I went to my first Dodger Game of the season last night. Here’s what happened…

It was a crisp, cool night for baseball. Temperatures were in the low 60’s at game time, and to be honest, there was some shivering going on up in the stands by the ninth inning. But I was ready. Ready for my first major league game since late 2019. I had tickets to see the Dodgers take on their downstate rival San Diego Padres.

For those DodgersBeat readers who might be curious about what the fan experience would be like in this Covid-crazy world, I thought I would share my experiences here, so y’all can get a better idea of what it might be like when you are finally ready to take the leap and jump back into the world.

First, a disclaimer. I am vaccinated, and everybody I went with was fully vaccinated, too. So some things that might have been red flags for other people didn’t really bother me that much. But more about that as we come to it.

Ticket Buying

Of course, all ticket buying had to be done online. I logged on the day that the tickets went on sale, thinking that they would be sold out almost immediately. I tried for tickets for this Saturday night Padres game to see if I could get tickets for the what I thought would be the highest demand game in the month (other than opening day of course, but that had a whole different set up for the tickets). And to my surprise, I got my tickets pretty easily. I had to choose how many tickets I wanted before I bought them, because this season all the tickets are being sold in pods. You had to buy a group of tickets up front so that you would ensure that social distancing could be maintained between you and the next group. But, overall it was pretty easy, and not that much different from the usual online buying experience. Good job, Dodgers.

Warnings

The day of the game, I got an email with a whole mess of warnings that I had to adhere to if I wanted to get into the stadium. I was a little worried that the excessive safety precautions might interfere with my experience, but I think a lot of these things were pretty common sense ideas.

Parking

The first thing you need to know is that everything about the experience at Dodgers Stadium is completely “contactless”. Nobody working the game ever game in contact with me in any way. The first thing that I noticed was when we arrived at the parking gate. The attendant simply scanned my phone as I held it out to her and then sent us along on hour way. Because the fans are still so limited at this point (attendance for last night’s game was reported as about 15,000), this meant that parking was a breeze. We were directed to parking section 10, which was a very short walk from the gate. I imagine it must like this parking at the Tampa Bay Rays games any time.

Section 10 was a short walk from our seats

Entry

Again with fewer fans in attendance, getting into the stadium had never been easier. There were contactless scanners set up at the gates, and I only had to hold my phone under the scanner and we were in. We did ask one of the staff to take a photo of our party in front of the stadium entrance, but the worker said that she had to refuse for safety reasons. So we had to content ourselves with a selfie.

Your humble reporter (far right) and his fellow Dodger fans on Saturday night.

Masking

If outdoor masking is a big deal for you, I have a mixed report. In the common areas (concourses, concessions, restrooms), almost everybody was masked up and following social distancing. In the seats, I must tell you that very few people in the section I was sitting in adhered to the rule of keeping your mask on unless you were eating. But no employees were hassling anybody about it, so people could enjoy the game almost as usual.

The Dodgers did try to do the responsible thing and had a “Mask Cam”, which replaced the “kiss cam” I guess. They played upbeat music while the cameras found people who were properly masked up, and they were rewarded with their two seconds of fame. I will say that one of my companions came into the game wearing a vented mask and the stadium officials gave him cheapo mask to replace it, because for some reason the air vents were verboten.

Mask wearing at Dodger Stadium varied from pod to pod (Photo: Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News)

Concessions

One of the tweaks to the fan experience from the opening homestand came in the area of concessions. Apparently the “mobile-only” snack ordering that the Dodgers had tried was a complete disaster, leading to numerous complaints from fans. So credit to the Dodgers for not sticking with a bad idea. They decided to completely abandoned the app-based sales, and just went with the traditional lines and in-person ordering. I made a couple of trips to the concession stand later in the game with no problems, but in the first few innings, there were still lines and waits, but that is true for every Dodger game, right?

One thing to remember. Don’t bring a wad of cash to use for your beer and Dodger Dogs. Everything is now a completely cashless operation. It did slow down the line a little, but it wasn’t that big of a deal since so many people don’t use cash anymore anyway. If you do show up with cash, I did notice that there were machines that could convert currency into a gift card that you could use to make purchases, but again, I don’t think it was that big of a deal.

An app-based concession plan led to lines, confusion, and complaints in the first homestand. (Photo: LA Daily News)

The Verdict?

Remember Frank McCourt? Remember how he sort of drove the Dodgers into the ground before the new ownership group swooped in to save us? Remember how nobody went to the games in that last year before they snatched the team away from him? Going to a Dodgers game amid Covid-19 was kind of like that. Reduced crowds, shorter lines, easier parking.

Actually, it was all very pleasant. Now I can’t tell you what to do. But for me, I am definitely going to go back. And soon. Good job, Dodgers!