It’s been over 15 years since I last went to Washington DC so figured now was a good time to go to the U.S. capital and see Nationals Park as I try to see all 30 ballparks.

Nationals Park is located in the Navy Yard neighborhood of DC, right next to the Anacostia River. It’s an area that has been redeveloped with Nationals Park playing a big part in it. There are many condos and apartments in the areas along with restaurants and bars.

I actually think because of all the development in the area, the ballpark was built so that the Center Field Gate is the corridor out to the neighborhood and vice versa into the ballpark.

This gate has a really wide open concourse once you enter the ballpark:

And when you exit out the ballpark it’s wide open to exit out to the restaurants and bars:

This is also notable since as you walk around the ballpark on the outside, it looks like indescript office buildings. From far away, you might not even notice that it’s a ballpark if you were walking around going south on 1st St SE until you saw the Right Field Gate, First Base Gate or Home Plate Gate.

Which also leads to another thing that stuck out to me, which where the parking garages behind both left and right field that are part of the ballpark’s skyline. The garages are noticeable for those like me who look at the backdrop in the outfield of a ballpark (and why PNC Park in Pittsburgh is so highly rated). The Nationals have tried covering them up with banners and Garage C in right field is partially blocked by the big scoreboard but you can see the garages:

And whether on purpose or that’s how it came to be, the buildings in the skyline aren’t that tall so the parking garages block some of the view into the ballpark. We stayed at the Hampton Inn & Suites Washington DC Navy Yard across the street (it’s right across from the aforementioned Center Field Gate) that has a rooftop bar and Garage C with its solar panels blocks a good portion of the ballpark view:

With the Anacostia River being blocked by the right field seats, which is the only section in the outfield with a second level, along with the parking garages and buildings that aren’t that tall, the skyline doesn’t have that great of a view when compared to other ballparks and could have been so much better.

Once in the ballpark, the wide open concourse in center field does narrow to a typical concourse size once you get to the foul pole on either first base or third base side and start going towards home plate. The concourse doesn’t feel tight or anything but when its crowded (such as after the game when everyone’s leaving), it does take awhile to maneuver through them, similar to the problems you see at Petco Park.

It’s like other ballparks where you can see the field walking around the ballpark and on Level 1, pretty much every section has standing room only with the drink rail to stand and watch the game. The only exception, like other ballparks, is when you get behind home plate, as in this case the view is blocked both by the PNC Diamond Club and the Washington Suites.

However, because the sections behind home plate are primarily for either the Terra Club (which is their premium underground club for the lower seats right behind home plate) or the PNC Diamond Club (which are the premium seats in the sections right behind the Terra Club seats, see this map where only the back parts of 119, 120 and 126 are non-premium seats to see what I mean), it’s not as big of a deal to have to walk around to access your seats behind home plate since most of these seats are premium seating with access to these clubs. In other ballparks where they have regular seating in front of the home plate suites, you end up having to walk around several sections to access your seat.

I do like the displays they’ve done around the ballpark since being a newer franchise, you can’t just rely on all historical milestones like other ballparks, so mixing it with some history and fun is a good way to give some character:

In general when you walk around the ballpark, the view is good to see game action. I didn’t really feel any seats had a bad view and the views from each area would be what I would expect from them i.e. being in the top level has that elevated view but it didn’t feel like you were super far away.

Like Petco Park, the third base side is the shade side for day games so those who like to sit on the home side (first base) where the 100 sections are will be in the sun pretty much the whole time except for the last couple of rows.

In terms of food, they have been adding more local food options spread throughout the ballpark along with some national chains (Shake Shack and Rita’s Italian Ice & Custard) and the standard ballpark fare. I found the ballpark to have a good variety of different options and among the better food options of the ballparks that are spread out to give you a reason to go around the ballpark.

What I found interesting is they replaced the big scoreboard screen with a higher clarity screen before the 2024 season but they didn’t make it bigger.

It’s a decent size but considering how much the screen plays a part in the in-game entertainment, I’m surprised they didn’t make it larger and take up the whole area in right field (replacing the permanent ads) even if they wanted the screen to have constant ads (similar to what the Giants did where they replaced the entire area and have ads on the side of the video screen when not showing replays or hype the crowd up videos)

They have in-game entertainment during each half-inning break and most involved fan interactions, such as karaoke battle, putting challenge and seat upgrades. Of course you can’t forget the Presidents Race, doing a good amount of in-game entertainment to keep the fans engaged. I bring this up because there are some ballparks where they don’t have as much in-game entertainment and spend many innings just playing background music.

Overall Nationals Park is a solid ballpark that I would put in the middle tier. It doesn’t stand out in one area to make it super great like the top tier ballparks but at the same time doesn’t do anything bad either, making it firmly in that middle range. The standard ticket prices are pretty expensive but if you can find a deal on SeatGeek or StubHub, it’s a solid place to have a good time watching a ballgame.