A recent survey ranked Northwest Stadium dead last in the country as far as major professional sports stadiums. Is there a fix?
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00:00So, I wanted to do this now and let you know that there was a huge cross-sport set of rankings
00:11done, okay?
00:14And it ultimately, I think, was via a couple different spots, but it was like Yelp reviews,
00:19Google reviews, kind of like they did what Kayak does for airlines, but they sort of
00:25did this review scrape, as I understand it, right?
00:29So I saw this via one of these aggregator-type dudes, right?
00:34So I forget who it was.
00:35I apologize.
00:36I wonder if that is annoying that people don't give you credit for...
00:40Anyway, point is, I saw it and noticed it was interesting.
00:45All the stadiums, basketball, football stadiums, baseball stadiums, everything you got, they
00:51ranked 90 places to watch games, right?
00:59Nubs Field, of course, is a place where people go to watch games, now Northwest Stadium,
01:04I guess, whatever it's called.
01:05But the place that I will never go, I have no intention of going, again, I always offer
01:08this caveat.
01:09If I'm told I have to go for work, which I have been, I will go.
01:11I'm not going to make some sort of court case out of it, but I'm not spending money.
01:15I'm not spending my time.
01:16I'm not going there voluntarily.
01:17It's just not a thing I'm interested in.
01:20So of all the different places, think about some of the stadiums where people are actively
01:24leaving that are dilapidated, almost like to a point that it's purposeful.
01:28But also some of these rankings I thought was actually really, really surprising.
01:32In terms of new stadiums that we think of as like state-of-the-art, like Allegiant Stadium
01:39didn't fare very well there in Vegas.
01:41Levi's Stadium, which is only a handful of years old, right, in San Francisco.
01:45SoFi Stadium, the brand new state-of-the-art blah, blah, blah there in L.A.
01:48That's interesting.
01:49Didn't fare very well.
01:50And then some of the usual suspects that you would think didn't fare very well in this
01:54mega thing, Tropicana Field, the TROP, they're building a new place.
01:58It stinks.
01:59And again, they shouldn't have any games or any teams there in Tampa.
02:02But there are a handful of places that, you know, are old.
02:06Their time has passed, but they're still kind of hanging on for whatever reason.
02:09So without further ado, I'm kind of giving the caveat here.
02:12You know what, I'll do a little drum roll.
02:17At the end of this drum roll, I'm going to tell you where Noves Field ranked.
02:24And it surprised me, to be honest with you.
02:26I was a little surprised.
02:33Last.
02:34Now, it's their 90 places to watch sports.
02:37And this was 90th.
02:38This was 90th.
02:39If they had 100, it might have been 100.
02:40If it went around the world, they might have finished even further down.
02:45But it's 90.
02:47So just to keep in mind, Lambeau won.
02:49Some of the usual suspects at the top.
02:50Lambeau won.
02:51PNC Park, number two.
02:53Camden Yards, number three.
02:54Oracle Park, number five.
02:56Fenway Park.
02:57Wrigley Field.
02:58Yes.
02:59To all these, right?
03:00The Meccas.
03:01Not just new, but classic.
03:03Beautiful.
03:04Architecture.
03:05Views.
03:06Sightlines.
03:07Ease of getting in and out.
03:08Just beautiful.
03:09It's the fan experience.
03:10Noves Field.
03:11Last.
03:12Oh, no.
03:13Thanks, Frank.
03:14Miss you, buddy.
03:15Last.
03:16Industrial reaction, Tobes.
03:17Sounds about right.
03:18Yeah.
03:19Honestly, it does sound about right.
03:20It's something that...
03:22It's kind of what I talked about where Nats Park and Camden Yards, a little bit, just
03:26a different example.
03:27If they were flipped, right?
03:29If Baltimore had Nats Park and out here we had Camden Yards, I would never go up to Baltimore
03:34for a game, right?
03:36If this stadium or anywhere else and housed any other team other than the football team
03:39I watch and cheer for, never.
03:42Never.
03:43Like, I'm not taking a trip.
