8/10. Game time- 7:05 PM
Attendance: 34,155 (est. 10,000 no-shows)
Conditions: 73 degrees, roof closed (95 degrees outside, high humidity)
Matchup: Atlanta Braves at Houston Astros
Starting pitchers: Jair Jurrgens vs. J.A. Happ
Result: ATL 4, HOU 2, W – Venters (4-0), L – Lindstrom (2-3), S – Wagner (28)
Ticket purchased: $1 View Outfield ticket (Sec 407, Row 8, Seat 25; req. Powerade purchase – $1.83)
Beer of choice: None
Food: Monster chicken nachos – $8.75
Travel cost: $2.50 roundtrip on METRORail from Reliant Park (30 min. ride)
Other: Minute Maid Park tour – $9, $1.50 1L bottled water brought into park
Total spent: $23.08

10 minutes into the 10 AM tour of Minute Maid Park, the tour guide proudly proclaimed Houston the most air-conditioned city in the world. Some time later, I bent down to tie my shoes and noticed an outbreak of heat rash on my lower legs. If there were ever a city that needed all that A/C, it’s Houston.

Just as in Phoenix, a roof is a necessity in Houston. After pioneering the domed revolution with the still-upright-but-decaying Astrodome, Harris County built two domes, one for the Astros and one for the expansion NFL Texans. The Texans would play 300 feet from the Astrodome at the new Reliant Stadium, while the Astros would move downtown on the site of the old Union Station. While passenger rail service in Texas went into serious decline thanks to airline deregulation and the aggressive moves of Southwest, the old rail depot was preserved and integrated into the ballpark as a multi-use lobby, conference center, and team store.

Tributes to the history of rail in Houston abound throughout the ballpark, from the train in LF that runs when a home run is hit to the more subtle cues found within the interior design of the suite level. As a rail fan it’s a heartwarming gesture, especially knowing that in the future a new rail station and transit center will be built on the north side of downtown to replace the very utilitarian building now being used as a depot.

Getting there

While it’s convenient that Minute Maid Park is downtown, there isn’t much in downtown. It’s chiefly one of those places that’s much more lively during the day because of the office buildings in the area. There are restaurants, of course, but little retail. I had to walk several blocks just to find a bottle of Powerade, which seems extremely out of character for a central business district.

As in Phoenix, a new light rail line runs through Houston. It heads briefly north to the University of Houston’s downtown campus, and south past Reliant Park, home of the Astrodome and Reliant Field. A single ride costs only $1.25, though there’s no way to get a pass unless you sign up and send for a smart card type of pass. Parking is among the cheapest I’ve seen at a downtown ballpark, with numerous third party downtown lots within only 2-3 blocks offering spaces for $5, another sign that downtown is no cultural hotspot. Either way, it’s easy to get in and out, making traveling to and from the ballpark a mostly pleasant experience.

Ticketing

While I was waiting for the ballpark tour to begin, I headed to the ticket booths to score a ducat for later that night. Looking over the seating chart, I decided on the $7 View Outfield seat. I was stopped before going further, as the friendly ticket seller showed me a stack of plastic labels from Powerade bottles. He told me that if I could bring him one of the labels, I’d get a seat for a buck as part of the Double Play Tuesday promotion. When I had time after the tour, I headed to a local Asian market (a small Asian retail enclave is only a few blocks away) and got a bottle plus a Vietnamese sandwich. Happy with the bargain, I bought a ticket, then headed over to Treebeards and had lunch.

Concessions

Still full from the late lunch, I figured that I wasn’t going to eat at the ballpark until late at the game, if at all. As I perused the upper concourse unsatisfied, I saw the occasional Blue Bell ice cream stand, which was notable for the toppings bar opposite the concourse from each stand. I ended up getting a much too large bucket of nachos for $8.75, of which I was only able to finish a third. This was chosen over a “gourmet” hot dog, which could be had for $6. Should’ve chosen the hot dog. I didn’t get a beer as I was at that point running on empty, having arrived in the city at 4:40 earlier in the morning and going non-stop until I got to the game. Shiner Bock had a bar on the upper level, where they were pouring out of bottles.

