The Nationals Park seating chart features a wide range of seating and a wide range of pricing. Here are a couple of tips…one to try and one to avoid.

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As you can see, standing room is popular here.

Nationals Park Seating Tip #1: Use The Standing Room. Yeah, I know. You don’t want to stand for the whole game. I get that. I don’t either. But Nationals Park, in my opinion, has probably the best standing room options in baseball for several reasons.

The first is that unlike Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park, the standing room spots aren’t designated (and priced accordingly). You can pretty much choose any spot. At Nats Park, you not only have the open concourses in the lower level, but on the mezzanine in the outfield there are numerous places to sit on barstool type seating, and have a place to sit your food or beer. As far as I can tell, no ballpark has more places to sit and watch the game that aren’t designated paid seats than Nats Park.

The second Nationals Park seating tip is that up on that mezzanine level in the outfield is everything you need for that social scene that the millennial baseball fans love…there’s a full bar with occasionally discounted brews, several lounge areas with misters for hot days, and as great a food selection as you’ll find, with not only the popular Shake Shack and Box Frites, but also that Jammin’ Island BBQ.

If you prefer just a fun time to seeing the pitcher’s facial expression, the cheapest ticket to get into Nats Park works just fine.

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I’m sure they have “RBI Nachos” or something like that.

Finally, you also have access to the Budweiser Brewhouse (formerly the Red Porch) restaurant and the covered loft on the upper level. It gets packed during rain delays, but on a nice day in the later innings you may be able to snag a table or even outdoor seating with a center field view and have a decent meal with your baseball.

Well, at least you’re in the shade.

Nationals Park Seating Tip #2: Avoid Lower Right Field Seats. The lower right field seats in Nationals Park are completely covered by the second deck overhang and certain sections are tucked underneath the second deck behind the bullpen. The only advantage of such seats would be being able to watch pitchers warm up, which isn’t a bad thing, but otherwise you should avoid these seats.

It’s not a big deal to miss the flight of fly balls, but in today’s ballparks especially you’ll want a view of the entire field, and obviously you’ll lose a lot of it here. On top of that, you’ll have no view whatsoever of the big scoreboard in right field…and this is a key thing here, because I couldn’t see anywhere else where you can see who’s batting or what the score is. The LED boards surrounding Nats Park show mostly ads, even during play. There are TVs in this section to keep you posted on the action, but you probably have one of those at home.

So if you have a choice, you’re better off either sitting in the upper level in the infield, or in the left field seats if you’d like to be closer to the Bud Light Loft and such. But for viewing the game these are not good seats. Unless Strasburg is pitching and you want a close-up of his warm-up tosses.

That’s just two tips for finding the best spot to stay for nine long innings…for more Nationals Park seating advice, check out my tips here and here.

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Here is my best Tropicana Field seating tip: Don’t pay more than you have to.

OK, let me start this by saying I don’t necessarily condone moving into a seat that you didn’t pay for. It really isn’t fair to people who did pay for those seats, especially when they are the premium seats that cost a second mortgage.

However, I don’t recall ever minding someone keeping a good seat warm that belonged to me, so long as they get out of it immediately and didn’t break wind too much.

My philosophy on moving to a better seat is this: it’s okay so long as you don’t get greedy. If there’s 10,000 people in the ballpark, and you move from a seat that’s in the upper level in the outfield to an upper level seat behind home plate, that’s not going to bother me.

If I paid for the Legends seats at Yankee Stadium and someone who bought a bleacher seat distracts an usher enough to sit next to me, I might not be too happy about that. And there are some premium spots on the Tropicana Field seating chart.

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Chance of catching a foul ball: Excellent.

Anyway, to my point. The Rays average about 15,000 a night for most games. When the ballpark is barely half full on a good night, and if I wasn’t planning to sit in a premium seat, I would just get the cheapest ticket in the ballpark (which, at present, is for the tbt* Party Deck in left field) and move somewhere behind home plate out of everyone’s way.

In my last trip to the Trop my seat was behind home plate anyway, and it wasn’t too expensive. But the three of us moved around and checked the ballpark out from different perspectives (all part of the job) with no problem whatsoever. By the end of the Tampa Bay loss we were sitting in seats that probably cost three times what I paid.

My guess is that by the second or third inning, you can improve your lie to a much better seat, so long as you’re not trying to get the field level seats in the infield. Just be ready to move if the nice usher asks you to.

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More about Tropicana Field:

Visiting Tropicana Field – Five Tips For Newbies

Free Parking at Tropicana Field

Three Foods to Try at Tropicana Field

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Tropicana Field doesn’t have a lot of retro classic ballpark feel going for it, which is what makes the Tropicana Field Party Deck special. Sorry, forgot the sponsor, the GTE Financial Party Deck.

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Just a few rows to get to the all-important private concourse!

The Rays, like most teams in baseball, have to offer special enticements to get people to sit in the worst seats in the venue. In this case those seats are in Party Deck, formerly known as the Beach.

These seats are in the highest level in left field; imagine the view from the Green Monster seats at Fenway without the prestigious experience (or the prestigious cost!). Not to mention that they’re bench seats, great for touching cheeks with your neighbor.

So what’s the advantage of the Party Deck? Well, they cost the same as the upper reserved tickets and are as such the cheapest seats in Tropicana Field. And being separate from the rest of the ballpark, chances are you won’t have to wait in line for your Cuban sandwich, always a plus.

The Trop has colorful concourses.

But it’s a very different atmosphere…the concourse area behind the Party Deck is designed like Ybor City, with bright colors, gas lamp style lights and concession stands like the Ybor Cantina selling Cuban sandwiches. The bench seats give the area a bleachers feel, as if you were channeling your inner Wrigley Bleacher Bum.

In other words, the Tropicana Field Party Deck wouldn’t be the section of choice for most fans.

But here’s what’s cool about baseball. You still see people sitting in there. There seems to be a sense of belonging here. In the same way that the super-royal-Legendary-Lexus box seats in the newer ballparks give people a sense of belonging to an exclusive club distinguished entirely by income level.

Why pay $500 more to bond with someone, especially if they’re not even into baseball? It is, after all, still a ballgame.

The exclusive and prestigious tbt* Party Deck, now sponsored by GTE Financial. No cell phone dwellers allowed.

I know which group I’d rather hang out with, especially if I’m picking up the tab for my ticket. A smartphone addicted salesman who is still hashing out major deals in the top of the sixth of a one-run game with two men on is not my type of ballgame companion.

College kids could go just about anywhere outdoors in Florida and have a better party atmosphere. People could network anywhere in the Ybor City area in Tampa or somewhere in downtown St. Petersburg. But for whatever reason, they’d rather go to a ballgame and sit miles away from the action in an indoor stadium with artificial turf.

That’s my kind of fan.

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