03:45I've been to Soldier Field.
03:46I didn't think it was great.
03:47I've been to Lambeau.
03:48That's incredible.
03:49I've been to a couple different stadiums.
03:50Lucas Oil and Indy.
03:51That's great.
03:53I'm never going on the road to say, that's the one...
03:56The only reason I go to this stadium is because the football team I care about could play
04:01there.
04:02There is no reason else to go there.
04:04Never on the road.
04:05Nothing.
04:06Nats Park, for the record, a place that I kind of...
04:07I don't think I bash it, but that I've kind of raised my hand a couple times and be like,
04:12by the way, it's not that nice.
04:15And it's not.
04:16They need maintenance.
04:17And they've kind of been raising their hand, same way, going, hey, DC, whenever you get
04:20a chance, I know you're busy with Ted and football team and stuff, but there's some
04:24rust here.
04:25We got to fix some of the signage.
04:26And I think they've done a refurbishment and we won't be able to go to the media day that's
04:29this coming week for kind of the unveiling.
04:31But I think they've done some work to their credit.
04:33But still, it's not Camden Yards, it's not PNC.
04:36It's not one of these new incredible diamonds.
04:38But Nats Park ranks 32nd overall, which I would say is pretty damn good.
04:43For a kind of no-frills, not-that-much-personality-type stadium.
04:4632nd overall is pretty good.
04:47Yeah, I mean, top half for a bare-bones ballpark.
04:49Top third, really, right?
04:50Yeah, I mean, it's nothing special.
04:52It's one of those things, like I went to Comerica and Detroit, kind of the same thing.
04:55It's like, it's a good ballpark, does the job, nothing that I'm going to complain about
04:59too, too much.
05:00But it's also really not that special.
05:01But top third, like you said, you'll take that.
05:04I would certainly take that.
05:05Again, without any sort of over-the-top sort of sight lines, you can't see the Capitol,
05:09there's nothing really DC about it.
05:10It's memorable about Nats Park.
05:11And you're like, hmm.
05:13It takes you a second.
05:14Yeah.
05:15The walk down Half Street's nice.
05:16Okay.
05:17But it's not DC anymore.
05:18Right, it's not.
05:19When it was something where you could see the Capitol Dome, it was a little bit different.
05:21I understand.
05:22I love Half Street.
05:23Yeah, it's parking garages, cranes, and a few apartment buildings, and condos and stuff.
05:26Yeah, it's kind of what happens.
05:27But yeah, just lacking a little charm.
05:29Capitol Arena's 70th, which sounds about right.
05:32Yeah, sounds about right.
05:33At this stage.
05:34So, what was interesting, by the way, is down there at the bottom, several of the places
05:37are on the new side.
05:39Houston Texans, Darius, I'll call you in here.
05:41How new is NRG Stadium?
05:44It's within the last decade plus, right?
05:45NRG Stadium was built in 2002.
05:48Oh, so it's that old?
05:49I didn't realize that.
05:50Yeah, it opened when the team arrived.
05:52Okay, gotcha.
05:53So, all right.
05:54So, a couple spots there that aren't particularly nice.
05:57But it's 90th.
05:59And listen, we've done it all.
06:00This is not just...
06:01I know what you're probably thinking, this is just another chance for the curmudgeonly
06:05jerk that doesn't go any way to beat up a stadium and make himself feel good.
06:08It's not what I'm doing.
06:09It just...
06:10This came out.
06:11This is review scraping from Yelp, Google, TripAdvisor, Facebook.
06:17So, here's my question.
06:20We haven't really talked that much about this.
06:21We've been busy with the offseason, which seems like it's kind of slowed down here.
06:25If something happens, we'll tell you about it.
06:26But we've kind of gone through that first initial wave, the feeding frenzy for agency,
06:30and everybody sort of seems to be focused on draft and draft prospects, Tobes.
06:34We're moving towards that phase of it.
06:35There'll be supplemental free agency as well to kind of fill some of the needs that aren't
06:38there in the draft.
06:39But we can kind of now...
