Old Fenwaysides

This week's Sports Illustrated has a ranking of major league baseball stadiums (stadia, I suppose) for their facilities, value, and overall fan experience. Where did "America's Most Beloved Ballpark" end up? Try 28th. Out of 30. Here's the quote:

"Let's get this straight. Fenway is impossible to drive to, the seats are uncomfortable and/or obstructed and it costs a kidney -- or two -- to get in and eat. What, exactly, is the draw? Ah, yes, the history, the passion, the atmosphere of Fenway. But is that really worth more at Fenway than at any other park in the league? To the fans of Boston, who continually pack the place, it must be. And, truth be told, every student of the game should see the place at least once in his or her life. But to wring every last dollar from one of the majors' most loyal fan bases is not merely hard-nosed business, it borders on the unethical."

As soon as I was done being outraged, I had to admit, they've got a point. In my one visit to Fenway (late July of this year), I was struck by how dungeon-like the interior of the park was and how cramped and, let's face it, smelly, it was with all of the fans packed in there. As an urban planner, I have to disagree with the complaints about the location or ease of access. There is nothing finer in this world than a ballpark right in the middle of a neighborhood. Keep your football-stadium sea of parking. Give me walk-up crowds from a hundred side streets anyday. The price of tickets? Well, that's just the market. A successful team in a broadly-based, affluent market will command a better price, that's just the economic reality. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that the Red Sox fans understand what their higher ticket prices mean. We don't have access to the media market that the Yankees do, or even the demographics and population that the Yankees do. If charging a little more (or hell, a lot more) means that the Sox can be more competitive with the Yankees (at least in most years), they're willing to do that.

As for the Fenway experience- I understand it has changed quite a bit. In the three or four years since the Henry/Lucchino/Werner group took over, the facelift to many aspects of Fenway has been remarkable. The Monster Seats, the right-field roof boxes, and other interior changes have improved parts of the experience. But I do have to acknowledge that the experience for the average fan (maybe even a slightly overweight fan- which these days is average) isn't terrific from a viewer standpoint. It's sort of an uncomfortable experience, but is part of the New England tradition of suffering in our religious experiences. We try to temper our ecstatic experience of a Sox game at Fenway with a fair dollop of pain.

I have no doubt that the ownership group will continue to make changes to try to improve the in-stadium experience for fans. I hope they will, but I suspect that much of the potential changes have already become reality. There's only so much that can be done there. They have a small footprint and some very old infrastructure to contend with. Further, there aren't a lot of other good options in a very densely-packed city of Boston.

I also noticed that a couple of weeks ago, it was announced that the ownership group received a $30 million tax credit for Historic Preservation from the State of Massachusetts. For preserving Fenway Park. Not only are they pulling in record amounts of money from the fans, but they're also making hay from the State for staying at Fenway. I wonder, however, at what point the changes to Fenway start interfering with their tax credit. At some point, adding seating or reconfiguring structural elements to add fan revenue jeopardizes your State preservation credits. I couldn't put my finger on that point, but I'll bet you Larry Lucchino's got a pretty good idea.