium in Toronto was in mine, for baseball, football, concerts. It was a frigid, wind-blown dump but it was our frigid, wind-blown dump.

 

Coldest I ever was at a baseball game was a June night game at Candlestick in 1973. We left after six innings, and it was 1-1 with Seaver and Marichal pitching!
Since I am old, the dump of my childhood was Connie Mack Stadium, formerly Shibe Park. Located two blocks from the now vanished North Philadelphia train station. The year the Phillies moved to the Vet (not much of an improvement) then manager Frank Lucchesi reminisced about Connie Mack by saying, "that neighborhood was so tough they raffled off a car with the cops still in it."

 

Without sounding too saccharine, I've never really had a bad stadium experience. Many, many forgettable experiences, certainly - but nothing bad.

Plenty of memorable happy thoughts for places like the original Williams Arena and the old, 8th Avenue Madison Square Garden; Forest Hills; the ancient, reeking Yankee Stadium. Ingalls rink, and the Staten Island Yankees stadium and the Brooklyn Cyclones ballpark in Coney Island are favorites. Dodger Stadium and Lambeau and Citifield and Camden Yards and the Horseshoe are all pretty great. Fenway. Wrigley. You have to work to have a bad time at any of them.

 

The hockey side of Williams rocked, especially back in the WCHA days, which (OK Boomer!) were far, far better than the current Big Ten affiliation. I think it's been repurposed for wrestling, volleyball, etc.

 

Best - high school football sideline on a cool, dry, fall night.

Worst - crowded high school football press box on a rainy Friday night.

 

Those halftime burritos were kinda underrated, tho.

 

Olympic Stadium in Montreal was a dump, Both with the roof closed, and the rare occasions that the roof was open.

Tickets were nice and cheap, though, with Canadian prices. Went to a game with a $5 ticket promotion, meaning I spent the equivalent of $3 and change in American money.

 

Dodger Stadium is still on my list, with The Big House, The Shoe, ND, and an LSU night game. Maybe Madison and PNC Park as Honorable Mentions.

 

We did Dodger Stadium in 2014, sitting in the front row of the upper level just on the first-base side of the plate. Amazing place to watch a game and I will second your comment about the crowd, lining up for beer and garlic fries and listening to all the Spanish-speaking fans talking about the action on the TV.