06:41The season went so long, thankfully.
06:43Great, NFC title game, yes please, sign me up again, sight unseen.
06:47There wasn't much, like, take a breath, year-end review from, I think, from a fan perspective.
06:53We've been doing, again, very refreshing football stuff, rightfully so, but from a fan perspective.
07:00First full year, really, of the Harris ownership group being in charge and control, their personnel
07:06now starting to make their way.
07:07Like the old guard, a lot of the PR folks, and not PR folks, but the high-level business
07:11folks are now moving on.
07:12They've got their own person in there.
07:14Jason Wright, part of the old, is now, you know, going to be moving on at the end of
07:17his contract.
07:18There's a new person in.
07:19There's just a new wave of, as you would think, folks that this ownership group chose.
07:26So in their first year, I ask you and Darius, I want your view as well.
07:31You guys went to games.
07:32I, of course, don't.
07:33Whether it's I'm busy or I don't want to, it's not important.
07:35I'm not making this about myself here.
07:37They won, obviously.
07:40And that is the thing that people are going to care the most about, rightfully so.
07:43That's why we're kind of here doing this.
07:45But if you can separate that, going to the game, the tangible, controllable things, right?
07:54Because sometimes, you know, Zachary doesn't catch the pass in the back of the end zone
07:58for a touchdown in overtime against Atlanta and, or the kicker makes the field going,
08:01you go home sad.
08:02Sure.
08:03Right?
08:05The on-field, which a lot of people can't do, separating the football part, the controllables,
08:09getting in, getting out, refreshments, lines, bathrooms, in-game entertainment, sound, the
08:15whole experience you guys have been over the years, and you went this year, was it better?
08:20I'll say this.
08:21My thing when I go to a stadium is I don't really need a lot.
08:24I really don't.
08:25I know a lot of people want the, all the bells and whistles, the little frills and gimmicks.
08:29I don't care.
08:30Can I see the field?
08:31Can I see the court?
08:32Can I see what's going on clearly?
08:34And do I have a comfortable enough space?
08:36Like there's certain spots in certain arenas that I don't love to go because it feels a
08:40little cramped.
08:41I don't love that.
08:42Right.
08:43Do I have an appropriate amount of space?
08:44Am I able to enjoy myself?
08:46Do I have easy in and out?
08:47That's the stuff I care about.
08:48Now.
08:49When you say easy in and out, what do you mean?
08:50You mean traffic wise?
08:51Or do you mean like get, get a little bit of both bottleneck to get in a little bit
08:54of buzz or what?
08:55Okay.
08:56A little bit of both.
08:57For example, you know, when I was in Milwaukee, we went to Pfizer forum, which ranks 53rd
09:01on this list, which I would think would be higher.
09:03Nice new arena.
09:04But there's a specific entrance that we would always go into.
09:06There was a side entrance and we were going for a replica ring night after they'd won
09:10the championship and the line wrapped all the way around.
09:13And my cousin, I got one cause I was working in radio at the time and they kindly sent
09:16one over for us to promote.
09:17He didn't get one cause it was a long line, something stupid like that.
09:20That sucks.
09:21Right.
09:22Like there was another usual entrance that didn't have lines, but usually that's good
09:25when it comes to FedEx.
09:26Like I thought the ease of entrance wasn't bad or excuse me, Northwest stadium.
09:29I thought the ease of entrance wasn't bad.
09:30I went to two games over this year there this year, the Browns game and the Falcons
09:33game didn't have a problem getting into the stadium.
09:36Getting out of the parking lot is a huge problem.
09:40Huge problem.
09:41Like if you want to go back out and tailgate again, you might as well because you're not
09:45moving.
09:46I remember I got out of there after the Falcons game and I think I sat there for at least
09:50an hour before I moved at least an hour before I moved.
09:53So it's, it's not great in that sense, but they were winning football games.
09:57They just clinched a playoff spot.
09:58I didn't necessarily care about that.
10:01I was happy waiting, but if it's something where they had lost, yeah, it's going to be
10:04a problem there.
