Taking Shelter

It's been a weird 2013 weather-wise in the New York area.  While things have been calmer post Hurricane Sandy, they haven't necessarily been more normal - temperatures have fluctuated between unseasonable cold and shockingly hot (this past week was a great example), the rain has come in bunches and it's still not clear if we're in Spring, Summer or some unexplored combination of the two.  This has wreaked havoc on the schedules for the Mets and Yankees, both of whom have already experienced their share of postponements and delays.  Last week I went to Citi Field to watch the Braves and Mets not only battle each other, but 40-degree temperatures and intermittent rain showers - the new normal for baseball in the northeast.

Fortunately, our tickets included access to a number of Citi Field's club areas.  While I'm not normally one to give up a "real seat" in favor of a bar stool and a high top table, on this night I made the exception - after a 20 minute delay prior to first pitch and three long innings of shivering in my seat, I moved to take cover inside.  Given that I love watching baseball from the upper deck right behind the plate, I figured Citi's Promenade Club would be a great place to go for a few innings.  Unfortunately (and hardly surprisingly), I wasn't the only person to have this idea.  While the game didn't draw a large crowd (official attendance was 32,325, but the actual show rate was clearly much lower), it seemed like everyone who did make it our to Queens on this night a) also had club access and b) had no interest in sitting outside.

While I consider myself a blue-collar kind of guy, I can't really understand what value the Citi Field club areas provide if they're not at least somewhat exclusive.  Yes, they are inside and provide a respite from bad weather, but each one was so crowded that it was a challenge to get a hot dog, let along a decent place to sit.  After striking up a conversation with a fellow Braves fan who was about to give up some prime real estate - two chairs at the counter right against the Promenade Club glass - we finally grabbed a seat with a view of the grass.  Unfortunately, Citi Field was designed so that even while sitting right against the glass, your view of the action is mostly obstructed (see below).  Despite my proximity to outside, I was still forced to watch the game on the club TVs, occasionally glancing outside when the ball was hit to the parts of the outfield that I could actually see.

This is the best view you're going to get from anywhere in Citi Field's Promenade Club.

Aside from the unexpectedly poor-design and limited sight lines, the Citi Field clubs offered little in the way of a special experience.  While the stadium's Acela Club - the field-level premium area reserved for top ticketholders - is pretty impressive, the Caesar's Club and the Promenade Club are little more than glorified concourse areas with a roof.  The food offerings are the same as everywhere else in the stadium, the lines are just as long and the people are the same.  The main difference is that, unlike the rest of Citi Field over the past few reasons, the club areas are actually crowded.