Pfitzner Stadium, the Stadium So Bad They Want to Take Its Team Away

For our last entry, we went to Camden Yards, one of the most acclaimed stadiums in the majors. Next I headed to a serious contender for the worst stadium in affiliated baseball. The Washington Nationals’ High-A affiliate Minor League team plays only about twenty miles south of its parent team, in exurban Woodbridge, Virginia. Unfortunately, the Potomac Nationals’ home field, G. Richard Pfitzner Stadium, is extremely low-rent. So much so that Minor League Baseball has reportedly told the team that it needs to find a new home by the end of the 2018 season, or else. Pfitzner Stadium is small, the seats consist almost entirely of metal bleachers, and there aren’t even real dugouts. The plus side is that this leads to intimate experience right up close to the field.

The Park

Pfitzner Stadium is about as simple as a professional stadium gets. Almost all of the seating is metal bleachers, only reached by going through concrete tunnels from the concourse. There is one slightly higher-rent area of “box” seats near first base, if you can you’ll want to sit there. None of the seats are under a roof and on a warm day in July anybody on the metal bleachers gets thoroughly baked. There are no seats beyond the outfield wall, just a scoreboard that probably dates from the 1980s.

Pfitzner Stadium feels only slightly more elaborate than the three surrounding public softball fields. The Stadium first opened in 1984 when the Alexandria Dukes minor league team moved here and were renamed the “Prince William Pirates”. The name came from the county where Woodbridge is located and its parent major league team at that time. Since the Potomac Nationals started play in 2005, many of the top Nationals major league stars have played here, including Steven Strasburg and Jordan Zimmerman. