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The Essentials
In this section of our reviews, we examine what it’s like for a fan who attends a game at the park in question. What does it cost them and how are they treated at the event?
The first thing a fan will notice is the parking. The lots just to the east and west of the park probably aren’t adequate to accommodate all of the vehicles coming to a sold-out game. After all, there are only a total of 700 spaces. They cost $3 apiece, by the way. The team likes to point out, though, that there are other public lots within a few blocks of the park, and a number of local businesses permit Loons fans to park at their establishments for free.
Tickets cost about what you would expect at a beautiful new ballpark at this level of the Minors. Single-game tickets (i.e., not purchased as part of a season, half-season or “mini plan”) cost $8.50 for reserved seats and $6.00 for general admission.
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Fans who know their way around Dow Diamond have learned that a general-admission ticket can land you a very special place to sit, if you arrive at the park early. For no additional money, you can grab one of the chairs at the rear of the first-base berm (above right). They are available on a first-come, first-served basis. They remind me a lot of the very popular rocking chairs at the back of the left-field berm at the Dell Diamond in Round Rock.
If you do sit on the outfield berm on a chilly early-season evening, note that there are two very welcomed fire pits (above left). They are positioned at the center of wrap-around railings between the concourse and the grass. What a great touch!
On a similar note, there are a number of “ledges” at the rear of the berms in the outfield (below right). They are a great place to set your food and drink while standing watching the game. Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia was the first park that I encountered that had these in any great number.
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The kids certainly weren’t forgotten about when the park’s entertainment was being planned. The mascot is an appropriately colorful bird named Lou E. Loon, and needless to say, he is a hit with the younger set. The play area down the first-base line is called Lou E’s Lookout (above left), and it features some very nice playground equipment. It does trouble me a little that there’s no protective netting over the area like at the parks in, say, Greensboro, NC or Orem, UT, both of which have similarly situated play areas. Also nearby are inflatable games, which are all the rage around the Minors these days.
But, I know, you want to know about the food. First, the almost unanimous answer when I asked people around the park, “What do you think is the best food here?” was “the Philly cheesesteaks” (they are being prepared in the lower-left photo).
Indeed, I found the most interesting food — like the cheesesteaks — to be at the kiosks instead of the large concession stands. I also found a very good pulled-pork sandwich at another kiosk, and an outstanding BBQ-beef sandwich. Both of those cost $6.50, and are worth it.
The larger concession stands, like the one shown below right, offer the standard ballpark fare like burgers, dogs and pizza … but with an interesting addition. MidMichigan Health, one of the team’s main sponsors, features a number of “healthy option” food items at these stands. Fans can identify these items easily because they carry the Healthy Options logo next to their names on the menus. Examples are grilled chicken and deli turkey sandwiches.
One other great feature of these concession stands involves your entertainment while you’re waiting in line. Note the beautiful plasma TVs to each side of the stand in the photo below!
I’m always on the lookout for “local” food items at any ballpark. When I asked Nick Kavalauskas, the Loons’ Director of Food and Beveridge, about this, he admitted that there weren’t any food items that fit this category. However, the team features a number of micro brews that originate in Michigan. Perhaps the most popular one is Phoenix Ale which is brewed in nearby Bay City.
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As previously mentioned, the two-level souvenir store stocks a nice assortment of Loons gear, including a large selection of clothes for youngsters and slightly older youth. In this regard, I think the assortment is better than at other Minor League parks, plus I thought the prices throughout the store were quite reasonable.
For instance, the Loon Loft carries no fewer than 15 different caps and visors for adults, ranging in price from $14 to $20. There are also eight different T-shirt designs for adults, and they cost from $16 to $24.
HOK and the Loons also are justifiably proud of Dow Diamond’s “green” characteristics. First, the warning tracks are made of crushed bricks reclaimed from the Dow Chemical building that was demolished to make way for the ballpark. Second, and this is really impressive, is the solar-powered scoreboard.
Just outside the park down the first-base foul line is a veritable field of solar panels (below left). These are here as the result of a joint venture of Hemlock Semiconductor and Dow Corning, a “cousin” company of Dow Chemical. These panels power the scoreboard — and this isn’t just any run-of-the-mill scoreboard, either (below right). Its video screen is fabulous, certainly one of the best in the Minors, as is the one at the other new park in the affiliated Minors in 2007, Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock, AR.
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And last but not least when it comes to how fans are treated at Dow Diamond, the team’s front office staff and game-day personnel were astonishingly friendly. Not since I attended a game at Springfield’s Hammons Field, the place I dubbed “the friendliest place in the Minors,” have I encountered folks who were as helpful and friendly. This was true not only of the team’s employees who made themselves available for me to interview while I was there (the groundscrew was particularly unbelievable in how anxious they were to be accommodating and show off their beautiful park), but also the concession-stand workers and ushers, who didn’t have a clue I was writing a review of the place.
Truly, this is someplace I’m anxious to visit again.
Summary
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“The fans’ reaction to us has been very, very positive,” Kigar, the team’s stadium-operations head, told me. “The tri-city area (that is, Bay City, Saginaw and Midland) was already a great amateur-baseball community, but they’ve really embraced us” since the stadium opened, he added.
And why not? The Michigan Baseball Foundation brought high-quality pro baseball and a first-rate stadium to the area. What’s not to like?
To be honest, when a resident of Midland first contacted me over two years ago to say that Midland was going to build a great ballpark and bring big-time pro baseball to the city, my response was essentially “don’t set your sights too high.” I thought the independent Frontier League might be willing to look at the market, but never the affiliated Minors. I was absolutely wrong …. just as I was when residents of Springfield, MO started writing me a couple of years before Hammons Field opened there to tell me that double-A baseball was coming to town. And not only that, they were going to be affiliated with their beloved Cardinals. I remember telling them “maybe an indy league for you, maybe a low-A team if you’re really lucky. But certainly no double-A league will allow a franchise to be located so far from their other teams. Not only that, but the Cards really like their affiliation with the Tennessee Smokies, who just moved into a brand-new park. Sorry, but it ain’t happening.”
The reason I was wrong about Springfield was that I was unaware of the “X factor” they had named John Q. Hammons, the octogenarian multi-millionaire who backed the stadium project and twisted the arm of the Cardinals to buy the El Paso Diablos and move the team to Springfield. The Cards also, of course, transferred their double-A affiliation to the Missouri town.
Midland had an “X factor,” too — also one with deep pockets: Dow Chemical.
Dow donated the land, provided funding for the Michigan Baseball Foundation, and made sure the ballpark wasn’t “value engineered” to death.
The result is something that you should come to mid-Michigan to see for yourself.
A testament to the quality of the stadium that is now in Midland is this: less than two months into Dow Diamond’s tenure in the Midwest League, it was announced that the league’s 2008 All Star Game will be played there. “To have this honor of being named the host facility for next year’s game is a testament to our first-rate facility,” said team president Paul Barbeau in a release making the announcement. He also observed that the the selection reflects “the great support we’ve received from our fans. This is an honor that we can all share.”