What makes a good stadium experience?

There are a lot of factors at play here.

Been thinking about stadiums lately and what exactly makes them a good experience for fans. I have been to a decent number of stadiums and arenas around the country for both work and fun, and I am soon going to more next week. I feel like I have some sort of a read on what makes a place good and fun.

I made the comment to my parents recently that the Pittsburgh Penguins tend to make their arena improvements catered toward the richest fans. The Pittsburgh Pirates tend to make their stadium improvements more toward the casual fans. The Pittsburgh Steelers make no improvements for anybody and have constructed — and maintained — the most basic, bland, soulless concrete fortress known to man.

It honestly kind of sucks as a stadium. The atmosphere gets good in big moments and in big games, and Renegade is still a hit even if some people are tired of it, but the crowd and a consistently competitive team are the only things that help make it.

The stadium itself just sucks and is in no way fan-friendly.

In some ways, I get it.

Football stadiums are not attractions the way baseball stadiums are.

When you go to a baseball stadium you have down time. You have time between innings. You have a game that is not always action-packed. There are opportunities to take a lap, explore everything it has to offer, see the different views, see the game from different angles. You do not necessarily need to stay in your seat. They are venues that people will make pilgrimages to see. People want to do ballpark tours and see a game in every stadium. They have always been about charm, character, history and food.

Football stadiums are functional. The Steelers don’t need to build something to attract people because 70,000 people are going to show up if they played in a parking lot, and they know that. They also act like it by not really doing much to upkeep it.

Look, the Pirates are a shit organization and put a bad product on the field. But the stadium is at the top of the list for current stadiums in North America. It’s a gem, and I get why people enjoy going and why people from out of town travel to it. It’s a great location, it’s beautiful, there is stuff to do around it, the views are breathtaking and there is not a bad seat in the place.

There are just three massive flaws:

1. The team sucks

2. The team sucking creates a boring crowd atmosphere with absolutely zero buzz in the crowd

3. It’s a terrible stadium for food

I feel the need to emphasize the latter point because I just read something this week about it ranking near the top of Yelp’s list for ballpark eats and … man … I could not possibly disagree more. Especially after visiting other stadiums — specifically baseball stadiums — around the league.

And I have heard similar complaints from out of town fans.

I remember talking to some Orioles fans a couple of years ago — a great food stadium, by the way — and they talked about how they loved the stadium but couldn’t believe how underwhelming it was for getting a taste of the city or something unique to eat.

It’s not the first — or last — time I’ve heard that.

The traditional items are below average. The hot dogs at most stands do not even come wrapped in foil to keep them warm and are just thrown into a cardboard tray after they’d been sitting out. This is the most basic ballpark food in existence, and if you can not even get that right, what the hell are you doing?

Even their signature dog from the 2024 season, the Renegade Dog, the one with pierogi, roast beef and pickles on it, started to get half-assed. In the first part of the season they were made fresh to order with everything piled on as you showed up. And then they started to be pre-made and just stacked in a pile to where everything just became a soggy mess.

This year’s signature items, the kielbasa cheesesteak and polish cannonballs, are almost impossible to find and not advertised in any way (they are apparently available behind section 146 down the right field line).

Manny’s BBQ out in center field, one of the long-standing staples of the stadium, has also taken a hit as they no longer even make the food in the stadium. Remember the smoke that used to rise up over the center field batter’s eye? It’s gone, because they don’t make it there anymore. They just bring it in already made. It’s shit now.

The only local taste of Pittsburgh you can readily find is a half-assed Primanti Brothers that only features two of their sandwiches. And they’re not even a good representation of what the sandwich is and should be.

And as a quick side quest here on Primanti Brothers as an institution of the city: I have zero problem with it. It’s actually become popular to hate on Primanti’s because it’s “overrated” or “not that good” or “there are better restaurants in the city.”

My reply to that is: Obviously.

If you’re going in and treating it like a gourmet meal, well then yeah, it’s going to look bad. No shit there are better restaurants in the city.

You’re looking at it all wrong. You’re thinking about what it is all wrong.

You don’t go to Primanti’s to get a five-star or Michelin star meal. It’s not The French Laundry. You go there to get a stupid fat sandwich to fill you up fast after you’ve been drinking for a few hours or to try something different or to just pig out and make yourself feel like shit. That’s all. Maybe you’ll like it. Maybe you won’t. And that’s okay. That’s part of the adventure. And when I am visiting a city, THAT’S WHAT I WANT TO TRY.

Take me to your dumb local place before you take me anywhere else. I don’t care if it’s touristy or a tourist trap. I’m a damn tourist.

Every city in America has great fine dining establishments and great restaurants. I can get a good steak literally everywhere. And eventually I want to try those upscale places in your city.

But first I want something I’m not going to get at home.

If I’m Minneapolis, I want to try a Juicy Lucy. I want beef on weck or wings in Buffalo. Take me to a good BBQ place in Texas. I want an Italian beef sandwich, or a Chicago dog or a deep dish pizza in Chicago. I want to try skyline chili in Cincinnati. I want clam chowder in Boston. Give me a toasted ravioli in St. Louis. I want a cheese steak in Philadelphia (but not from Pat’s or Geno’s). I want pizza and bagels and pastrami on rye with mustard from some random deli in New York.

What did you originate. What is unique to you. What is your thing. What do you have or do that nobody else has or does.

Give me your local thing first, let me try it, then take me to the nice restaurant after that.

That’s Primanti’s here.

I’d want to try it if I wasn’t from here.

It’s not that deep.

You can still take somebody to Meat and Potatoes, or Le Mont, or Monterey Bay, or Casbah or Bar Marco or Altius or whatever upscale, great restaurant you like. They’re all great. There’s also versions of the same places in every city in America when you travel to them. And they’re also great. Just give me the dumb local thing first.

PNC Park just does it poorly.

So let’s get back to the original point here. What makes a stadium experience good. I think it comes down to a few factors.

1. Is the team good?

2. Is the stadium itself nice, updated and maintained well?

3. Does it have history or any distinguishing features?

4. What is the fan atmosphere like? Are they into it? Are they paying attention and passionate?

5. Does it have good food options that make me want to buy something?

A stadium doesn’t have to nail ALL of these, and it doesn’t have to be perfect across the board. But a nice mix of several factors here really helps make it.

So with that said, I’m going to go through some of my favorite stadium experiences that i’ve been to over the years.

This is not a ranking of the stadium or arena itself. It is just a look at how enjoyable a game is watch there given all of the factors.

Let’s talk about some of them.