Oklahoma City RedHawks – Bricktown Ballpark

The Good

• Sunday Autographs
• Game Day Programs
• Guaranteed Giveaways for Season Ticket Holders

The Bad

• Autographs
• No Batting Practice
• No FULL Season Ticket Holder Privileges
• Jersey Auctions
• Team Merchandise

Hit or Miss

• Food
• Customer Service
• Season Ticket Exchange Policy

This is my hometown ballpark. I am at almost every game during the season. There was a time when I absolutely loved this place and went to EVERY SINGLE game, I’m talking about all 72 home games. I even missed my senior prom because we had a home game. That was before Mandalay Baseball Properties took over. I feel like they suck the fun out of the game. I do not agree with their “baseball philosophy.” They are all about the in game entertainment and couldn’t care less about the game itself. Its rumored that the RedHawks will be under new ownership after this 2014 season, and I hope so, because I doubt it could get any worse.

As soon as you walk into the gate they hand you a game day program, these are pretty cool because they have information on the team inside. Sometimes on the player bios, there are random facts not related to baseball. They can be pretty funny, making the player seem more like the average Joe, instead of the super human athletes we tend to think they are. Most of the time the program rosters are wrong, this is because of the constant up and down transactions caused by the affiliated major league teams.

I have been a season ticket holder for 10 years now. Things have changed a lot over time, season ticket holder events vanished and owning full season tickets don’t mean much anymore. The thing I have noticed is that Mandalay focuses on the casual fan, 7 and 11 game ticket holders are more important to them than the full 72 game ticket holders. All game plan holders have a ticket pick up party, guaranteed giveaway items, and a ticket renewal party (unless that has changed this year).

I do not own much RedHawk apparel. The prices are a bit on the ridiculous side. Hats typically cost $30-35, t-shirts around $35 to $50. Basically all the items in this minor league team’s shop are priced at major league prices. I was really shocked at the team set price this season. They are now selling them for $12. I remember when they were free, as a giveaway item. Then last season they were advertised as $8 on Facebook, but they were actually $8.95 plus tax, I showed them the add and they did not honor it. Just went and removed the post. Things like that do not surprise me anymore at this ballpark. They rarely do jersey auctions, it used to be at least 3 a season, now we are lucky to have one. If there happens to be a jersey auction, they no longer allow you to go on the field after game to meet that player and get the jersey from them. You have to stand around on the concourse after the game until someone brings a box from the clubhouse with the jerseys in it. Its a lot less personal now.

Pregame/Postgame – Before 2011 you could get in for batting practice at 4:30, which made it great for autographs. You could get both teams and walk away with everyone you wanted in one night. There was absolutely no need for post game autographing. If you ever wanted to do post game autographs, 1st Base gate was the place to be, for the visiting team anyway. They stayed downtown and exited the ballpark through the 1st base gate and walked to their hotel. The home team parks in a gated lot attached to the ballpark in right field. Since 2011, gates open 1 hour before game time, so you have to pick a side and do the best you can. On Sunday they have two players signing on the concourse before the game. The players you couldn’t get pregame, you could most likely get post game, if you could pick them out in street clothes when they came out the 1st Base gate. New for the 2014 season, visiting teams no longer stay downtown, so post game autographing is tough as well. We’ve been told that they will allow us 30 minutes after the game is over to stay in the ballpark to try and get autographs, but that doesn’t always happen. So to all the autograph collectors…. good luck!

Not the best ballpark for autographs.

The stadium itself is great! It is located in Downtown, OKC in the Bricktown area. There really isn’t a bad seat in the ballpark. They have recently upgraded the ballpark by adding actual seats down the left field line, that was bleacher seats before this season. They have also added more video boards to the ballpark, but those are only for advertising. I would love to see more stats especially during the game, but that wont happen. Several fans have requested this and still nothing. The only thing they show is the name and number of the player at bat, on the center field video board. Half the time they don’t announce the correct player or even new pitchers when they come into the game. As I said before, all they really care about is the in game entertainment, not the actual game.

In all, if I wasn’t such a sucker for baseball then I probably wouldn’t be a full season ticket holder. I would much rather buy season tickets to a team like the Tulsa Drillers, the ownership is much more fan friendly.