Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, hasn’t gotten a lot of positive press lately. The ballpark is consistently ranked near the bottom of MLB stadium reviews, and there have been increasing calls to build a new stadium. It’s fair to say I had low expectations going into the game today. While some of the criticisms are valid, I actually really liked the ballpark, and all around enjoyed my first trip to Chase Field.
The ballpark is situated on the edge of downtown, but isn’t integrated with the city like more modern ballparks. This translates into good accessibility, but the park isn’t immediately adjacent to downtown bars and restaurants. It doesn’t bother me, but I know others place more emphasis on surrounding attractions. The exterior of the ballpark isn’t an architectural wonder by any stretch, but it’s also not an eye sore. Regardless, all the good stuff is inside the stadium anyway. Walking around the concourse, you get the feeling that there isn’t a bad seat in the house. Chase Field probably has the best sightlines of any stadium I have visited so far. If there’s a bad view somewhere, I wasn’t able to find it.
Similar to T-Mobile Park in Seattle, I think my main criticism of Chase Field is its size. With a capacity of nearly 50,000, the stadium is way to big for the crowds the Diamondbacks can expect to draw. With modern stadiums trending smaller, the cavernous size of Chase Field definitely sticks out. Outside of that I don’t have any real complaints. I’ve seen pictures of the stadium when the roof is closed, and it doesn’t look nearly as nice as with the roof open. But hard to fully judge, having only seen the ballpark with the open air configuration.
While not a factor I place a lot of emphasis on, the food scene isn’t nearly as good as some of the West Coast ballparks. Seattle, San Diego, and San Francisco all had excellent food options. Chase Field is more in line with Angel or Dodger Stadium when it comes to food options. They have a Chick-Fil-A inside, which made me a happy camper, but I know my culinary preferences are slightly different than most of you. All in all would classify it as standard stadium food. Nothing special, but just fine for a day at the ballpark.
Now for the updated rankings. This one was actually pretty difficult. If I were to do the ranking solely based off of how much I enjoyed the experience, Chase Field might actually be ahead of Oracle and Petco. But one factor I need to strip out is the weather. Part of the challenge of ranking all 30 MLB stadiums, is I’ll be visiting them at different times of the year. Some I’ll catch during ideal weather, others I won’t get as lucky. Today’s weather was amazing. Most of the game the temperature was in the high 80’s, with a light breeze in the air. If I had been here in July, when it’s 110 degrees and the roof is closed, I wouldn’t have enjoyed the game nearly as much. So doing my best to normalize for the weather, Chase Field is going to be slotted into 6th place behind Angel Stadium. If I were ranking the stadium exclusively for when the roof is open, I would have Chase Field ahead of Angel Stadium, but the roof is closed the majority of the year, so I have to factor that in. I’m not sure where it will end up in the final rankings, once I’ve seen all 30 ballparks, but I’m confident it won’t be bottom 5 like a lot of rankings. Overall Chase Field is a fine place to see a baseball game, more than worthy of a visit if you’re ever in Phoenix.
MLB Ballpark Rankings
- Dodger Stadium – Los Angeles, CA
- T-Mobile Park – Seattle, WA
- Oracle Park – San Francisco, CA
- Petco Park – San Diego, CA
- Angel Stadium – Anaheim, CA
- Chase Field – Phoenix, AZ
29. Tropicana Field – St. Petersburg, FL
30. Oakland Coliseum – Oakland, CA
We went there last May and I really liked it too. I don’t think I actually realized it had a retractable roof. Not sure how I missed that 🤣 but I do remember it being great weather. May is definitely a great month to visit this park.