Hey everyone. I hinted at this the other day in the comments but I wanted to put the word out cause a) I’ve got some questions and b) it’d be neat to meet some of you displaced Cardinal fans. I’ll be coming down to Memphis for Friday, Saturday and Sunday to catch all three games. This is basically my summer vacation and I’m pretty pumped about it.
On Friday and Sunday I’ll be sitting in section 101 row A seat 5. On Saturday it’ll be row D (same section and seat). That’s the area to the left of home plate if you were standing on the pitchers mound. I’ll have a white STL Cardinals hat on so that should help to distinguish me. Feel free to stop by and say hey (my real name is Tim although if you use my moniker, I’ll probably respond to that too).
Couple questions:
1 – How early does the park open? I have every intention of going and watching BP so that I can snap tons of pictures and take some notes.
2 – How’s the parking around the stadium? The city site makes it look like there are several public lots near the stadium. Do these fill up? Are they pay lots?
3 – How’s traffic in Memphis? I’m not the best of navigators (although I’ll basically be going up and down Popular Ave, IIRC) so I’m a little concerned about this.
4 – Anything I should know about the stadium? Do they have a gift shop? Is the beer/food expensive? Clue me in.
I’d appreciate any pointers on anything else you have input on. If you are planning on saying hello drop a comment or shoot me an e-mail (timamccullough AT gmail DOT com) so that I know whether I’ll be overwhelmed or not. See you in Memphis!
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there is a good amount of parking to be had around the park…some expensive…some others not so bad…but you really are paying for security with the price, so if you want your car to be in a covered and gated lot, you should park in the public lots associated with the peabody place…they are pretty close to the park, and signs will lead you there
there is a pretty nice gift shop just as you walk in the stadium…beer and food is pretty expensive(typical ball park prices), but they have redevouz food there(the rendevouz is kinda the epicenter of memphis style bbq) so you should definitely hit that stand, its by the main gate entrance if i’m not mistaken
traffic in memphis is usually hit or miss…depending on when you drive, it can be terrible or it can be pretty quick…no that memphis drivers are crazy so be on the watch out for that…and as a memphian I implore you not to take poplar if you can avoid it…i hate that road…Union avenue runs right by the main gate of the ballpark and is a lot easier to drive IMHO(poplar is narrow and one of the busiest streets in the city)
not sure when the park opens but i’m sure you can call the number on the website and find out
i prolly won’t be able to make it to any of the games, so i’m jealous…anyways, hope this helps and have fun
Gates open an hour before first pitch, except on Sundays when it’s 30 minutes. Unfortunately, they don’t really do BP anymore when the gates are open. Most of the time, it seems like they take it really early in the day.
Traffic in Memphis is pretty easy most of the time, but make sure make sure make sure make sure make sure you have a general idea where you’re going. The downtown core is fine, but you can get into some rough neighborhoods very quickly when you get out of downtown. Again, downtown is fine, though no different than any other downtown — tell the panhandlers no and know what’s around you. But there’s rough neighborhoods pretty close.
Parts of Poplar suck — it depends how far out Poplar you need to go, you might be better off taking a different route if narrow roads spook you. It’s wide enough for three lanes each way with no turn lane, but they narrowed the lanes to fit the turn lane in places. So if you’re in or near an SUV or, worse, a semi…ugh.
For parking, there are several garages — the one across the street is $10, the one in the LF corner is $8. A little farther out, there’s parking for less than that also. If you’re there early enough and you’re willing to drive/walk a little more, you can find street parking too, though that’s not as secure, obviously, as parking in a garage. (Then again, a couple of the garages are pretty sketchy too) The garages, as far as I know, never fill up for the Redbirds, and I don’t know of anything else going on this weekend that would cause problems with parking availability.
The gift shop in the ballpark is pretty good — has a lot more selection than most MiLB ones. Beer and food aren’t quite MLB prices, but they’re pretty close. That said, there’s good restaurants near the stadium, so you can eat pretty well before the game if you wish.
And if you didn’t know, A is the front row, you’ll be about 3-4 seats from the tunnel where the umpires come out…D is the fourth row. I’ll be there Friday and Sunday for sure, and I look forward to meeting you.
Thanks for the info (e-mails and comments)! I’ll be seeing some of you at the park.
I would assume that being who you are you could probably get in during BP. Just send a request to the Front Office. You guys get interviews (even if it is email exchange) with some of the top execs I would think they wouldn’t mind letting you in early to watch BP and get an interview with Hoffpauir, Boggs, whoever.
Arzu have some of the Bar-B-Que Nachos for me. Those things are amazing.
When I was down there last summer, the Redbirds were out of town but the park was still open to walk around in (just not into the seats). If it’s the same when their in town, I don’t think there’d be an issue getting to see BP.