Centerfield Plaza makes the ballpark a fun place to hang out before and after the game, with good food, drinks, and vibes.
LA sports fans are often malign for their fairweather nature , late to get and early to leave , there for the scenery and there to be see and not for the making love of the game . Some of that is honest criticism , but there is also another kind of LA sports rooter .
If you hang out in the upper bowl at aLaker secret plan , post up at asports barfor aRams game , or sit in the outfield marquee atDodger Stadium , you will see them . They are not courtside in expensive athleisure , not preening for tv camera or craning their cervix to see who ’s sitting two rows in front . or else , they are wearing devoid giveaway tonne - shirt from a game six years ago , focused on the action , and yelling ( mostly ) safe - natured insults at the other team ’s best players . In short , there is a potent and fun undertone of real fans back up LA ’s team . And over the last twosome of seasons at Dodger Stadium , the experience has finally been geared more toward dead on target low-spirited LA variation fans .
The major modification is Centerfield Plaza , a new entrance to the stadium that also double as a variety of front pace , which debuted in 2021 . Over the last couple of seasons , additions and tweak to the setup have continued to better the experience . Now there are picnic tables and live medicine , lots of food options , multiple undefendable - air bars , a play sphere for kids , a ring of statues to lionise Dodger legends ( and supply picture ops ) , and two very nerveless vintage truck that have been repurposed to dish beer and ice cream , respectively . And against all betting odds , it worked . the great unwashed actually hang out there , get well before the first lurch to eat up , tope , sound off back , and love the ballpark .
Flickr/Cody Williams
There are stadium upgrades that happen every yr , rebranding of sections and repainting of seats , reorganizing trafficker , and renumbering aisles , but rarely do they have a meaningful impact on the fan experience . No one really cares about the layout of the stadium entrepot , innovations in the fiddling scoreboard game they play between innings , or what shade of blue their bum is . Fans really only want shorter lines , better food , and a more comfortable place to relish those things , and Centerfield Plaza delivers .
Standard procedure for baseball fan has often been to show up right before the first pitching to catch every import of the secret plan and downplay time spent squished into hamper hindquarters , make up too much for mass - marketplace beer and mediocre food . But now , if you show up to Dodger Stadium early , you ’ll see a arresting and spanking tantrum , big groups mail up at picnic tables , friends sit at outside bar watching other games , and Thomas Kid running around playing and climbing . It ’s a dainty way to turn your tag into a whole eventide out , making an consequence out of it , especially with baseball’snewly shortened games . It feel fun and dissimilar , and exciting . And it feel like something that has long been forbidden at Dodger Stadium . It feels like a tailgate .
Part of that sport smell is thanks to improved dining options in middle champaign . There ’s a Shake Shack out there now , and they ’re serving totally reasonable facsimile machine of dishes from their standalone restaurants . crease get long , but people are happy . There are several places to get a Dodger Dog , and despite thesupplier shift , not much has changed about them , which is mostly for the best . There are also plenty of actually solid vegetarian options , like Field Roast ’s plant - establish Dodger Dog , Shake Shack ’s ’ Shroom Burger , and Potato Taquitos from the generic but decent LA Taqueria stick out .
Photo courtesy of Health-Ade
Drinks are much unspoilt , too , from an improving beer office with several trade and craft - adjacent alternative to signature Micheladas in gigantic cups and a selection of Hornitos - branded tequila cocktails . alcoholic beverage - antipathetic fans profit a enceinte new option this year when Health - Ade kombucha became the first prescribed non - alcohol-dependent probiotic beverage partner of the Dodgers . Shockingly , this look to be the only such partnership in baseball game . Health - Ade ’s cans are usable around the stadium in several flavors and also mix into a mocktail in the Right Field Speakeasy ; yes , that isa matter that subsist , with a wall of windows that face out onto the visitor ’s detention cell to boot .
That speakeasy is an appropriate symbol of the new stadium ethos — cool and unique , something particular for the devotee that is actually note value - added , a understanding to show up too soon and persist late , and also maybe a little silly and distraught . It ’s a lot , but in a good , creative way , which is a substantial shift from how the stadium has feel in the past .
From the very get-go , there has been an undercurrent of enmity about the spot , invisible hands reaching up fromthe neck of the woods that lie underneath . The squad and its player became woven into the textile of LA , from the glorification days of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale in the ’ 60 to Fernandomania in the ’ eighty , theR.O.Y Boysof the ’ 90 to the dominant modern earned run average , but the fan experience at the arena and its looming front in the neighborhood have often been less than ideal . There were high - profile fights and notorious traffic , modified public transportation , andpromotional giveaway gone awry .
But now Dodger Stadium feels like a position for the people again , family - favorable and fun , the kind of night at the ballpark the city always deserved . Now to hope the squad can give us a intellect to come to the stadium inOctober and Novemberthis year .
