Target Field - My First Look

A friend and I took a trip to Target Field this weekend for the season ticket holder open house. We split a 20 game package and I was excited to see how the stadium with the smallest urban footprint would look and feel.

My initial reaction is it felt a bit like PNC and a bit like Camden. I think the Camden feel I got was that you are able to walk in off the streets of downtown Minneapolis right into the RF bleachers. There's a small pavilion out there when you first get into the park. I feel like there are a couple other street entrances, but this is the one we used.

The concourses are wide and chock full of eating options. However the seating area is cramped by comparison. Next to Wrigely, which was designed for early 1900s American bodies I've never sat in smaller seats. I'm not an overly large person, but not the smallest either, and I think once you've got a row full of people it could get quite uncomfortable.

Back to the stadium itself. There are some real interesting features in this park. I love the scoreboard with Paul and Minnie, who will shake hands after a Twins homerun. If you look closely at the terrible photo from my Moto Q, you can see a granite facade in RF that overhands the field slightly. I'm very interested to see how and how often this comes into play. The seats in this small section are single game seats only, as I understand it. No season tickets there. It's good to spread the novelty around a bit.

Eventually we wandered up to our seats in section 301. The only bad part about Row 3 is that the tunnel from the concourse is still at eye level and loiterers could potentially block our view of home plate. I plan to make good friends with the Ushers in that section as quickly as possible. We definitely in the nose bleeds. Not even a towering Mauer or Morneau foul HR ball will reach us (I don't think). With that said, I'm still eagerly anticipating my first game in May against the Orioles.

To close, the stadium definitely has a quaint feel to it. All the seats are very close to the field. And I mean close. So close that I'd be afraid to sit in the box seats near the dugouts if I had a couple of beers in me. I'd probably wear a John Olerud style helmet and not forget my glove in the car.