10:05I would say the main thing for me, Danny, that I ask out of a stadium, regardless of
10:09where it is, is I want a good environment.
10:11And I think this year compared to what I went to last year and that coincides with the winning.
10:15So maybe delves into the realm.
10:17You're not trying to look for here, but when you go back to the bills game I went to last
10:20year and I think it was week three, they lost 37 to three.
10:25Josh Allen had a field day.
10:26It wasn't close.
10:27It was a little bit rainy at times.
10:30It was probably 50, 60% bills fans and the environment was not that great.
10:35Like it was cool to hear them sing their stupid Buffalo song.
10:38Do that in Buffalo, not here in DC, but this year going and seeing the common fan re-energized
10:45again, added a little bit of juice so that, you know, the, the bare bones stadium, which
10:49it really is, there's not lots of frills.
10:51There's not lots of endearing parts of it.
10:54It was fine because I don't ask a lot.
10:56I just want the enjoyable experience of being with a fellow fan, watching a football game,
11:01cheering on our team.
11:02And I felt that again, which was nice to feel.
11:05I don't know how much of that is the team can't really do anything about that other
11:09than win on the football field and create an exciting environment, create an exciting
11:13team to cheer for.
11:14And they did that this year.
11:15So I think maybe some of that coming back, but in terms of just the stadium itself, kind
11:20of the same.
11:21Okay.
11:22So you, if you've yet to pick three between three categories, better, worse, the same,
11:27you'd probably say the same in terms of those logistics.
11:29Yeah.
11:30I would say if we're going, I would almost just slightly above the same, right?
11:33Like scale of one to 10, five, the middle five and a half, six, like somewhere right
11:38there.
11:39There's sort of about you.
11:40So I'm going to kind of, I kind of echo some of the same things that Toby says, just in
11:43terms of what you're looking for out of the experience.
11:46I also went to two games this year.
11:48I went to the week two home opener against the giants and then the week five game against
11:53the Browns.
11:54Those are my two games that I attended this year.
11:56Both both wins.
11:57Oh, both wins.
11:58One, a tight one, one, a woodshed game.
12:00Exactly.
12:01Right.
12:02And, and in terms of the experience at those games, obviously I had a great time because
12:05the team was winning.
12:06When you're talking about the state stadium itself and the experience within the stadium,
12:11I will say, I will say, I'll say slightly better overall than my previous years of
12:19going there to FedEx field.
12:20There are definitely some things that they've done to improve the stadium experience itself.
12:24Once you're in there, you know, some of those things like the, uh, the, the quick checkout
12:28lines that they have now, where you go through the market and you basically, yeah, you pick
12:32up what you want, scan your card and you go, you don't have to miss a half a quarter.
12:36Don't have to miss a bunch of time.
12:37Don't have to interact with a clerk or anything like that.
12:40Some of those things were definitely better experience wise, uh, even some of the upgrades
12:45to visually, uh, such as the, the, the stadium boards and ribbon boards and, uh, the, the,
12:51the audio, a lot of those things were definitely improved from years past.
12:54You could tell that they invested some money into some of those things to make the stadium
12:58experience better than they possibly, uh, than it's possibly been.
13:01Uh, I wish I could have attended one of the night games that I've heard with night games
13:04that the, the, the led lighting is really cool.
13:07Kind of similar to how we, we, we went to the Bengals game this year, the Eagles game.
13:11We got these cool light shows.
13:13They were able to show those things off once they got flexed into some, into some night
13:16games later on in the year.
13:17So I didn't get to see any of that stuff, but, um, I'll, I'll venture on the part of
13:21saying slightly better.
13:22Uh, another point that Toby brought up was getting into the stadium itself.
13:26Just like the, uh, scanning your tickets and getting in, but probably the most seamless
13:30experience has been in years for sure.
13:32It's not, you're not standing in line outside of the same board and underrated.
13:35I mean, so just real quick, I'll take you back in.
13:38I, what I want just thinking about what you want in the stadium, that experience, obviously
13:42like the team winning again, we're trying to separate those things for me, whatever
13:46it is, I just want it to be thoughtfully done.
