Getting There
Although there is some parking available at Shea it is much easier to take the subway. Arthur Ashe Stadium is across the street and if there is a tennis match going on parking is nearly impossible to find.
7/10
Tickets and Seating
Shea Stadium was early on the "marquee" pricing trend, and the tickets were already New York-expensive. The seats aren't anything to write home about either as they are pretty far from the action.
3/10
Exterior
There are a handful of trees surrounded by ugly steel fences outside the stadium. The stadium itself is a blue monstrosity with neon art that harkens back to the 60s, but not in a good way.
3/10
Interior
There are some posters of Mets greats throughout the stadium but other than that the place is pretty barren. There is a lot of blue in the park just like on the outside, but it is one of the most bland stadiums I have been to.
3/10
Scoreboard
A single ad takes up more space on the scoreboard than anything else. The scoreboard doesn't seem to have changed much since the 60s as there is no video and orange lightbulbs distinguish the board from others...but, again, not in a good way. At least it gives you information on every player. The apple below the scoreboard that appears after Mets homeruns goes up and down so fast it is pretty useless.
5/10
Sound
The sound at Shea Stadium is awful, and they play a lot of popular music. They do have an organist, but he isn't used all that much, unfortunately.
5/10
Fans
Mets fans are great. They filled the stadium and they definitely knew their baseball. There were standing ovations at appropriate moments and they even got into the 7th Inning Stretch. Hopefully Citi Field turns out to be a great stadium because the fans certainly deserve it.
10/10
Ushers and Trading Up
I was expecting the ushers to be similar to those at Yankee Stadium, but I was pleasantly surprised at how nice they were. Trading up even seems to be a possibility even though the game was too full to attempt it.
10/10
7th Inning Stretch
"God Bless America" and "Take Me Out" bless the stretch at Shea Stadium. A real organ helps matters and the fans actually seem to be into it. There isn't anything truly New York about it, though.
8/10
Surrounding Area
The area around Shea is a bunch of highways and parking lots. You need to take the subway out of the area to find anything decent to do after a game.
3/10
Final Score: 57/100 F