Fox Cities Stadium Renovation #2

All photos of Fox Cities Stadium available on Flickr.

Megan and I returned to Appleton for the first time in over 8 years yesterday to take in the second round of major renovations at Fox Cities Stadium, and to give our son Elliot his first experience at affiliated minor league ball.  We arrived to a nearly completely full parking lot about a half-hour before first pitch, and figured out pretty quickly that it was due to a Jonathan Lucroy bobblehead, for which we arrived too late to acquire (I did however get to see him throw out the first pitch).  Giveaway or no, it was really nice to see the park so full, and it was easy to see that the Timber Rattlers' affiliation with the Brewers seems to be thriving in not just Appleton but all of Wisconsin.  We were all very hungry upon arrival and got the customary children's favorites of hot dogs and lemonade before heading down to our left field lawn seats.

The main portion of the renovation we were excited to see was the 3-story slide that was constructed in left field, which is supposed to be a sort of homage to Bernie Brewer's slide - again reinforcing that strong affiliate partnership.  Much to our disappointment, that was the one portion of the renovation that was not yet completed for Opening Day, and I found out after we left that it will tentatively debut on May 31st.  It was a big bummer to drive 90 minutes and it wasn't even open, but honestly we sat pretty close to it and by the looks of it, Molly would have either not met the height requirement or would have been too terrified to slide down anyways (on the other hand, I would have enjoyed it immensely).  However, it was not a total loss, as the kids area in right field was expanded for this season as well.  The right field corner now features one of the larger kids areas I've seen so far, featuring a complete jungle gym, a gigantic sandbox with toys, and some standard bounce houses.  In the few years we've been taking our kids to ballgames, it's become apparent that kids areas are mostly an afterthought and mostly serve to make use of dead space in the corners of ballparks, and while that was certainly no different here, it was at least a very expansive and unique area.  As far as fan improvements go, the other major component of this year's renovation is that you can finally circumnavigate the entire park.  As of my last visit in 2015, you could make about a 90% loop, from the center field bullpens all the way around to the left field pole, with an inaccessible gap in left field.  That gap has now been infilled with a pavilion mixed with private and public space, and a series of walkways that jog up, down, and around the jumbotron and bullpens in the outfield.  It's actually a very cool procession underneath the massive jumbotron and then arriving in centerfield where you can watch pitchers warm up, although I will say that the new walkway is much too narrow for two-way traffic.  The walkway does widen a bit where it counts - above the bullpens to give people some standing room for heckling opponents and hounding for baseballs.  It then connects up with the pre-existing raised pavilion area in right field which more closely resembles a residential wood deck, which then empties into the kids area.  This renovation also encapsulated many of the MLB-mandated facility guidelines that were a part of the last CBA, including a new home clubhouse that doubles the size of their former space, new batting cages, dedicated spaces for female staff, expanded offices, and expanded player conditioning and relaxation areas.  

The kids seem to do better and better each time we take them to a game, and they had a ton of fun on Sunday.  We all sat pretty calmly for a good 3 innings and both Molly and Elliot were very inquisitive and interested in the game.  Attention started to wane during a long 3rd inning and we were successfully able to draw another 2 frames out of them with some ice cream.  I was more than ok with that seeing as how we were there mostly to see the new kids stuff.  There was certainly a time in my not-so-distant past that watching anything short of a full 9 innings would upset me and feel like a waste of money, but having kids changes your perspective - as it does with most things in a parent's life.  Baseball is more about the experience and the entertainment value than anything else, and realistically the game itself is just secondary with young children.  As long as we have a good time, eat some good food, and get to walk around a bit to see the park and enjoy the outdoors, that's really all I care about.  This is all a long prelude to say - I did not see anything that happened after the 5th inning.  I was in line getting ice cream during the lone homerun in the 4th inning, and the ball was noticeably jumping off the bat on the warm day.  Eric Brown Jr. was probably the biggest name on the T-Rats roster.  He was the Brewers 1st round pick last year, and went hitless with a walk batting leadoff.  Robert Moore also played 2nd in the game - he was a compensatory round B pick last year and he was the guy who hit the homer in the 4th.  My son was captivated by the program for much of the game, so I was unable to snatch it from him to read up too much on other players I didn't recognize.  Neither starter was particularly stellar, lasting only 2.2 and 3.2 innings respectively.  There were a lot of ground ball outs from both sides, a lot fewer strikeouts than I am accustomed to seeing in the Midwest League.  The hard hit fly balls and the lower strikeout totals could potentially both be attributed to this being the first Midwest League game I've seen since it changed to a High-A league a couple of years ago.

Overall, the 2022-23 renovations improved an already great minor league park, but I would still not consider this one of my favorites in the circuit.  Its major shortcomings are that it is very congested and there are really only two main concessions stands and two sets of bathrooms.  Those problems have existed in the 16+ years I've been coming to this ballpark and I think they would both be pretty difficult to fix at this point.  Portable food carts have been added over the years to increase concessions offerings, but those come at a cost of only further exacerbating the congestion problem.  That being said, it's pretty hard these days to find a bad place to watch a minor league ballgame.  With the aforementioned stricter facility guidelines, the days of Pohlman Fields and Pfitzner Stadiums are long gone.

park rankings and statistics
(see last renovation post from 4/13/13):

aesthetics - 6

views from park - 3

view to field - 5

surrounding area - 3

food variety - 6

nachos - improves to 7

beer - 9

vendor price - 7

ticket price - 8

atmosphere - improves to 7

walk to park - 1

parking price/proximity - 1

concourses - 6 (more congestion, but bonus points for outfield concourse)

team shop - 8

kids area - 8 (previously unranked - including the future slide in this ranking)

best food - helmet cheese fries
most unique stadium feature - 3-story slide in LF
best jumbotron feature - Press Your Luck
best between-inning feature - unchanged

field dimensions - 325/405/325
starters - Cruz Noriega (QC) v. Stiven Cruz (WIS)
opponent - Quad Cities River Bandits
time of game - 2:31
attendance - 5,363
score - 7-4 L
Brewers score that day - 6-4 W

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 5/22/23:

Brewers 25-21, +1.0; 3 v. Astros, 4 v. Giants, 3 @ Blue Jays, 4 @ Reds

Twins 25-22, +3.5; 3 v. Giants, 3 v. Blue Jays, 3 @ Astros, 4 v. Guardians

2023 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 0

Peter - 4