It’s the Arizona Diamondbacks Home Opener! While the 2021 Major League Baseball season officially started on April 1, 2021; this will be the first home game for the Diamondbacks. To say I was excited would be an understatement. I have been waiting 558 days, 3 hours, and 44 minutes for this day to arrive.

The off-season is always a long and depressing time for me after a full season of going to games I suddenly don’t have baseball anymore. This off-season though has been especially painful to endure since the last game fans could attend at Chase Field was on September 29, 2019 a full year and a half ago.

Gates opened at Chase Field at 5:00 PM. Normally on games other than Sunday (and some getaway games) the gates open 60 minutes before first pitch. Diamondbacks Season Ticket Holders get early entry those days 30 minutes before the gates open for other fans. In yet another COVID casualty, early entry has been eliminated at least for the time being but may be re-introduced once safety measures allow.

Not wanting to be late or miss a single moment I made sure we were at the ballpark in plenty of time arriving and parking well before gates open and making our way to the stadium. There were already three lines of people that stretched quite a ways. I am not sure how early they had gotten to Chase Field. In what was indeed pure luck (for me, not so much for the people who were in the three lines) the Diamondbacks security and guest relations announced there were five lines not three. We happened to be standing near the announcement and were placed fifth in the new line.

Shortly after five the gates opened. The Diamondbacks are no longer accepting paper tickets, “Your phone is your ticket” continued to ring out among the fans as they approached those scanning QR codes and letting people in. The scanning went pretty smoothly. The guest relations personnel were polite and helped people who stumbled to find their tickets or navigate the MLB Ballpark app.

Once through that checkpoint it was on to security and the metal detectors. Today was the first regular season game since the Diamondbacks initiated the clear bag policy at Chase Field. Looking around at those in line, most of the people came prepared. There were some who did not, and Guest Relations was talking through options with people and handing out gallon size Ziploc bags that could be used. I hadn’t anticipating the team providing Ziploc bags, but it was a nice touch.

At first I wasn’t sure how excited I was about the clear bag policy. I get the reasoning and appreciate that this could help with fan safety and get through security quicker but I wasn’t convinced. Part of that could be that the change required a redesign of the custom seat cushions we have since those could no longer have a zipper, pockets, or pouches. The new design we used a clear bag within the dimensions allowed by the Diamondbacks to connect to the front using D-rings and carabiners.

Each line had someone at security who was looking through bags while you walked through the metal detector. That security screening was quick and easy. While I waited for my wife after I had gone through security it was apparent that the lines were moving much faster and with less stress with the clear bag policy. I’ll give that a thumbs up.

Once inside the stadium it was apparent that things were different. The Season Ticket Holder area where you could meet with your ticket rep is gone. The signs say temporarily and gave contact information for reaching someone from Season Ticket Sales.

Several of the vendors from seasons past were also gone. Portello’s (a family favorite) is gone as is America’s Taco Shop. The carving station on the main concourse was also gone. Their food cart was there but it didn’t look like it had been touched since 2019. Several of the DoubleHeader locations were closed as was Paradise Burger. Big Dawgs was closed too which was a bit surprising. Dutch Bros is also gone from the stadium which I’m sure will disappoint many based on the lines there in seasons past. Perhaps the biggest surprise was Friday’s Front Row Grill is gone. All of their signage has been taken down and it is a dark shell. Friday’s had been there since 1998 when then named Bank One Ballpark opened, it is the passing of an icon.

We walked the concourse to our seats. There were hand sanitizing stations frequently placed along our walk and reminders that Chase Field required people to wear masks unless at their seats actively eating and drinking. The restrooms have likewise been configured to allow social distancing. The one odd part was that the soap dispensers did not all work in the restrooms, I heard comments to that effect several times.

All employees working the stadium wore masks and directed traffic the best they could. In a nice touch I think employee we passed welcomed us back to the ballpark and thanked us for coming. If we weren’t in a pandemic I probably would have hugged them and told them how much I missed each and every one of them.