Circulation

Outside the main Union Station gate, the concourse has a bank of three escalators, two going up and one down at the beginning of the game, the reverse at the end of the game. Ramps and stairs are hidden all over. Concourses are more than adequate, though the separation between the upper concourse and the seating it feeds is more prominent here than at any ballpark I’ve visited. This is because there are no openings from which anyone on the concourse can view/feel the game. Add in the glass windows facing out towards greater Houston, and the effect is that the place feels more like an arena than a ballpark on the upper concourse. The lower concourse and mezzanine level in RF are open and don’t have this problem. The seating layout is typical early-2000 HOK/Populous, with a 40-row lower deck, a 12-row club mezzanine, a suite level, and a split upper deck (6+18 rows). Like AT&T Park, the press box is split into two distinct levels, broadcast at the club level and writers at field level.

When it comes to air circulation, I was a bit disappointed. The effectiveness of the air conditioning system varied wildly depending on where you went. In the seating bowl, I rarely felt any air, and although the stated temperature in the stadium was 73 degrees, it felt much more like 83. Much of this was due to the ever-present humidity in the area, so constantly cooling the playing field and thousands of spectators in such a massive space is a big challenge. On the concourses, where the volume of air to be cooled was much less, there was no such problem. Contrast this with Chase Field, where I felt little variance wherever I went thanks to the dry air there being much easier to cool. When asked by a British tourist how the HVAC system worked, the tour guide explained that for night games, the roof closes at 3, with the system cranked up at that point to make the place comfortable. The cost to cool Minute Maid Park is around $1,300 in electricity per game. Physics might keep them from spending more, as the humidity probably exposes diminishing returns in terms of blasting the A/C.

While we’re comparing Chase Field to Minute Maid Park, I should add that the steepness of the Juice Box is not crazy ridiculous, it’s pretty standard. In fact, I found myself climbing all over the upper deck as if it was a jungle gym. You might too if you saw this:

A secondary roof, separate from the retractable system, holds the lighting system. For some reason, the designers chose to put supports in the seating bowl along the first base line, instead of hanging it off the back of stadium. This creates the retro effect we all know and love, obstructed view seats. At least three sections have these seats. You can even go over/under some of the support beams if you like. The curious effect of this design, whether or not you are obstructed, is that at the top you are very close to the roof, with the only thing separating you from the roof being a large A/C duct. As I walked around, I found several people camping out in front of vents, giving them their own private cold air (smart!). I found one for myself and hung out for an inning before moving on.

Other observations

• The Harris County Sports Authority has held off on doing a mass upgrade of the video and scoreboards for now. The only thing recent is a set of small full color ribbon message boards. If they’re playing Keeping Up With The Joneses, the place is overdue.
• While I got in for $1, the Astros like to point out that every game has dollar seats, usually for kids in the area where I sat. Kudos to the team for continuing this tradition.
• The Coca-Cola and Minute Maid branding was much more restrained than I expected, which was nice considering the fact that the company owns a sizable piece of the team. I only found one remaining Enron logo on an original sponsor plaque inside Union Station.
• Inside the Diamond Level club, what used to be a team interview room was transformed into a private dining room because players complained about walking 100 extra feet out of the way.
• The broadcast booths were open to the air, save for rollup clear plastic windows. Why did they use the windows? Pigeons. I did not see any birds in the facility, BTW. I did see one bird inside Chase Field.
• Brett Wallace’s night: 1-3 with a bunt single, 2 strikeouts, lifted for pinch hitter in 7th
• Braves fan presence: At least 1/3 of crowd

Wrap-up

Drayton McClain and Tal Smith wanted quirky, and quirky is what they got. Other than the roof, Minute Maid Park doesn’t feel outwardly modern and gleaming, as did its predecessor once upon a time. It hides its modernity reasonably well, making the experience much more authentic than the Astrodome ever was. Still, there are signs that the Juice Box is showing its age, and it’ll be interesting to see how quickly major changes such as new scoreboards or expanded luxury seating can be implemented. The Astros are going through a rebuilding phase, making it difficult for them to extend their hand right now. Until then, the team should be able to get by.