There was a lot of hullaballoo about sightlines at both Citifield and Al-Yankzeera once people started being allowed in for tours, etc. It quieted down for awhile, but now that we just had the official Opening Day at Citifield and people have had a chance to sit in “their” seats for the season, all that ruckus is back. Really, I can’t blame anyone for complaining. It’s a brand new stadium! Brand new! It’s already broken!
Originally, I wasn’t going to buy any plan. My friend that was good for coming to half of the games on my plan had told me she wasn’t sure how many games she’d be able to come to since she moved off LI and to upstate. It had been easy to find a 2nd person to come with me for 6 games, but now I’d have to find a 2nd person for a lot more games. Then when they announced that “Sunday” plans would have weekday games attached to them (when does a Monday = Sunday?) and the fact that guaranteed playoff tickets were going the way of the wind, I really wasn’t feeling buying a plan. Going to a game during the week is pretty much impossible for me. If I left after work I wouldn’t get there until the game started and then it would be about a ~2 hour process to get home. Five hours of sleep? No thanks. Not worth it.
There was good things about my seats that I used to have in the Mezzanine. We were under the overhang, safe from rain. The bathroom was right outside our section, making it easy to run there before there ever got to be a line in between innings. We were close to the train when leaving. The only thing I didn’t care for was that we couldn’t see anything in the RF corner. The only way to know what was going on was to either listen for the cheers/jeers or watch the replay (if there was one) on Diamondvision.
When it came time for ticket buying for this year, I decided that if I was able to get seats that theoretically should have a full view of the field that I would buy them. Think of it as a one year experiment. I figured that it’s the first year of the stadium and maybe it would be easier to sell those darn “Sunday” (aka weekday) games. I ended up with infield seats just on the 3rd base side of home plate. Logical guesses would declare that I’d get a full view of the field, and since they were only selling partial plans at the top of the stadium, I was hoping I’d have an overhang to save us from rainy days again. So I bought the “Sunday” plan.
I was pleased when the 3D seat viewer came online that my seats did in fact appear to have a full view of the field. Even better when the Mets released their seating charts and had real photos I could see there was no obstructed views from railings, LED boards, plexiglass, etc. The proof that they weren’t bad seats came when I ran up alllll the stairs from the field level to the upper deck and up more stairs to my seats saw that yes, I would be under the overhang and the seats had a decent view (people on the field being tiny nonwithstanding).
Back down on the field for the exhibition game in the snazzy 12th row up from the field, I was dismayed when the first ball hit into left field disappeared from my view. WHAT? I even said to my friend how ridiculous this was. These seats are normally prices $105 for a VALUE night – a random “Sunday” (ahem, weekday) in April against the Nationals!
One of the big reasons why this comes to pass is the lack of foul territory. Getting the seats closer to the field causes more of the field to be blocked. Simply geometry, you know like 2x + 3y = 20. Find x.
A friend of mine is using my “Sunday” tickets this Thursday so I’ll have an update on the real view during a game before I go again this Sunday. Hopefully I’ll be ok.
