Washington Nationals

Nationals Park

This was ballpark #6 for my wife and me. Following is the list of all active ballparks that we’ve visited at the time of this writing:

1 — Baltimore Orioles (1992; date unknown)
2 — Philadelphia Phillies (2004; date unknown)
3 — Pittsburgh Pirates (July 30, 2022)
4 — Atlanta Braves (May 28, 2023)
5 — Miami Marlins (July 7, 2023)
6 — Washington Nationals (August 19, 2023)

My basic takeaway is that this stadium is nice but lacks that “wow factor”. I asked the die-hard “Nat’s” couple sitting next to us what was special about the ballpark to them. They responded, “that it’s here”, and “that it doesn’t have a corporate name”. Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

We heard that traffic and parking were tough, so we took the advice of others, parked in the suburbs, and took the metro rail to the stadium. It was cheap, clean, and very convenient. The train dropped us off one block from the stadium. I highly recommend this approach to others.

The walk into the stadium was awesome. The street between the metro station and the stadium was lined with bars and restaurants. It reminded us of a more organic version of the Battery at Truist Park in Atlanta.

Half Street approach to Centerfield Gate.

Before entering the stadium, we walked around the exterior. I was not overly impressed. The exterior materials are concrete and glass. The light color of the concrete was susceptible to staining and looked dirty at spots. To me the exterior facade basically looked like a bland corporate office building. Of the ballparks we’ve been to so far, Nationals Park had the most disappointing exterior. In a lot of ways, it was overshadowed by the newer buildings surrounding it, which had nicer materials and architectural forms.

After walking around the outside of the stadium, we entered through the centerfield gate. It was a nice entry sequence that delivered you into a large plaza overlooking centerfield. The plaza is anchored by the two-story Brew House structure that has a terrace also overlooking centerfield.

We walked around the Brew House and entered the concourse on the right field side. The concourse was spacious and did not feel cramped at all. It is an open concourse that offers views of the field as you make your way around. One drawback is that the home plate view is blocked from the concourse. You cannot access the home plate view from the lower concourse without purchasing expensive seats. I am not a fan of this setup.

View of Field from Main-Level Concourse.

Decorative Mobile in Main-Level Concourse.

Our seats were behind home plate in the upper deck (300 level). They were fantastic seats with a great perspective of the entire stadium. The seats themselves were comfortable and did not feel tight or restrictive. The stairs down to the seats did feel a bit steep.

The stadium backdrop was nothing special. It consisted of newer contemporary mid-rise buildings in left field, and the scoreboard in right field. The scoreboard was impressive. It was large, easy to read, and felt well-integrated into the design.

The ballgame itself went great for us Phillies fans. We got to see an 8-run outburst by the Phillies in the eighth inning, punctuated by two Trea Turner homeruns in the same inning! Because it was such a lop-sided blowout, we also saw a “Nat’s” positional player pitch in the 9th inning. His pitch speed was clocked at 39 mph.

Overall, the ballpark was adequate. It’s a great setting to watch a ballgame but is relatively nondescript and doesn’t offer many bells & whistles. I anticipate that when our chase is complete, Nationals Park will fall somewhere in the middle of the pack.