Sunday Family Stories - A Tale of Two Ballparks

One of the things that Toronto has that Charleston doesn't is direct access to top tier professional sports. Toronto has the Blue Jays (MLB), the Leafs (NHL), the Argos (CFL) and the Raptors (NBA), so when we come home to visit family we try to avail ourselves of the opportunity to see games...


In contrast, Charleston offers the RiverDogs (a Yankees farm team), the Sting Rays (an ECHL team), the Battery (Soccer) the Citadel for college football and scores of great college baseball, softball, basketball and volleyball...


Today I'm going to focus on my family's recent experiences with two very different ballparks...


Yesterday, Wayne took Liam to see the Blue Jays - here's what he wrote on his blog about the experience:

Yesterday, I took Liam to the Blue Jays game. Their promotion was as a Jr Jays day with kiddie tickets being half price; As I knew Liam would only last six or seven innings and knowing there would be a large number of families in the building, I thought it was the perfect day to introduce him to the Blue Jays. I forgot however, they were playing Boston which meant it would be a large crowd. 

So I decided to get two tickets in the no alcohol section thinking it would be less popular and a little more quiet for my noise sensitive child. We got to the ticket booth and I explained to the lady that I needed aisle seats as I had a special needs child and that he would consistently need to leave and come back. So what do I get? Two tickets right in the middle of a row. By the third inning, our row was completely full leaving my child feeling very uncomfortable. So we went to ask an attendant if we could move seats. I really wanted to move into 'worse' seats. I explained to the attendant the problem and the bored face basically recited policy to me and told me I was out of luck. I guess I could have just moved without asking and no one would have said anything but I was hoping my hometown team would be accommodating to my special needs child.

So I basically spent another inning of trying to get Liam not to kick the guy in front of me (his feet couldn't touch the ground in the seat) and him 'dancing' trying to get the sense of space. So we left. In total Liam had a lot more fun riding the TTC then going to the game. I could have just spent the $7.50 on the TTC instead of the $25 on nose bleed tickets and $13 for over cooked fries and a Coke.

 In contrast, this never would have happened at the Joe (home of the River Dogs) - first off, if we'd asked for aisle seats, we would have gotten aisle seats - and if they couldn't accommodate us, they would have said so...  if we'd needed to move, and had a good reason, the management would have helped to accommodate that too...


In terms of economies of scale, the River Dogs also keep the family pocketbook in mind when they set prices for concessions - it's still more than you'd pay at an average fast food place, but by no means do you go bankrupt getting snacks... and I've never eaten anything at the Joe that was sub par...


The River Dogs organization goes out of their way to make their product kid friendly... and to make each event special for all kids, even those with special needs... the Blue Jays have put profit ahead of experience, and it shows... even on Jr. Jays days they can't look past the profit to make one child's day more special...


I doubt our family will be heading back to a Jays game anytime soon, but I know that our butts will be in the seats come August when we get home, cheering for our new hometown team - the Riverdogs!