Part of the annual series of Forbes articles on the game of baseball is an assessment of what they call “America’s Best Ballparks”. A process was developed to rate all 30 major league baseball stadiums in four primary categories – affordability, accessibility, fan participation and quality of concessions.
The St. Louis Cardinals came in at the end of the top third in MLB in tenth place. The National League Central had a very good showing as the Cards placed just fourth in their division. Pittsburgh’s PNC Bank Park was third overall, Wrigley Field fourth and Milwaukee’s Miller Park came in ninth. Behind Busch are Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, ranked 14th, with Houston’s tricked up Minute Maid Park at 22nd.
The affordability measure came from the 2009 Fan Cost Index compiled by Team Marketing, which I highlighted here recently. The FCI combines standard prices for a family of four to purchase tickets, concessions, parking and souvenirs at each stadium.
Each ballpark was rated on accessibility based on the number of different types of transportation available for fans. Fan participation is a simple capacity-filled measure – each stadium’s average attendance as a percentage of capacity over the past three years.
The ballparks were assigned to a numerical ranking from one to 30 in each of the four categories and the four were averaged to form the overall list. Rather than stop there, they created a scorecard that looks to be a bit convoluted by changing each ranking into a letter grade from A to D. Rather than try to describe it, you can read the details here.
Here are the scores for Busch, with a fifth measure, called intangibles:
Intangibles: B+
Fan Participation: A-
Accessibility: B+
Affordability: B-
Food: B
Not surprisingly, the fans power Busch’s best ranking while the prices are least competitive, yet they are still viewed to be better than most.
So, I’m guessing that PNC was carried by extreme affordability, good food, and the fact that you could take a boat there? Something tells me that fan participation was not a strong point.
Well, I went and looked it up. PNC and Camden are apparently rated as great parks. If they only had teams to match, they’d be at the top. I concur.
Is there somewhere in the Forbes article where there is an actual list of the rankings ?
I can be pretty dense so I probably was looking right at the link without realizing it, all I could find was a slide show starting with # 30 and working its way up.
A few quibbles-no way can the two New York brand new ballparks be honestly rated that high.
One obvious problem is that Forbes took the past 3 year average on affordability for those parks. I guess since they are brand new and in New York that counts for a lot and puts them in the top 10.
Personally, the time I attended Miller Park I thought they had really blown it and it was the ugliest new ballpark I had ever been in, so on my list it would be much lower than 9th. (However the gal selling lemonade in the concourse was real friendly )
Wrigley Field was a great experience even tho our seats were in a section with lots of distractions.
The BoB or whatever it is called now in ‘Zona was ho-hum (so I agree with its low rank) but
it was a special night and we saw Jose Jimenez beat Randy Johnson and no-hit the D’backs.
Haven’t been to the new ones in Frisco or Pittsburgh but they both look great from pictures.
Seattle is a good one with great access for people like me that travel over the mtns. on I-90, it pretty much dead ends at the ballpark and if you get there early there is street parking nearby.
My only complaints of the new Busch is -the lousy scoreboard and the empty space across the street (i hear that is going to look better this summer).
I tried to find a list, but wasn’t able to. Twenty or so years ago, i was about five parks short of having been at all of them, but I’m missing a truckload now.
I have been at a game at Fenway in 1985 and was disappointed. My field level seat was halfway between first base and the right field corner. Being 6’3:, I had to rest my chin on my knees and was very uncomfortable. I have one word for Fenway – OVER-RATED!
My experience at Wrigley the same year was not much different. We sat down the left field line and it seemed as though we had a beer vendor between us and the action for two out of three pitches. Sadly, they weren’t close enough to service our beer needs.
If AT&T, or PacBell or whatever they call it is number one, I don’t have an argument. It’s the nicest park I’ve been in, but for only one game. Woody Williams beat Jason Schmidt in 2004 on a Sunday night and Woody shut down Barry Bonds. I had a great time telling the rubber chicken vendors to take the night since the Cards would challenge Bonds. They did, he didn’t do anything and Rolen hit two homers, IIRC.
It feels like the Forbes folks have a scheme to maximize advertising clicks by making the reader view 30 screens to see all 30 teams instead of providing a simple list.
Being from Indianapolis, I am centrally located to see the Cards in 5 different venues (plus my job takes me all over the midwest, love that perk), Busch, Wrigley, Miller Park, PNC, and Great America. My only experience at PNC was a frigidly cold night about 2 years ago when the Cards won in extra innings. It was a great experience on the whole and I would definitely go back. Miller park was OK, but nothing special. I do like the retractable roof, but it is not nearly as impressive as the one we have for the Colts. Wrigley is Wrigley, if you get good seats, it is a blast. But you better not have to use the restrooms and God help you if you are in the upper deck. That being said, Cards-Cubs at Wrigley is something every good Cards fan should see. Busch is just crazy expensive, to my mind. With beers at 8.75, it is basically a 10 dollar beer! Good seats start in the $80′s, parking is pricey too.
When I take my family to a Cards game, I prefer to go to Great American. You can get phenomenal seats for $75 a piece, and you can get into the bleachers for less than 20 bucks. For $75 you get a waitress and private bathrooms. You can park in KY and take a ferry boat to the stadium (with cheap beer sales) for $4. Drop you off at your hotel, or you can carouse all night at the Hoffbrau Haus. I actually saw a Polka band there doing a cover of Jump by Van Halen after a Cards game. All in all, a great experience. Plus, since the Reds routinely suck it up, great seats are available to pretty much any game. I’ll be there in a few weeks.
Thanks for the review, Chris. I am thinking of hitting Cincy this summer myself.