Features
See also: Washington Hall of StarsThe ballpark has 41,487 seats and features 79 suites on three levels, all around the infield. Team President Stan Kasten also said that the team might sell the naming rights to the levels of the luxury suites, which currently bear the names of presidents Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln. While the city agreed to spend up to $611 million, Kasten has stated that the principal owners, the Lerner family, spent tens of millions of dollars more on "jazzing up the park". The park has an out-of-town scoreboard, which is 102 feet (31 m) long, installed in the right field wall. The main scoreboard, at 101 feet (31 m) long and 47 feet (14 m) high, is more than five times the size of the one at RFK Stadium.
On March 13, 2007, Kasten announced that not only was the Nationals new ballpark on schedule to be ready by Opening Day 2008, but that there would be a grove of cherry blossoms located just beyond the left field bleachers. Kasten stated that the cherry blossoms will provide a look that Americans associate with the nation's capital.
Other distinctive features of the ballpark are the views of the U.S. Capitol from the upper deck. Fans in the upper deck sitting down the right field line near the foul pole, during all day games, fans can get a glimpse of the Washington Monument and the National Cathedral. Several area-based food establishments have concession stands: Ben's Chili Bowl hot dogs, Dogfish Head and Flying Dog Brewery beer.
Another feature The Red Porch is a full service sit-down restaurant located in center field. It offers some amenities unusual in a ballpark such as salads, along with regular ballpark fare such as burgers and hot dogs. When the stadium first opened in 2008, the restaurant was enclosed by glass windows with a view of the field which were soon made retractable. The restaurant was eventually expanded to outside the interior, with tables being placed in three rows outside.
Since 2011, a submarine dive horn has blared after every Nationals home run and win--a nod to the park's location in Navy Yard.
The ballpark features a make-your-own-mascot store for the Nationals' mascot, "Screech".
Read more about this topic: Nationals Park
Famous quotes containing the word features:
“Each reader discovers for himself that, with respect to the simpler features of nature, succeeding poets have done little else than copy his similes.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“These, then, will be some of the features of democracy ... it will be, in all likelihood, an agreeable, lawless, particolored commonwealth, dealing with all alike on a footing of equality, whether they be really equal or not.”
—Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.)
“It is a tribute to the peculiar horror of contemporary life that it makes the worst features of earlier times—the stupefaction of the masses, the obsessed and driven lives of the bourgeoisie—seem attractive by comparison.”
—Christopher Lasch (b. 1932)