Coors Field Renovation

All photos of Coors Field, Denver, Vail, and Basalt available on Flickr.

Our summer of travel continued this past weekend as my wife and I were in Colorado for a wedding.  We flew into Denver on Thursday and decided to spend our first night in town before heading up into the mountains, so Megan was of course not surprised when the first thing I did was check the Rockies schedule.  Sure enough, they were playing a matinee game about 45 minutes after we were scheduled to land.  With no checked bags or kids to worry about on this trip, we were able to hustle into a Lyft and get checked into our hotel downtown, and made it into the park in the top of the 2nd inning.  We bought the cheapest tickets that were available, and remarkably, inflation has not affected the $4 Rockpile bleacher seats in center field.  I checked the blog from my last visit on the Tour in 2007, and the price was indeed the same 15 years ago.  This is a section of bleachers in dead-center above the batter's eye that pays homage to old Mile High Stadium where, for the brief period the Rockies played there before Coors Field opened, you could sit in the furthest section away from home plate for a buck.

We purchased these cheap seats knowing that we would be walking around the park most of the game and had no intention of ever sitting there.  Instead, we entered in the left field gate and made a bee-line straight for the newest section of Coors Field called "The Rooftop."  This was a major remodel completed in time for the 2014 season in which the Rockies essentially blew out most of the seats in the 3rd deck in right field in favor of a massive rooftop space.  The result was converting what were a large glob of seats in a 50,000+ capacity ballpark that were seldom used into the biggest concessions generator in the entire stadium, and at the time it was constructed, it was the first rooftop space and largest deck/patio space on any level in all of professional sports.  Since then some other teams have followed suit, such as the renovation Erik and I visited in Cleveland a few years ago, and a similar area at the new Atlanta park, but because of its sheer size and stunning view to the Rocky Mountains at a mile above sea level, Coors Field's Rooftop remains as the most splendid such area in baseball.  The area is 46,000 square feet in total spread over two open tiers that includes several food stands and bars, both indoor and outdoor spaces, and a connection bridge.  It also ranges widely in scale and intimacy, with some private cabanas on the lower tier, tables and chairs on one end, and also massive open bar and standing areas with drink rails with full view to the field.  Most importantly, this area is open to ALL fans and is something I've always yearned for at AmFam Field.  It does look like you can buy tickets specifically for the Rooftop that are for some reason 4x what we paid for just our bleacher seats, so that is a nice little hack for anybody visiting the park - just buy the cheap seats if you want to go up there.  There are a couple of disadvantages that you could probably expect from such a space - little area for shade, and long crowded concessions lines.  It's an area of the ballpark where you can certainly see the field and know what's going on, but it is social in nature and not the ideal place to actually watch 9 innings of baseball, which is always the appropriate compromise and intent of a space like this in any ballpark.  We made it about 3 innings up there before the 96° sun had baked us sufficiently and made our way back down to the main level with silos of Coors Banquet in hand.

We walked around some more and took in some of the other more minor renovations done to the ballpark since my last visit, which include a massive new mountain-shaped jumbotron as well as a concessions overhaul.  These two upgrades are not uncommon for any ballpark of this age (approaching 30 years now) and certainly keep Coors Field current while also retaining the charm of when it first opened.  We settled in the left field bleachers for a few more innings and then took off a little bit early as the heat and altitude were starting to affect us.  Unfortunately, there are actually very few areas of refuge from the sun at Coors Field aside from standing in the concourse, and that is something we could have really used on this day.  But aside from that minor complaint, Coors Field remains in my top 10 and is a very well-done ballpark.  As for the game, the Rockies won an 8-5 barnburner that dragged to almost 4 hours.  Kyle Freeland and Blake Snell both gave up 5 runs each and were out of the game before the 5th inning.  Former Brewer Jhoulys Chacin held down the fort for 2 scoreless innings as a part of 5 scoreless from the Rockies bullpen.  The only homerun in this notoriously hitter-friendly park was by Padre Trent Grisham (also a former Brewer) who still could not muster to creep his average above the Mendoza line.  $182M man Kris Bryant went 0-4 with an RBI for Colorado.

One of my favorite things about Coors Field is not just the park itself, but it is in one of the coolest and most vibrant neighborhoods you'll find at any ballpark - LoDo, or Lower Downtown.  We met up with some friends we were going to the wedding with after the game for dinner at a delicious taco joint just two blocks from the park.  Every bar and restaurant within a few block radius was packed even for a weekday afternoon game.  We ventured further east and found that as you move further away, the downtown gets a bit sleepier, but we had a great time exploring the city on foot nonetheless, and even stumbled upon a French street festival off of the 16th Street Pedestrian Mall.  We headed out Friday morning from our downtown hotel and drove 3 hours into the mountains up to Basalt, also stopping in Vail along the way, and had a phenomenal time celebrating (congrats Katie and Stokes)!  The wedding was beautiful and it was wonderful to see some old friends, but I'm grateful we got to spend a day in Denver as well, and of course, fit in some ball.

updated park stats and rankings (see original post from 8/26/07):
aesthetics - 8
views from park - 6
view to field - 6
surrounding area - 10
food variety - increases to 7
nachos - 9
beer - increases to 5
vendor price - 5
ticket price - 9 (remarkably, inflation has not affected the $4 Rockpile bleacher seats 15 years later)
atmosphere - 5
walk to park - 9
parking price/proximity - decreases to 8
concourses - 9
team shop - 5

best food - Polidori Sausage stand
most unique stadium feature - "The Rooftop" in right field
best jumbotron feature - n/a
best between-inning feature - tradition of playing of "Hey Baby" by DJ Otzi during 7th inning stretch

field dimensions - 347/415/350
starters - Blake Snell (SD) v. Kyle Freeland (COL)
opponent - San Diego Padres
time of game - 3:42
attendance - 28077
score - 8-5 W
Brewers score that day - 3-2 W

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 7/18/22:

Brewers 50-43, +0.5; 4 v. Rockies, 2 v. Twins, 3 @ Red Sox

Twins 50-44, +2.0; 2 @ Tigers, 2 @ Brewers, 3 @ Padres

2022 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 1

Peter - 14