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| Sunday, April 10, 2022 |
After an unusually long offseason -- with no regular season games the first half of April -- the gates of Fenway open to fans again April 15, 2022. The owners' lockout and owners/players negotiations concluded successfully just in time to make a 162-game season possible.
April 8th through 10th was Season Ticket Holder Batting Practice Weekend, when we were given the chance to "take batting practice" at "home plate". Iron Mike (the pitching machine) hurled ten straight pitches to each of us, but home plate was covered with a tarp with a home plate painted on... not exactly an authentic experience, but a fun one. I made good but weak contact with seven pitches, getting the farthest about 200 feet before it stopped rolling. Plus two foul tips and a decent bunt toward third. Few folks bunted, so I got a few cheers from those waiting in line.
We could walk around a bit, but mostly in sections 31 to 33, the Monster seats, and the concourse near Gate E. The park looked great, with everything fresh and clean. Many areas were freshly painted, such as the famous steel "poles".
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| Stencils for section numbers |
The most obvious change this year is the "Truly Terrace" perched behind the bleacher sections 39 to 43. There is a standing room area literally joined to the bleachers, and above that is an open area that is part of a rentable event space. The new structure sits atop the old Laundry Building/Garage, which is between the park and the new theatre complex still rising in the triangle bounded by Ipswich and Lansdowne Streets. Above the event space is an enlarged, widened video board, which will have room for both teams' lineups. There is also a new fascia video board (ribbon) above the standing room area.
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| The Truly Terrace and New Balance scoreboard |
The Truly Terrace looks professionally designed and built from a distance, but it also represents a very unfortunate situation: The rear wall of the 1934 bleacher structure was demolished, as were three or four rows of the bleachers themselves. If only the new facility were built overlooking the historic bleachers, with three passageways cut into the concrete wall to give fans access at the top of each stairway. New construction is one thing -- it is in evidence almost everywhere around the park in the upper levels -- but cutting away large pieces of the park's historic building fabric is much more serious.
Miscellaneous changes in 2022
— The park is almost totally cashless, to minimize personal contact and to eliminate cash handling. Various digital options and credit cards work, as does “Fenway Pay”, a credit-card-linked system used by season ticket holders to earn points in Red Sox Rewards. If you only carry cash, you must use “reverse-ATMs” to convert the cash to a plastic gift card. These RATMs were seen inside Gate B and Gate E.
— While Mo Vaughn strolled toward the infield in the Opening Day festivities, a drone flew around with its video aired on the jumbotron. I had not seen a drone within Fenway before.
— The umpires were not listed anywhere on Opening Day, just announced on the PA.
— “FLUFFER NUTTER BITES” ($14.50) and a “CHEETOS DOG” ($8.50) were available in Aramark’s experimental food booth under the bleachers. This was the only spelling mistake noticed so far this year on the menu boards.
— However, there were several mistakes to the lyrics of Sweet Caroline and the National Anthem shown on the New Balance scoreboard, caused by inadvertent transcription glitches between the former board and the new one. Acting as quality control, the Purist alerted the scoreboard crew and the errors were corrected.
— Wifi boosters were placed in the bleachers under certain seats in rows 4, 9, 14, 20, and 25. Ushers report that some fans have complained about the reduced spaces under their seats.
— Security personnel are wearing a new patch this year (as the Sox players are wearing Remy’s ‘2’ patch). It says 206. A sign above Gate A explains, it is in loving memory of security supervisor Donny Bowes, who died tragically in a car accident in March. Bowes’s assigned radio number was 206.
— Gate A is now sponsored by Aspiration Partners Inc., presumably because the name starts with A. Aspiration is not a bank but an SEC-registered broker-dealer which offers “socially-conscious and sustainable cash management services and investment products”. They measure emissions for corporations and offer carbon-offset strategies to help the corporations reach climate-impact goals.
Aspiration is now the Official Sustainability Partner of the Red Sox. The good news about that is that they are helping the planet. The bad news is that Gate A is now “sponsored”… and the name is also painted in large white letters right on Fenway’s green grass along the baselines in foul territory. The Purist cries “Foul!”
In coming months, are we going to be treated (or our eyes assaulted) by seeing the Draft Kings Gate D? The CVS Gate C? The Bank of America Gate B? Hope not!
A tour of the new Truly Terrace
The Truly Terrace is a standing room mingling area, a bar/concessions area, and the home of a new NESN studio.
The Terrace is eight steps higher that the upper grandstand/bleacher elevator level, with two stairs and a ramp gaining access. To extend this new floor level into the bleachers, the top five rows of the bleachers were removed and that space leveled with new concrete. Row 45 is the last row of old 1934 concrete. In section 43, the space beyond row is a small flat area with eight barstools. In sections 39, 41, and 42, two rows of seats were reinstalled, and two rows of barstools added. This area was jammed Opening Day, except for the special little area in section 43.
Entering into the enclosed terrace from the south, one first comes to an enormous double sided Truly bar, yet another place for fans to crowd into to get more alcoholic drinks. Past that, one sees the new NESN studio, featuring a wall of baseballs behind the NESN logo. The on-air crew faces away from the field with the park as the backdrop. This space is much more polished than the former street level studio near the corner of Jersey and Van Ness Streets.
Away from the field from the bar are two new concepts in food and drink. “Truly Takeout” offers twelve food and three drink choices, which fans can order at four kiosks or via the Ballpark App. Offerings include a lobster roll for $31.00, the “market price” on Opening Day.
Near the takeout area is a walk-in Drink Market, with beverage cans and bottles and a few snacks. Fans pick out their choices and then place them in a three-dimensional box frame. Optical scanners and weight sensors detect what was put there, and a few seconds later a screen shows what you’re buying and how much you owe. The system is made by Sbot Technologies (that’s not a misspelling), otherwise known as Caper, is called the “AI Counter”. It is said to decrease transaction time by 70%. An employee is still needed to monitor customers and check for adult IDs for alcoholic drink purchases.
There are restrooms available on this level as well. This will benefit fans sitting in the upper bleachers as the new restrooms are closer that the ones at ground level quite a distance away.
The Truly Terrace looks like it will be a successful addition to Fenway. It adds spaces that fans will happily use. It does not look unattractive. But as I said earlier, all that comes at a hefty price: destruction of a part of historic Fenway. When the current ownership group began multi-year renovations after assuming control in 2002, they adopted a “do no harm” approach. Various types of harm has been done to old Fenway during the last two decades of modernization, but most of that harm was done in superstructure (ironwork supporting the grandstand roof and the roof itself) and rear walls (such as that between the park and the Jeano Building, where the Third Base Deck etc. are). But to me, this harm is worse, because it happened in a very visible part of the park.
A tour of the new 521 Overlook
Above the Truly Terrace is another new gathering place, but without concessions. Named for the number of home runs Ted Williams hit, the 521 Overlook is a set of four enclosed function rooms with an outdoor area attached. The whole area held a “Private Reception” Opening Day. These are basic, rentable areas, with the two central rooms (521 B and 521 C) able to be combined into one large room. A decorative entrance sign incorporates 100 bats.
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| Room 521 B and 521 C combined |
Behind the four rooms is a carpeted hallway decorated with oversize prints of historic Red Sox photos. That hallway serves restrooms, a kitchen, two passenger elevators and an enormous freight elevator, and a sure sign of ritziness: a coat check room.
Admittance to this level is controlled by Security, with only designated standing room tickets being valid for entrance. The Red Sox ticket purchase pages do show this area, but it seems no tickets are available to the public at this time. Similar to the Sam Deck standing room, it's another area for one to observe the game from afar.
