Saturday, May 14, 2011
Arkansas Culture and Characters Grab a seat
Posted by David Koon on Sat, May 14, 2011 at 9:38 AM
The great Ray Winder Field seat grab drew a massive crowd this morning, stretching from the gate of the ball park, looping around by the freeway, and up the shoulder of Monroe Street. While we were there, the tail of the line had grown even more, stretching almost to the farthest-south entrance to the parking lot of War Memorial Stadium. Some we talked to had waited since 6 p.m. last night outside the ballpark for a chance at one of the 500 wooden-and-iron seats the city planned to give away this morning starting at 8 a.m.
- Brian Chilson
- TRAVELER TREASURE: A long wait rewarded.
More on the jump:
For each pair of seats given away, workers had to destroy at least one other, sawing through the boards that make up the back and seat. The orange seats with armrests from high up in the bleachers were hot tickets, though folks were scooping up whatever they could. Officials were letting them in ten at a time.
Brian Chilson offers up this video, including a speed-run down the long and winding line as of about 8:30 a.m. today.
City Manager Bruce Moore, who first mentioned the idea of a seat give-away last month, was on hand, looking decidedly nervous with a cell phone plastered to his ear and conferring with city workers on possibly cutting more seats for removal, or giving away around 200 other, newer seats from under the north side bleachers. Still, he said he wasn't surprised by the turnout. "We know there's a lot of great history here. So I'm really not surprised," Moore said. "It's a great old ballpark and I'm really glad we were able to have this day."
Travs manager Bill Valentine was on hand as well, signing seats and chatting about the ballpark with folks as they exited the park. He said he wasn't planning on being there that day, but had remembered the seat give-away while driving down I-630 after taking his wife to the airport. The turnout, he said, had him "amazed."
"Unfortunately a lot of people are going to be disappointed, I think. One thing I know is crowds, and there's more than 500 here," Valentine said. "I think it's kind of neat. This ballpark just had so much nostalgia for so many families. Three generations came out to this ballpark. It's old, and it's neat, and it's the past. Everything we build today is modern, like Dickey-Stephens — voted the best ballpark in double-A (baseball) — but still it's not the nostalgia of Ray Winder Field."
Back near the end of the line stood a man who only wanted to be called "Citizen." Holding a blond, chubby-cheeked boy in his arms, he said he'd watched games at Ray Winder his whole life, and had box seats along the third base line for awhile. For Citizen, losing Ray Winder Field means losing a chunk of our collective past. "It's a piece of our history that some people disregard and want to get rid of," he said. "You can build another ballpark in Chicago, but it wouldn't be Wrigley Field. You can build another ballpark in North Little Rock and name it after two rich people, but it's not going to be the greatest game on dirt."
Comments (17)
Showing 1-17 of 17
nothing like that ever happens here. i want to move. someone please come get me and take me to durango's lake house, he needs more supervision anyways and I need a place to live. two surgeries and 3 broken bones and a transcriptionist dont make much money. my landlord is a good guy though. we have to see how good. Damn, life is hard, isnt it? I hope everyone who showed up at some insane hour got a seat, I'd like to have one of those too.
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I wasted 2 hrs standing in line this morning waiting on free seats from Ray Winder Field. They handed out tickets AFTER the doors open. Then only 440 tickets were given out (out of 500) because of the way the seats were removed. Very poor planning on someone's part. Why not hand out tickets as people are walking up to stand in line, or maybe create a website that let people get a "first come first service" ticket? Lots of angry people waited 2 hrs. (over 1000 showed up) I would have been fine driving up and someone says "sorry, all tickets are gone", but make me wait around for 2 hrs is ridiculous.
I'll never understand why these seats were not used in the new stadium. It would have given some immediate character to the new stadium.
I don't understand why they didn't auction off these seats for the city budget, or even for charity. They could have had a party and everything.
Just like not having contingency plans set up for unanticipated response, nobody seems to think past their nose!
That was a miserable experience. We arrived at 6:30 a.m. and waited in line over four hours. They eventually gave out tickets numbered up to 440. They told us that we weren't guaranteed to get seats but that there should be that many. I was number 362 and dead leaves and dirty screws were all that were left by the time I got inside. I do not agree with Mr. Moore. I was not glad that we were able to "have this day." I agree with Ron that their should have been an auction or web site to sell them and they could have raised tens of thousands of dollars. For a city with such a poorly run budget, that seems like a no-brainer to me. Everyone I spoke to at the park said they would have paid for them. I would guesstimate that over 1,000 people left disappointed.
I arrived at 0630 and stood in line for over 4 hours. Had great conversation with good people! I was number 250. There were slim pickins when I got inside but was able to snag the top corner orange seat that I was eyeballing for hours. I'm very glad I was able to have this experience and now own a piece of Arkansas history. It's nice to be able to get something so great for free. All comments I see are negative, maybe you should have left the house earlier for this awesome chance to get one of a kind Ray Winder seats.
My husband, 13 year old son, and I arrived at 5:00 am. We were given ticket number 20. I thought they did a great job of crowd control. Having only 10 numbers going in at a time was an excellent idea. The seats were heavy and it was awkward carrying them down. We had a great time and came away with a piece of history. I am glad they gave them away. I am sure there were many people today who got seats who would not been comfortable going to a charity auction or would not been able to afford to buy them. Ray Winder Field was affordable entertainment for all people, and it is fitting that all people should have had the chance to take a childhood memory home.
All the announcements I saw/heard said that there would be a limit of two seats per household, but no such limit was imposed. There was also some cutting in line, which is to be expected.
"Why even bother with a redevelopment plan for Little Rock's largest urban park when a crucial piece is just going to be handed over to the mammoth hospital campus already supported by taxpayer dollars just to pave over the grass that has played host to the best baseball games that state has ever seen?"
http://travelerocity.blogs.com/traveleroci…
You bastards all complain about not getting something that is FREE!!!! Look, if you didn't get up an hour earlier than the next guy that got one, well thats your poor planning. I don't feel one bit sorry for any of you that didn't get a free handout. These people on here arguing are ridiculous.
"You can build another ballpark in Chicago, but it wouldn't be Wrigley Field. You can build another ballpark in North Little Rock and name it after two rich people, but it's not going to be the greatest game on dirt."
Amen brother. Dickey-Stephens is very nice,but this is a sad end for Ray Winder. What a shame.
I am glad that the city gave them away so that anyone, not just people of means, had an opportunity to walk away with a piece of Arkansas sports history. Seemed like a fair process from my prospective. Just a matter of realizing there would be huge demand and getting there early, early, early.
I am glad that the city gave them away so that anyone, not just people of means, had an opportunity to walk away with a piece of Arkansas sports history. Seemed like a fair process from my prospective. Just a matter of realizing there would be huge demand and getting there early, early, early.
I think it was great for the city to let anyone, regardless of means, have an opportunity to have a piece of history. Very cool.
@Ron Rizzardi - You wouldn't take the old seats out of your car to put in your new car. The seats at Ray Winder were wooden and are 70 years old. They've done their time. Their day is done. Nothing lasts forever.
The people that showed up at 6:30 am should not be surprised that they did not get seats. NO ONE was guaranteed ANYTHING! I think they did an excellent job in organization and giving away the seats. I wanted to make sure that I got seats, so I came the night before and camped out. I was fourth in line and got my pick of any in the stadium. If it was that important to you, you had to have known that you needed to be there more than an hour and a half early!!
I am extremely glad that they didn't auction these seats off. If they had, I wouldn't have been able to get them. The way they did it gave everyone the same opportunity to get them. The people that are complaining just have sour grapes.
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