Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Pensacola Multi Use Stadium - Home of the Pensacola Blue Wahoos

What used to be an eyesore now stands Vince J. Whibbs Sr. Community Maritime Park in Downtown Pensacola
A local friend recently invited Mandi and I to go see the Pensacola Blue Wahoos in their inaugural season as the AA affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. It was a pleasant afternoon and we were especially lucky because the previous night weather had cancelled the game so we got a chance to watch a double header against the Birmingham Barons (if that team sounds familiar to you, it might be because it's the minor league team Michael Jordan played for during one of his "retirements" from basketball). We also went on our own a second time (but happened to run into Meg again!) for a game against the Jackson Generals.

The games themselves were entertaining enough with no major managerial head-scratching moves and company of course was good (thanks for the company Meg and AJ!). The game against the Generals was an exciting game with a back and forth score that ended up in a 4-2 Wahoos victory.

As far as the stadium and the experience - there's a lot to be said here. I'll preface my reviews by saying the stadium itself is still going through changes and isn't 100% complete. You could see this as one club level seating had a canopy over it while the other one did not and there were no fans in it either (assuming it will become a club level, eventually). The outfield grass seating leave a little bit more to be desired than most other stadiums. The hill is a bit steep and some fans (mostly kids, but some teenagers too) stand next to the fence blocking your view. There should be a sign or something to suggest not to do that for an extended period of time. The first games we went to had no sign on the other side of the stadium so you never could immediately look up to see who was batting, the count, number of outs, score, etc., which proved to be much more frustrating than I ever would have imagined. I suppose enough fans complained as by the time we went to the second game they had at least semi-alleviated the problem by putting up a very rudimentary scoreboard on a structure behind home plate that gave at least the score.
A beautiful view of Pensacola Bay. This is also the view of where the fireworks are launched.

The stadium itself is quite fashionable. Officially named Vince J. Whibbs Sr. Community Maritime Park, it has a modern beach/nautical feel complete with some palm trees (which are less common in northwest Florida than I suspect most Americans think), appropriate for Pensacola. The beautiful views of the the Pensacola Bay, however, are tempered by the fact that there is extremely minimal shading provided by the lack of overhangs or canopies which makes the day games often EXTREMELY hot. The seats (not including the outfield berm/grass seating) are all pretty close to the field as is common with minor league stadiums. The playing field itself is a fairly small field and home runs in both games seemed to be fairly common to left field (sadly, there are no seats there). The entirety of the concourse is open and vast, so it rarely feels crowded and you'll never miss a play by choice. The bathrooms are also very large and spacious with plenty of capacity; they are also clean. Right before the start of the game, a video of a local military member politely teaches then asks fans to observe proper protocol for the National Anthem, which is something I hadn't seen in a while.
One of the better graphics on the jumbo-tron. (I also think the scoreboard itself is quite fashionable with the logo lit up at night)

The stadium is located near downtown Pensacola which is great on one hand - it feels like a perfect fit in Pensacola and took up what was an eyesore previously and gives quick access to some nice bars and restaurants in the downtown area. On the other hand, the stadium's parking is very limited and it seems like most fans choose to park downtown and walk 10 minutes or so to the stadium. At least on the weekends downtown parking is free.    

As far as the experience, the Blue Wahoos, despite previously having minor league franchise experience as the Carolina Mudcats seem to be growing into a modern minor league experience and instead feel like a team managed in the early 90s in one of those old-school-wooden-outfield-fenced-laced-with-ads-and-no-scoreboards-type. (I'm sure there's new management and there's definitely new, locally based ownership, so this is understandable). What I mean by this is the team's music selection featured a lot of 90s "jock jams" type music, that didn't always seem to fit; there were not many (if any) mid-inning fun promotions for fans, the announcer was a bit of a "yeller," the jumbo-tron featured graphic designs that felt very dated and unoriginal; and speaking of the jumbo-tron, anytime someone was speaking on it, whether it was a singer or a kid yelling "play ball" or whatever, in all 3 games there was a significant and noticeable lag as to what the person was saying and what was on the screen which also is more annoying than you probably suspect. Game nights that feature fireworks do have an impressive fireworks show, not even discounting the fact it's a baseball-stadium fireworks show. As far as food selection goes, the Blue Wahoos have some reasonably priced items ($3 hot dogs which are a brand that I can't recall, but delicious nonetheless) and some higher priced items like a "sea dog" that features a fish - fried cod I believe - on a bun. I would not recommend the french fries though; they were those cheap not-so-great kind you got as a kid with your elementary school lunch.

All in all, the Blue Wahoos provided a fantastic experience in a brand new stadium. As with any brand new team and stadium, there are kinks to be worked on and fixed and the Wahoos have been quick to address their fan needs, which I hope continues. Their facebook page is very responsive and notes all the changes that they are doing at any given point based on fan feedback. Ideally, they will provide some shading for fans, include some mid-inning promotions, update the music selection and provide some sort of smaller, secondary scoreboard with complete player information for the fans in the outfield, among other changes. The stadium is fits in very nicely to the community and the fans are certainly growing a loyalty to them (though there are some Montgomery Biscuit fans in the area resulting from a Tampa Bay Ray affiliation) and ideally the team will be here for many years to come. I would definitely recommend a visit to see the Blue Wahoos!