The TinCaps looked to the two oldest parks in the major leagues for a couple of the nicest views at Parkview Field.
The TreeTop section, beyond the right-field wall, is reminiscent of the rooftop area beyond Chicago’s Wrigley Field.
“It’s my favorite just because of the view. It’s stunning to be that close to the outfield wall, but to be looking down into the facility,” said Michael Limmer, the team’s vice president of marketing and promotions. “It’s the same sort of vantage point as a rooftop seat at Wrigley Field, but you are inside the ballpark. You are that much closer. You are not a full street and eight or nine stories away.”
The section generally is reserved for groups ($29 a person) except for Tuesdays when individual tickets ($32) are available. The tickets include an all-you-can-eat menu that begins 30 minutes before the game and concludes in the seventh inning. Soft drinks are included. There is a beer option for an additional price.
“Just about every two innings the menu changes,” Limmer said. “You might have hamburgers and hot dogs to start, then chicken and ribs, and then who knows. At the end you have your desserts. So you can just pig out.”
There will be about 200 chairs for what Limmer called “bar-bleacher” seating.
“I hate to use the word bleacher because it’s not a bleacher like you are used to at Memorial Stadium. It’s bleacher material, it’s that same kind of metal, but they are basically all high-top table rails, and you are sitting on a high-top chair. So it’s kind of like sitting at a bar, but it’s bleacher material,” he said.
“The very first row will be about 4 feet off the ground, so you won’t have any issue seeing over the railing that’s up there.”
The TinCaps’ home run-porch seats, at the top of the left-field fence, are similar to the seats atop the Green Monster at Boston’s Fenway Park.
“Originally we thought about naming them the Monster seats, but when we realized it was going to be about 12 to 14 feet off the ground, it was like, well, not quite,” Limmer joked.
The group seats, at $10 a person, have wider, padded seats and a shade structure overhead.
“The Monster seats (in Boston) are basically a high-top table with a high-top chair. The home run porch is going to be a padded seat-back chair with a drink rail and food rail in front of you,” Limmer said. “You are perched right on top of that wall. The home run line is right in front of you. You can catch a home run.
“One of the coolest things about the ballpark is that we have 360-degree seating. We were able to put so many seats as close to the field as possible.”
