While on a trip to southern California, we hit up several of the ballparks. Dodgers Stadium was last on our tour and unfortunately the best definitely wasn’t last. The mountain view was beautiful but the stadium design, food and amenities weren’t great. It is an old stadium and was neat to see, but this also is a major fault that made it not very enjoyable to take in everything the stadium had to offer.

Design

Dodger Stadium is the third oldest ballpark in the majors, which seems neat but there’s a reason stadiums are rebuilt. The layout is horrible. For one, they don’t let fans on the upper level access the lower levels. We were pretty bummed that we couldn’t see the other sections or side of the ballpark since the top level does not include a 360 degree interior walk. The stairwells were very cramped and had an industrial feeling making navigation claustrophobic and cumbersome. One nice thing about the upper level is that you enter the stadium at an elevated level and don’t have to climb up stairs (thank God for avoiding more cramped stairwells!). Thanks to Dodgers owner Magic Johnson, recent renovations were completed to make expanded entrances, larger restrooms, new team stores and concessions, and improved technology (wi-fi and scoreboards). I can’t imagine how inconvenient it was before this.

The mountain view was our favorite part about the park. Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot of other stuff to look at in the outfield. We could barely see a Dodgers sign.

Location

There’s a nice scenic drive to the stadium with beautiful views. Unfortunately, there’s nothing within walking distance and there’s no convenient public transportation. Fortunately, it is relatively close to downtown LA.

Concessions

The hot dogs were pretty subpar. We tried the Extreme Bacon Wrapped Dog and couldn’t even taste the bacon. We also tried the Doyer Dog, which is a Dodger dog with chili, jalapeños, nacho cheese and pico de gallo. With all those yummy toppings it should have been an explosion of flavor but was just very bland and mediocre. We didn’t even try the straight Dodger Dog, because it looked unappetizing. I doubt that a long skinny dog with mediocre toppings would have been enjoyable.

Culture

The Dodgers fans were quite rambunctious but surprisingly amiable to us. It wasn’t very crowded but the fans were quite loud. We appreciated that the fans were supportive of their team. Despite wearing Cardinals/Mariners stuff, we didn’t get taunted. We opted against red Cardinals gear since we were a little nervous since fans have been mugged at this stadium. Dodgers fans are surely bitter towards Cards fans since the Cardinals have knocked the Dodgers out of the playoffs in the last two seasons. Fortunately, we didn’t run into any vengeful fans.

Summary & Scoring

Dates Visited: Monday, April 13, 2015
Games Played: Dodgers 6, Mariners 5. Extra inning game – we left while the game was still tied. This little Puigy had a home run. Box Score
Design:  – It’s a historic stadium but the layout hinders the fan experience with tight stairwells and preventing access to other parts of the stadium. There weren’t any stadium features that really stood out as unique or enthralling. Although the mountains in the background are beautiful.
Location: – There’s a nice scenic drive to the stadium with beautiful views, but there’s nothing within walking distance. It is close to downtown LA, but there’s no convenient public transportation.
Concessions: – The food (i.e. hot dogs) were overpriced and subpar. We only had access to the top level where our seats were so could not take part in any of the stuff available in other areas.
Amenities: – 
Culture: – The Dodgers fans are quite rambunctious (especially for a somewhat small weekday crowd) and were amiable despite our Cardinals/Seattle gear.
Overall: – This was probably one of our least favorite stadiums so far primarily due to the stadium layout. The mountain view was definitely the highlight.