Charlotte Knights AAA Ballpark in Third Ward

[CLTProductions]

Not 100% sure on the exact size (just my experience) but the Olde Meck and Noda are not served in the "small" cup that the Bud/Miller are served in. It is most definitely a bigger cup that what I saw others with on Thirsty Thursday.

Olde Meck and NoDa (and craft beers) are not included in the Thirst Thursday special

[tozmervo]

This is a fun fact: 

Knights staffers, after years of sparse crowds,  enjoy touting their newfound popularity. Friday’s media notes issued by the team included a mention that Thursday’s 10,449 fans at BB&T outnumbered a Major League Baseball crowd of 10,440 at the Cleveland Indians’ game the same night.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/queen_city_agenda/2014/04/make-it100-grand-for-charlotte-knights.html?page=all

[CLTProductions]

This is a fun fact: 

Knights staffers, after years of sparse crowds,  enjoy touting their newfound popularity. Friday’s media notes issued by the team included a mention that Thursday’s 10,449 fans at BB&T outnumbered a Major League Baseball crowd of 10,440 at the Cleveland Indians’ game the same night.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/queen_city_agenda/2014/04/make-it100-grand-for-charlotte-knights.html?page=all

Yeah as an Indians fan and Cleveland native, I didnt want to put that one out there    

[Niner National]

Read on reddit that the Knights have already hit 41% of total attendance for last season through only 11 home games.

[MilZ]

https://twitter.com/KnightsTickets/status/461594059409461248/photo/1

 

These new ticket kiosks will come in handy if we ever stop selling out games

[kermit]

Just came from the Ballpark and Bearden at lunch today. Noticed that the yogurt shop in the park is essentially invisible from Bearden. Its located under a large overhang, there is no exterior signage and propping the doors open and using sandwich boards on the sidewalk did very little to make it look either enticing or even visible from the park.

 

While the street accessible space in the ballpark was certainly a good idea, I have a feeling its going to fail in execution shortly. Its a bummer.  I suspect something more restaurant like (JJ's?) would have better luck pulling people in.

 

As an aside, I find it ironic that the Knights did such a great job building a ballpark which meshes with the city while the Panthers are busy making BofA even more bunker-like by erecting their giant jumbotron which will further obscure the skyline from inside the stadium.

[ah59396]

Just came from the Ballpark and Bearden at lunch today. Noticed that the yogurt shop in the park is essentially invisible from Bearden. Its located under a large overhang, there is no exterior signage and propping the doors open and using sandwich boards on the sidewalk did very little to make it look either enticing or even visible from the park.

 

While the street accessible space in the ballpark was certainly a good idea, I have a feeling its going to fail in execution shortly. Its a bummer.  I suspect something more restaurant like (JJ's?) would have better luck pulling people in.

 

As an aside, I find it ironic that the Knights did such a great job building a ballpark which meshes with the city while the Panthers are busy making BofA even more bunker-like by erecting their giant jumbotron which will further obscure the skyline from inside the stadium.

 

 

Football has never really been about "urban intimacy".  Baseball is trying to get back to it's roots and attract a younger fan base.  Football can just keep keeping on as is.

[jednc]

Just came from the Ballpark and Bearden at lunch today. Noticed that the yogurt shop in the park is essentially invisible from Bearden. Its located under a large overhang, there is no exterior signage and propping the doors open and using sandwich boards on the sidewalk did very little to make it look either enticing or even visible from the park.

 

While the street accessible space in the ballpark was certainly a good idea, I have a feeling its going to fail in execution shortly. Its a bummer.  I suspect something more restaurant like (JJ's?) would have better luck pulling people in.

 

As an aside, I find it ironic that the Knights did such a great job building a ballpark which meshes with the city while the Panthers are busy making BofA even more bunker-like by erecting their giant jumbotron which will further obscure the skyline from inside the stadium.

 

As a PSL Owner let me just say...bring on the jumbo-trons....

[pgsinger]

 

Just came from the Ballpark and Bearden at lunch today. Noticed that the yogurt shop in the park is essentially invisible from Bearden. Its located under a large overhang, there is no exterior signage and propping the doors open and using sandwich boards on the sidewalk did very little to make it look either enticing or even visible from the park.

 

While the street accessible space in the ballpark was certainly a good idea, I have a feeling its going to fail in execution shortly. Its a bummer.  I suspect something more restaurant like (JJ's?) would have better luck pulling people in.

 

As an aside, I find it ironic that the Knights did such a great job building a ballpark which meshes with the city while the Panthers are busy making BofA even more bunker-like by erecting their giant jumbotron which will further obscure the skyline from inside the stadium.

 

As a PSL Owner let me just say...bring on the jumbo-trons....

 

 

+1 from a fellow PSL Owner.  Please tell me they figure out WiFi there too.

[jednc]

+1 from a fellow PSL Owner.  Please tell me they figure out WiFi there too.

That Wi-Fi experience is terrible. I def hope you are right and they have some money budgeted to address that.

[Mobuchu]

Speaking of the boards, here's 2 pics of them from earlier this week inside the stadium.  Huge!

Also notice there are now two video "bands" around the bowl instead of just one.

 

Edited May 3, 2014 by Mobuchu

[Niner National]

According to a user on Reddit, the Knights are now over 50% of the total attendance from last season despite only 19% of the games being played. Amazing.

 

I bet the businesses in Uptown, especially in Third Ward are loving this.

