A blog devoted to the Quad Cities, with an emphasis on images, local politics, and development.
Monday, April 09, 2007
Opening Day '07
Today was Opening Day for the Swing of the Quad Cities at John O'Donnell Stadium. One of the new owners was making the rounds, talking to people and meeting the fans. Obviously the weather wasn't good, but there were some school groups or something. The General Admission section had large blocks of kids, which probably helped push the attendance to 1500 for the day. Some of the new specials will be good for the team, such as the Tuesday $44 special. It consists of four box seat tickets, four slices of pizza, four sodas, and a Swing program. That seems like a reasonable price for a family of 4 to have a night out. If attendance starts coming up, the atmosphere will be more exciting and more people will be excited to go to games. The temperature ranged from 42 to 46 degrees, with occasional snow flurries. It was definitely the first time I'd seen those at John O'Donnell. The hated-by-some sky blue uniforms are gone, replaced by darker blue and pinstripes. I don't foresee this increasing attendance, but I guess every little bit helps.
Here's a quick video of one of the Swing guys lining out. Next time I might try taking more videos and posting them online.
6 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Bye Bye Mary THEE!!!!! See ya - don't let the door hit ya.
Mary Thee is over - thank the Lord. She has caused us so much harm over her time here in Dav.
NO help for the inner city and other slum rental and drug house infested areas, red light fiasco, bad legal advice to unsuspecting councilmen, bad malin contract, bad advice to the council. Plus she is arrogant, her staff is rude and lazy.
wow, you had a great seat -- thanks for the pics! not the park i remember as a kid -- i recall throwing peanuts at trains over the side of the bleachers down the third-base line; seems much smaller these days...
JOD doesn't have the same Wrigley-esque gritty, falling-apart feel to it that it did before the renovations, but to counter that it does feel more professional. Its nice to have more than one bathroom, for example. Some of the standard stuff like an open concourse costs the park some of its "soul," but looking back, I don't think fondly of standing in line for food or drinks under the stands, hearing cheers, and wondering what happened.
In my opinion, the biggest improvement is the ability to walk around the perimeter of the entire stadium. In old JOD, if you felt like taking a walk, there really wasn't anywhere to go, and certainly nowhere that you felt like you were walking along the riverfront. Now you can easily spend an inning leisurely wandering around the berm.
There were trade offs, but I still think we came out ahead after the renovation.
oh, cool, you can walk the perimeter? that's awesome! i'd love to go to a game when i'm visiting sometime this summer -- try to take my dad, if they have good wheelchair access (probably also something the old stadium lacked )...
The temperature ranged from 42 to 46 degrees, with occasional snow flurries. It was definitely the first time I'd seen those at John O'Donnell.
The hated-by-some sky blue uniforms are gone, replaced by darker blue and pinstripes. I don't foresee this increasing attendance, but I guess every little bit helps.
6 comments:
Bye Bye Mary THEE!!!!! See ya - don't let the door hit ya.
Mary Thee is over - thank the Lord. She has caused us so much harm over her time here in Dav.
NO help for the inner city and other slum rental and drug house infested areas, red light fiasco, bad legal advice to unsuspecting councilmen, bad malin contract, bad advice to the council. Plus she is arrogant, her staff is rude and lazy.
See ya babes!
You're a dope! As soon as I heard this on the news I knew the boo birds would be out on the blogs. Way to go off topic!
QCI, thanks for the Swing post and pics. I was there and had a great time regardless of the weather. The uniforms are a big improvement.
wow, you had a great seat -- thanks for the pics! not the park i remember as a kid -- i recall throwing peanuts at trains over the side of the bleachers down the third-base line; seems much smaller these days...
(but, i hasten to add, the park certainly seems more well-cared-for than i remember from the 70's and 80's.)
JOD doesn't have the same Wrigley-esque gritty, falling-apart feel to it that it did before the renovations, but to counter that it does feel more professional. Its nice to have more than one bathroom, for example. Some of the standard stuff like an open concourse costs the park some of its "soul," but looking back, I don't think fondly of standing in line for food or drinks under the stands, hearing cheers, and wondering what happened.
In my opinion, the biggest improvement is the ability to walk around the perimeter of the entire stadium. In old JOD, if you felt like taking a walk, there really wasn't anywhere to go, and certainly nowhere that you felt like you were walking along the riverfront. Now you can easily spend an inning leisurely wandering around the berm.
There were trade offs, but I still think we came out ahead after the renovation.
oh, cool, you can walk the perimeter? that's awesome! i'd love to go to a game when i'm visiting sometime this summer -- try to take my dad, if they have good wheelchair access (probably also something the old stadium lacked )...
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