I've experienced all sorts of minor league baseball parks, especially with my recent run of visiting minor league teams local to NY and PA. Visiting Falcon Park to see the Auburn Doubledays was a nice addition to my growing list of ballgame experiences.
I ordered my ticket for a game before the start of the season (I like to plan my visits in advance). It took some fidgeting, as well as contacting the Doubledays staff person in charge of the ticketing website (credit card authentication issues), but I managed to purchase my ticket and have it held at Will Call. Upon arriving at the park for my game, I visited the ticket window and picked up my ticket without issue. Easy enough.
Sidenote: parking is free and located across the street from the park - unless you're a season ticket holder. There's no signage either way, so I didn't realize this until after driving into the premium parking lot and inquiring. It was hot, so I was hoping to find some shade; alas, I ended up in the general lot without any trees to help stay cool. Haha.
I got into the park and happened upon Abner, the Doubledays mascot. I picked up a program and headed to the souvenir stand to get my MiLB Ballpark Pass-Port stamp, but it turns out that they keep the stamp/ink pad at a table with a green Tompkins Trust Company covering. The guy tending the table had a big plastic tub with all sorts of random, disorganized papers, booklets, and whatnot. He kept digging and found the stamp... then had to go on a wider hunt for the ink pad. I didn't want to be an inconvenience, but it all felt a bit disorganized. He ended up finding the ink pad after a few minutes, so I got my stamp... but it took a bit.
After grabbing something from the concession building, I checked out my seats... and I was directly in the sun. On a 90 degree day. Oops.
I took some time and enjoyed my lunch under the tented area near where the Doubledays were warming up. After a bit, I noticed a kid was calling out after players to get autographs, and I thought it'd be humorous to kinda approach the fence and get signatures from some players at the same time. It did end up working fairly well, admittedly.
Once the game was about to start, I noticed there were plenty of open spaces in the general admission area - i.e. where seating was covered. Since it was a day game, and I figured there wouldn't be a huge number of people filing into the park after the start of the game, I found myself a seat with a decent view (i.e. no metal building frame in the way) and enjoyed the shade while watching the game. The staff at the game didn't seem to take issue with any of us seeking cover from the sun and heat, and I think they even offered a visiting group of school kids the opportunity to move into the covered seating.
All in all, the staff was generally helpful... if a bit disorganized in parts. The stadium is what you would expect for a short-season, Class A, minor league club. No frills, but a comfortable/local feel. There's a lot of netting in front of the seats, including over both dugouts - hinders the view a bit, unfortunately. read more