Movin' On Up

As you know if you read Caught Looking, I'm very blue collar when it comes to attending professional sporting events.  With rare exceptions, I like to sit up in the upper deck and watch live games with the "real fans."  With the Braves coming to New York this weekend for a three game set against the Mets at Citi Field, I did what I always do - went on to StubHub on found some cheap, below-face-value tickets on the secondary market.  When Friday afternoon rolled around, I was all ready to watch Atlanta beat up on New York from Section 514 - in the upper deck right beyond home plate, exactly where I love to sit.

As luck would have it, though, a friend of a friend was able to get us upgraded to Section 111 in the main level, just beyond the first base bag and only six rows from the field.  While I wasn't initially that excited about the new seats - I knew the up-close view would be great, but I find that I can see the game a lot better from behind home plate - I quickly realized what a luxury sitting in the fancy seats can be.  The best perk by far?  The ability to order food directly to your seat.  In the third inning on the game, we ordered some food and drinks from the in-stadium waiter service.  Less than an inning later, our food arrived and we didn't miss a pitch.  Contrast this with the seventh inning, when I spent 20 minutes trying to buy two Italian Ices from the normal concession stands.  Although the line wasn't long (the game wasn't very crowded to begin with), the incompetence of the Citi Field "hospitality attendants" made the transaction a painful ordeal.

View from our upgraded seats in Section 111 on Friday night. 

I also went to Saturday night's game courtesy of a friend and his work connection, again in the lower level.  This time we had seats in Section 11, where you enter your section through the Delta 360 club and also have access to separate concessions and bathrooms than the rest of the stadium.  Once again, we ordered some food from the waiters, and once again it arrived pretty quickly and painlessly.  Later in the game I went to the Delta 360 club concessions area to buy some more food, mainly to see how it compared to the regular stadium concessions experience.  Perhaps not surprisingly, this transaction was much quicker, smoother and more pleasant.  Clearly, Citi Field has made sure to take care of its most valuable and highest paying fans.

Even better view from Saturday night's game in Section 11.

I think what's happening here is that each professional sports stadium or arena has a limited supply of competent labor.  In a stadium without a ton of premium seating the good workers are spread throughout the stadium, giving an average fan at least a chance to having a pleasant food-buying experience,  At Citi Field, which offers a ton of premium seating options and ammenities, an average fan is basically guaranteed to deal exclusively with employees that have no idea what they're doing.  As a result, if you go to a Mets game with good tickets you're in great shape.  If you're planning to go and sit in the cheap seats, however, you might want to think about bringing food from home.