Loved Wrigley for the experience. The fans were as into the game as they could be and we were a few sections over from the bleacher bums. There was a rain delay for a day game which just seemed right for a game at Wrigely. It just felt like a true baseball game. Atmosphere is hard to overcome when ranking stadiums. That is why Fenway edged old Yankee for me.
Better view of the Community Billboards from home plate. https://twitter.com/astrostalk/status/446692038763749376
Ok those truly look atrocious. AWFUL they completely negate the beautiful arches that make up that facade. Seriously, who possibly thought this was a good idea? I give them credit for recognizing that the huge wall of signs was a terrible idea, but this is not an improvement. Please take the signs down and give the companies who donated money some ad airtime on your POS cable network, Jim. It was a bad idea to junk up the stadium with these signs. Just swallow your pride and accept it, Jim. Give the fans SOMETHING.
Much much improved. I'd rather they were gone, or on the train . . .but it's a lot better than before at least
Still an eyesore, but a huge improvement over their original location. Could've used the ribbon boards to display the community leaders throughout the game. But oh well.
This. Why did they hang them low enough to eliminate the archways? And is it just me, or are the signs now bigger? And are there more of them now? Somebody up top get them my train idea, stat. With the amount of money they've spent installing the old sign contraption, taking it down, and installing the signs in a new place, they could have easily got some permanent carts on the train. Hell, they could put SEATS in the train carts (each one sponsored by one of these companies), and market that to the fans (and charge a premium for them). I'd actually love to watch a game from the train cart seats (vantage point similar to the green monster seats, which are awesome).
Hate those things.....obviously not as bad as before, but still terrible. As others have stated, the arches are now covered. Ruined the whole look of the arched facade.
Serious question. How much cash do the Astros receive from the community signs? I know a lot of it goes to a charitable cause, but how much is Crane pocketing?
Nothing right now, but after a few years I'm sure he will quietly turn the "community leaders" signs into straight ad-space. I'm happy with the overall direction of the on-field product, but Crane is virtually universally distrusted in regards to everything else. He isn't gonna get the benefit of the doubt from anybody right now.
The amount of carts needed for that would probably span the entire track, and you'd be back to blocking the skyline again. Honestly the more I look at it the less intrusive it is. If they could just raise them a little bit higher so you can clearly see the arches, it'd be fine. Otherwise it's not nearly the ugly eyesore (that no one ever got used to) it was when it blocked all of the left field skyline.
Agreed, its better. But still complain-worthy that they're there at all. The wall was much better served "honoring" this team (with pennants, Kile's DK, Biggio's 3000'th hit... hell, if they had moved the retired numbers there, it would have been great). Now, the "honors" get stashed in different places, while the company ads take center-stage. Regarding carts behind the train, sure, you can't have a single cart for every company... but you could combine them, or have different ones for different parts of the season. And it doesn't come close to blocking the view like the signs did. The more I think about it, I'm more excited about possible seats in the carts that fans can purchase. Sure, they'd have to work out whether or not the train can move with fans actually in it... along with how to feed these people once they sit up there... but it would be one of the most unique vantage points south of the green monster (and the vantage point changes throughout the game as the train moves!)
I might be wrong, but I believe Pallilo reported on his show one day that 40% of the proceeds go to the ballparks. So that would mean the Astros still pocket 60%.
I haven't spent a lot of time googling the story, but this seems to be the amount which is commonly shown and I haven't been able to find anything that says the Astros (Crane) receive any direct benefit: "The Astros plan to have 12 corporate partners in the Community Leaders Program, which will ultimately contribute $18 million to the City of Houston over the next five years."
^^^^ Honestly, I still hate the signs. I actually don't mind the placement, though. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Our flags are flying higher now. <a href="http://t.co/9EaLpjYM1n">pic.twitter.com/9EaLpjYM1n</a></p>— Mike Acosta (@AstrosTalk) <a href="https://twitter.com/AstrosTalk/statuses/448497856387641344">March 25, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
