Fenway Park could take some notes from Wrigley Field

Trying to examine baseball’s second most iconic ballpark off of our bucket record, my father and I boarded a flight to Chicago, Illinois, on Saturday morning. After touchdown at O’Hare Worldwide, we hopped off the flight and jumped in an Uber to, you guessed it, the magnificent Fee Discipline nestled within the Windy Metropolis’s Southside.

Simply kidding, it was Wrigley Discipline. We went to Wrigley Discipline.

Saturday night time’s Cubs–Red Sox recreation actually wasn’t one to recollect as a Sox fan, however that was okay, as I spent most of my time that night marveling on the jewel field I used to be sitting in. From the second I scanned my ticket and walked into the concourse underneath that magnificent crimson marquee, I used to be utterly in awe of Wrigley Discipline.

Across the 4th inning of Shota Imanaga shoving in opposition to my Sox, I constructed up the braveness and leaned over to my Dad.

“I believe I like this greater than Fenway” I whispered.

He regarded again at me. “I’m glad you mentioned that as a result of I believe I agree”.

The 2 of us then started rattling off issues we discovered Wrigley did higher than Fenway. The brick-laid concourses, the extensive tunnels, the by some means waaaay extra environment friendly concession traces. However to the 2 of us, one facet of Wrigley stood above all: the seating. Each seat within the park, from the obstructed views to the sphere field to the 400s, was extensive sufficient and had sufficient leg room to be utterly comfy for 2 ~250-pound males. Now, I do know this can be onerous to consider for frequent patrons of Fenway Park, however Wrigley Discipline discovered a manner.

It’s mind-blowing what the entire seat-gutting and substitute did for baseball’s second-oldest ballpark. Past simply the consolation and roominess of the seats, the gutting allowed the seats to truly be oriented the proper manner! When you’re sitting down the primary base-line in proper subject, you’ll nonetheless be going through residence plate. Baffling, I do know.

Photograph by Ian Johnson/Icon Sportswire through Getty Photographs

I suppose what I’m principally getting at right here is: Fenway Park could be so significantly better. Earlier than I visited Wrigley Discipline, I had assumed that modernizing components of Fenway would diminish the “basic” really feel of the place. I’d go to parks like San Francisco’s Oracle or Seattle’s T-Cellular and suppose: “Nicely, that is good, and I like having the ability to face residence plate with out cranking my neck to the left, however I wouldn’t need Fenway to break their attraction”.

Allure. Fenway’s “quirks” have been bought to the plenty as a part of the park’s “attraction”. However after I sat in my cozy Wrigley Discipline seat and walked the stunning Wrigley Discipline concourses, I didn’t really feel just like the park had any much less attraction. Fairly the other, in reality! The up to date facilities allowed me to soak up all the pieces Wrigley needed to provide with out being irritated by what it didn’t.

Wrigley Discipline is a park that has stepped into the trendy day whereas sustaining most of, if not all of its early twentieth century attraction. I hope (and pray) that Fenway Park will at some point say the identical.