With summer well underway, we’re immersed in prime season for barbecues, beaches, and of course, baseball. In the Chicago-area, we have two teams to choose from, the White Sox and Cubs, with two very-distinct ballparks. Wrigley Field is nearly 100 years old and chalk-full of (typically tragic) history, while U.S. Cellular Field is much newer and filled with modern amenities. For wheelchair users, a lot goes into what makes a ballpark experience positive, and many of those things are rarely considered by the general public.
The most important aspect of attending a ballgame, of course, is the location of wheelchair-accessible seats. Most older parks, including Wrigley, have limited accessible seating, many times in the farthest reaches of the ballpark. As much as we love history and baseball, sitting in the 50th row, underneath an overhang preventing us from seeing fly balls will likely make us irritable (which is tough to do, considering how lovely and fantastic and generally perfect people we are each and every day). The point is, the best parks will have accessible seating in nearly every section so that we can choose our vantage point to the same degree as any other patron.
Enjoyable Ballpark Experience
Here are some of the other important things we have to consider when it comes to an enjoyable ballpark experience:
- The location and availability of accessible entrances: As we’ve written about in the past, U.S. Cellular Field does a great job with its accessible entrances. It’s convenient, near accessible parking and reserved solely for customers with disabilities. That’s not always the case in all baseball parking lots, and if it’s not, it’s a big negative in the accessibility checklist.
- Location and availability of accessible bathrooms: There’s nothing worse than having to pee, and taking two innings of the game in order to wheel around the entire stadium in order to find an accessible stall. We’d much rather spend those two innings waiting in line to buy a $10 hot pretzel or heckling Joe Mauer for his sideburns.
- The ease of buying tickets: Most stadiums make you buy accessible tickets directly through the teams, instead of through Ticketmaster like the general public. While this can be annoying, it’s not always a bad thing. It oftentimes makes it easier to get the tickets you want, but it also can mean higher prices because you can’t get deals or use StubHub. And heck, it’s a much better policy than what the Cubs have going for them….yeah, they need to work on that.
- The devil is in the details: Some newer parks have gone to great lengths to make themselves as accessible as possible. In Minnesota for instance, Target Field has electrical outlets in front of every accessible seat so a customer can plug his or her electric chair in during the game (as does Miller Park). You can charge your wheelchair while counting pitches, plug in medical equipment, and you won’t drain your cell phone battery playing Angry Birds. Target Field also has extremely wide concourses, accessible gift shops, etc. that allowed us to enjoy the entire gameday experience without any worries.
So there you have it. Obviously, many of these ballparks have age working against them, but as long as the staff is friendly and courteous, we’re are more than likely going to look past one or two of the issues listed above. Unless the White Sox or Tigers are losing…then we’ll be grumpy no matter what!
Tags: Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, different spokes, Miller Park, StubHub, Target Field, U.S. Cellular Field, White Sox, Wrigley Field