At the top of each section there were signs which told fans which side of the walkway to go down and come back up. In yet another sad example of how either people are illiterate or oblivious they would walk down both sides making it difficult at times to remain socially distanced or even to get around.

The main Team Shop had switchback lines and were only allowing a certain number of people in the shop at a given time. It made it easier to shop and feel comfortable but soon after the gates opened the line to get into the Team Shop was longer than the line to get into the stadium. When making purchases the shops allowed contactless payments with smart phones and watches that are configured to do so. It was a good experience, and the team was getting people in and out of the checkout lines quickly.

The sections of the seats were marked for social distancing with seats not able to be used being zip tied off to not allow them to be pulled down. Fans were closer this game than the Spring Training game held at Chase on March 30th. This was a result of expanded capacity allowed in Chase. Seats seem to be open for groups of 2, 4, or 6. I would normally applaud that but it does require larger groups to be broken up to accommodate. In the case of our section a large family was attending. All of the younger kids sat in the row behind us while the parents and adults were three rows behind the kids. I spent most of the game ducking the kids swinging mini-bats. I wasn’t about to complain, I know how excited I was to be there I am sure the kids were even more excited.

Concessions around Chase Field are all cashless. The team made sure to announce that throughout the stadium on an infinite loop. They also touted the ability to order food and beverages from your phone for fast, easy pickup. This part of the game experience is what drew the most ire from the fans at the game.

For the Diamond Level which is where we were sitting tonight, there was one vendor Burger Burger that was accepting mobile ordering. We decided to try the new Beer Cheese Brats and ordered two of these through the app. We were told that we would get a text when our food was ready. That order according to the app was placed at 7:16 PM.

As the game progressed, we kept checking the app waiting for a text. That text never arrived. My wife went up to check on things a couple of times (at the hour mark after ordering and at 90 minutes after ordering). Both times the line for people to “express pick-up” was three times longer than the lines to order not using the app. At one point things got a little heated and arguments or fights broke out in the “express pick-up” line requiring sheriff deputies and security to restore the piece.

I would love to say this ordering fiasco was confined to this one location on the Diamond Level but from my social media accounts it was clear this was stadium wide. It wasn’t just food items, I had people tell me they had waited two plus hours for a bottle of water or two beers.

As the game went on into the latter innings the question began to be whether we would get food before the end of the game. In most cases after waiting this amount of time you would cancel the order and go elsewhere. This is where the critical flaw in the system was exposed. There is no way to cancel the order once it has been placed. Funds are taken from your debit or credit card and no way to reverse that from within the app. In the eighth inning we went back to the vendor this time standing in the line to get an order cancelled rather than try to pick up food.

The concession stand is able to cancel an order but there was only one worker who was authorized to do that (at least that was what we were told). They did cancel our order but said there was no way for us to have proof that it was cancelled so we were told to take a picture of the iPad they were using incase there was a problem with payment refunds.

The most ironic or comical part of all this? Once we cancelled the order over two hours after ordering and in the ninth inning, we received a text message saying that our food order was ready.

I can see the mobile ordering could be advantageous but like many things is going to need tremendous training and experience to get it to the point where fans will accept it and use it regularly.

Overall the experiences at the ballpark were mixed. It was great to be back and everyone seemed to be enjoying baseball after a long hiatus. The stadium looked great and the Diamondbacks employees were amazing and trying to help with everything.

It was good to see fans back at the ballpark and hearing them cheer and jeer from time to time. The game itself struggled much like the food service. Over the first two-thirds the Diamondbacks couldn’t hit and the pitching was spotty at best. They did find their groove towards the end and made up a five-run deficit. Momentum clearly went to the Diamondbacks only to see them faulter in the tenth inning finally losing to the Reds.

Hopefully all the kinks can be worked out both on the field and in the stadium and we can experience a fun and exciting regular season. We just have to remember; baseball season is a marathon not a sprint. While the Dbacks may have stumbled out of the blocks at the start there are still a lot of games left in this season and everyone just needs to practice a little patience.