Inside the Park
Once you are in the park, you probably want to find your seat. If you find you are in front of a pole, you may want to find someone else’s seat. Believe it or not, the Red Sox don’t actually sell every ticket to every game. There are plenty of seats held for various reasons, including last-minute VIPs, the visiting team, and most importantly, for customer service.
The secret is actually the fact that inside the park, the new ownership is very much committed to great customer service. This includes the (drunk asshole) Fenway security hot line you can call from your seat if you have a problem, plenty of ushers to help you find your seats, a large on-field security presence between innings, and of course, customer seat upgrades. If you have a problem with your seat – say if you are injured and can’t sit, have a leak dripping on your seat, or are with your elderly grandfather who has trouble seeing, they will do their best to move your seat. Believe me, I have been in all three of those situations and the Sox staff was very helpful. The booth is right behind home plate, next to the Guinness beer stand.
Even if you are not suffering from a legitimate inconvenience worthy of a seat upgrade, you can still take advantage of the system. There are certain seats and areas that are never populated, usually at least for the first couple innings. Eventually, many of the unused seats get sold to the folks waiting for tickets on stand-by, but you can usually find seats in the grandstands behind home plate if you’re willing to potentially get kicked out later. Usually, there is room in section 21 or 22, so give it a shot.
Even if those seats don’t work out, you are right next to the best standing areas. My favorite spot to stand is right behind section 19 if there is room enough. You are close to all the necessary concessions and facilities, and you can even see the scoreboard.
The other alternative is to head out to right field, behind sections 7 and 8. The crowd thins out because you are further away, but the view is still pretty good and its worth avoiding the crowd when its otherwise very dense.
The Sox have a new standing area opening in left field this season, and my review of that will be up here once I get a chance to check it out.
