I've always wondered why Nationals Park doesn't face the Anacostia River, which it sits right beside.

You've seen the Pirates' new stadium, right? It's beautiful. I want to go, even though I live nowhere close to Pittsburgh and the team's, um, not great right now.

Every time I watch a game at Nationals Park I spend at least a few minutes lamenting that I don't have a view anywhere close to as beautiful as the Pirates' even though one is waiting for me behind first base.

Luckily this time googling around I found an answer for this incomprehensible situation at Sports Illustrated.

Spoiler: The answer to all of your questions is money.

During the design phase, the prevailing thought was to face the 41,500-seat stadium — situated on 25 acres in Southeast Washington adjacent to the Navy Yard — toward the Anacostia River​. But Joe Spear, Populous architect and designer of Nationals Park, told SI.com that for Nationals Park to become a success, the neighborhood about three-quarters of a mile from the Capitol needed to be let in.

“The site was selected by the mayor’s office to add value and create value in that neighborhood,” Spear said. “It was a pretty sketchy part of D.C., and they knew (the park) would attract development.”

Spear, having designed Petco Park in San Diego, also knew that the more neighbors were able to see into a ballpark, the more value was being created. Spear told a story of hosting a D.C. contingent in San Diego to meet with then-Padres owner John Moores, who offered up a tour of the stadium, including its view of the surrounding neighborhood.

“The owner of the Padres said, ‘See those buildings? If they can see even a quarter of the playing field, they can add value,’” Spear said. “That was a pretty effective answer to which way we should orient the ballpark.”

[emphasis mine -mfn]

Ugh. So the outfield faces away from the river so that the high rises that have finally been built there would be worth more. 

Who does that benefit? The folks that own the construction companies and the real estate, that's who. Maybe DC if they charge property tax fairly.

Who loses? Everyone who rents in the neighborhood and everyone watching a game, in the park or on TV. The DC area as a whole. The Nats as an organization. Everyone but the real estate big wigs. I've never enjoyed looking at the car park and high rises in the outfield. There's zero DC character there.

I wish there was some way to convince them to poke a hole in the first base line through to the river. It wouldn't be that hard to take out a few seats and expose a beautiful, iconic view. Hire some avant garde architect and tell them to get creative with sections 131-134 and 223-227 (even and odd). I bet we can have view and a good percentage of seats in an unforgettable piece of architecture.

Heck, just take out section 132. I'd rather you take out about three times as much, but let's start small.

There's already an entryway there. Minimal disruption, maximum reward. Heck, some of the high rises would suddenly have a river view too! Market value up! Win-win!

It would turn a concrete monster where you can just barely see the Capitol if you're high enough up in the cheap seats into something that really is a memorable site. You'd lose some great seats, sure, and seats behind the home dugout, but you'd be giving back to everyone else in the stadium.

It's so close.

Labels: DC, fail, hats o' money, nats, Other Stuff