It's Time for Fenway Park To Go

Not many Red Sox fans turn down tickets to a game. But I’m one of them. If seats are in certain sections, I’d just rather not go. I get a better view from my television. Odd, right?

Well, if you’re my size, maybe not.

I’m 6'5". I was an athlete basically through college, so I have that kind of build still. Fenway Park is not built for people like me. Never has been, never will be. Not in seats I can afford anyway.

So when I’m asked about tickets, like I was for a game next week, my first question always is, “Where are the seats?”

If I’m going to be sitting in the grandstands (blue seats behind the red box seats), I’d rather not go. The last time I sat there I did see a fantastic game, getting to watch David Ortiz hit a walk-off home run against Anaheim.

But I only saw about a quarter of the actual home run. Fenway Park has an overhang that covers the grandstand seats and stops fans that sit there from seeing flyballs at a certain point.

Worse, I sat in one of the infamous sections at Fenway where there is only an aisle on one side. It wasn’t on mine, and my seat was all the way at the other end.

I spent the majority of the game shifting my weight, trying to find a way to stop my knees from giving the person in front of me a concussion.

So I won’t sit there.

That severely limits your options at Fenway. Box seats are hard to come by, and bleachers are the only affordable option, thus making them unaffordable because everyone wants them.

Monster seats? Good luck. Standing room seats? Those are options, but do you really want to stand for many three-plus hour games?

I love Fenway. It’s where I saw my first game and where I had the privilege of watching a team win a game in the World Series. But why is there an unnecessary infatuation with a ballpark built in 1912?

I know there is a tremendous amount of history that has taken place on the field. But it doesn’t seem to make sense that many other teams can bid goodbye to places where they have had a large amount of success, but we can’t do the same in Boston.

This hit me more once it became reality that the Yankees would be leaving old Yankee Stadium. They realized that there is only so much that can be done to these older stadiums.

They seem to have no problem taking their 26 championships and moving them to a better, newer stadium.

The Tigers were able to do the same when they built Comerica. The Cubs have discussed it as well. Stadiums come and go in many areas. But not in Boston.

Fenway Park is extremely limited. It has spatial constraints due to the streets surrounding the park. Because of the current structure, you can only go so high or add so many more seats. At some point, it will reach a maximum capacity.

The current ownership has done a fantastic job in changing many of the elements surrounding Fenway. They’ve added more comfortable seating (at ridiculous prices) and created some of the best views in baseball through their innovation.

But they cannot change the fact that most of the seats down the lines don’t face home plate. They will be hard-pressed to replace seats because it would require removing many to comply with new rules and regulations. Leg room won’t be created because it would mean eliminating a row of seats, which would cut into revenue.

Now, I don’t know where they would go. I haven’t developed my plan that much. I know that whatever park they build, if it were to stay in that area, would be bound by the same constraints. But I refuse to believe that Boston is the only city that cannot build a new stadium.

There are teams with just as much history in their ballparks. The Yankees have just as many, if not more, tales to tell about players who have stepped through the clubhouse. Personally, I don’t feel the need to take my first child to their first game there just because it’s where I saw mine.

Anyone willing to save Fenway Park hasn’t spent enough time in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, or Detroit. Fenway is nice, but it’s not irreplaceable.

It’s time to realize that facing left field is not a great view of a ball game. It’s time to realize that turning your body 90 degrees to see the pitcher isn’t how baseball is meant to be seen.

It’s time for fans to say “No” to having poles in the middle of their sight lines.

It’s time to build a new ballpark in Boston.