[nonillogical]

I went to Tuesday's game. I'm not upset about the beer prices, as they're pretty much right in line with what I expected, but I was underwhelmed by the quality of selection even compared to the old stadium. I can still find a handful of beers I like, but each booth serving craft beer has only 3-4 it seems, so you have to do quite a bit of hunting if you're looking for anything specific. I never did find NoDa's A Knight's Ale (or anything else by them), even checking one spot where it was supposed to be available but the employees didn't seem to have ever even heard of it. 

 

Great experience though, I love the stadium and I love the foot traffic around it that its creating. It was a pretty impressive turnout for a Tuesday. 

 

Some shots: 

 

[grodney]

 I never did find NoDa's A Knight's Ale (or anything else by them), even checking one spot where it was supposed to be available but the employees didn't seem to have ever even heard of it. 

 

 

 

 

As for NoDa beers: A Knights Ale is at the Queen City Q booth, on the 3rd base side.  CAVU is at the Barefoot wine booth, barely to the first base side of home plate.  At least those were the locations when I was there.

 

I'm sort-of kicking myself that I didn't make a full beer map of the stadium for all the beer lovers out there.

 

I hadn't heard (or payed attention) to the "Beers of the World" booth.  They have bottles and cans, including stuff like Sweetwater, Sam Adams, Natty Green's, and OMB 12oz bottles.  $7 for a 12oz bottle, so it's not for me, but it's there if you want it.

[ssh214]

Wow that's a pretty packed house for a Tuesday night it looks like...

[Niner National]

Tonight's game will be televised nationally on CBS Sports Channel for anyone that cares to watch from home.

[RVA2CLT]

I went to Tuesday's game. I'm not upset about the beer prices, as they're pretty much right in line with what I expected, but I was underwhelmed by the quality of selection even compared to the old stadium. I can still find a handful of beers I like, but each booth serving craft beer has only 3-4 it seems, so you have to do quite a bit of hunting if you're looking for anything specific. I never did find NoDa's A Knight's Ale (or anything else by them), even checking one spot where it was supposed to be available but the employees didn't seem to have ever even heard of it. 

 

Great experience though, I love the stadium and I love the foot traffic around it that its creating. It was a pretty impressive turnout for a Tuesday. 

 

Some shots: 

 

 

HA, My lady & and I (or some of me &my beer at least) are in both of these pictures, we were literally sitting 6 seats down in the row just below.

You never know where a fellow UP'r might be.

[kermit]

While I am not in the frame I was actually about 10 rows down....

We are everywhere.

[ah59396]

We should have a secret hand signal to recognize eachother, like the Van Buren Boys!

[Guest]

We should have a secret hand signal to recognize eachother, like the Van Buren Boys!

image.jpg

Or at least get UP face tattoos... 

[archiham04]

We should have a secret hand signal to recognize eachother, like the Van Buren Boys!

image.jpg

I guess this means that you don't know the handshake...

[videtur quam contuor]

I was in the Piedmont Porch in outfield left of photo. Do not bother. It is a large group facility. The food (with ticket) was OK with grilled chicken, burger, hot dogs, condiment table, sodas, water, slaw and pasta salad. Corona beer stand for $. You can go outside the area to buy other food. But you sit and eat at a metal picnic table so you are always turning 90º to see the game and from the upper level of tables the perspective is terrible. I had no idea what was happening in the game, just men in uniforms occasionally moving. The bright sun was straight at me until the end of the third inning. Most unpleasant. Some of the group members were there to talk and meet and schmooze, so no trouble for them. I last sat in an outfield for a game, any level of game, 30 years ago.

I was a guest of the group member. My host and I later went to the Home Run porch area looking down from right field and that was a tremendously better location to see the game. I was right over the home bullpen. They have their own bar there and restrooms. It is a climb up there if you go down for food and there are no seats, unless you count sitting on the concrete risers. Mostly guys or date foursomes. It can also be rented for groups.

[nonillogical]

While I am not in the frame I was actually about 10 rows down....

We are everywhere.

It did occur to me that somebody would probably see that photo and go "I was sitting RIGHT BESIDE YOU" haha.

[kermit]

I have now been to three Knights games and I think I have found a significant flaw in the ballpark.

The first two games I sat out in left field beyond 3rd base (sections 118 and 120 IIRC). Both those games I felt very disconnected from the game (just like Tarhooser describes above), I first thought it was a product of crappy play on the field but I realized today (after sitting in the HR5 section along the 1st base line in the outfield which was great) that it is actually a product of seating arrangement. The left field seats are not angled towards the pitchers mound -- they directly face the outfield. While this provides really nice skyline views they force you to look at the diamond at a pretty severe angle (this sounds silly as I type it). Since its hard to maintain that angle spectators inevitably miss much of the action.

There is an easy (but not cheap) fix, just get seats which have an angle to the rows rather than the perpendicular setup they now have. If you check google sat view of any major league park you can see this setup in action. This was just bad design work on the Knights part.

[videtur quam contuor]

First weekend I sat in 121 and had the exact experience ^. Seat is facing right field wall, not second base or mound. Also the third base line outfield seats have view of video board blocked by Piedmont Porch canopy.

I recall being in the (now gone) Metrodome in Mpls and all seats faced straight forward, as for football. For baseball I had to turn to my right, and though I was in row 10, I had to look over about 25 rows of spectators to see the field. BBT is not so bad, though still of concern. I know the limited site required adaptation so perhaps this is the outcome of compromises.

Aside: Does anyone know how many seats (ticketed and numbered seats) are in the park? Not SRO, special picnic area and other not seat tickets.