13:48In other words, what I can't stand is when this is sort of like, we're just going to
13:53do this instead of let's have as the best possible plan.
13:57Cause there's no perfect solution to anything.
13:58It's going to take a second to make sure people aren't carrying weapons into the stadium,
14:02wherever it is.
14:03It's going to take a second to scan your ticket.
14:05Or if you have multiple tickets, these things necessarily create bottlenecks and slowdowns.
14:11I just want it to be thoughtful.
14:13So in other words, let's say Nats park, let's say there weren't entrances down the left
14:18field side.
14:19Let's say there weren't entrances down, uh, right field side of the home plate gate.
14:23It was just, you come into center field.
14:24I go, well, that's not very thoughtful.
14:26That's not, that's not smartly done.
14:27That's dumb because they have it differently.
14:29You go, yeah, there might be some bottleneck for people coming off the Metro, but if you
14:32go around a hundred yards around that parking garage, then you have a much shorter line
14:37getting into left center field.
14:38And you're walking right in basically to eat, eat hot dogs and, um, uh, tater tots.
14:42And you can take your pick and the both are good.
14:44There's no wrong answer.
14:45You can go heads or tails and you eat great.
14:47And it's fried and it's really good.
14:48But so whatever it is, I want it to be thoughtful.
14:51I felt like for so many years at a lot of these venues, it wasn't thoughtful.
14:56You know what I mean?
14:57As long as it feels like you were concerned in any way about my experience.
15:03And that's why I stopped going to, to nubs field so many years ago.
15:05Like they didn't, it was clear to me.
15:07They didn't care that I was being screamed at by Cowboys fans, both by selling to three
15:13rows of Cowboys fans in front of them behind me and in my row.
15:16And the whole thing was sort of like your point that the after game traffic was the
15:20worst thing I've ever experienced when they had four offensive yards in a half.
15:25And I'm sitting there going, the indignity of all this sucks so much.
15:28There's where you need the parking attendant is now to direct the traffic.
15:32Where is the person helped me get out now?
15:34Not to get in there earlier, just to collect my 50 bucks, but to leave after I've been
15:39kicked in the giblets for hours.
15:41Tag you back in.
15:42Yeah.
15:42I think, you know, the parking situation is probably the big complaints I would have.
15:46Getting out is just a disaster.
15:48It takes so long, but to Darius's points, I got to go to the Falcons game, which got
15:52flexed into Sunday night football.
15:54And this is my thing that you talk about being thoughtful.
15:56Sometimes even when a team sucks, you can get environment.
15:59Obviously, this year, the team was good.
16:01But think about when Kyle Finnegan was entering last year in the ninth inning to close out
16:04a game when the Nationals were looking for win number 50 in August.
16:09Lights go down, red out, regardless of there's 8000 fans or 40000 fans.
16:14You get cheers.
16:15Everybody's excited.
16:16Here comes Kyle Finnegan to close out the game.
16:18That's organically and kind of manufacturing a little energy in there.
16:24The fact that they invested in the LEDs is one of the coolest stadium experiences that
16:29I got to be a part of.
16:30I was there the first night that they did at Lambeau Field, and it was cool for the
16:34first night where they turned the lights off and you had the lights off intros.
16:37And then the first night that they're doing this at FedEx or Northwest Stadium was really
16:40cool lights out.
16:41And I think either third quarter going into the fourth quarter, they did the same thing
16:46lights out.
16:46You got people up on the screen.
16:48Terry McLaurin, Bobby Wagner, get you fired up for the final quarter like that sort of
16:53stuff.
16:53Regardless, even if it were 30000, 40000 Atlanta fans, it was still going to get everybody
16:58cheering because at that moment, this is a cool atmosphere to be in.
17:02They did a good job of that this year, even finding a way.
17:05Obviously, a lot of burgundy and gold was back in the stands.
17:07But even if it wouldn't have been that way, I think some of the stuff they did was able
17:10to manufacture some of the energy they needed.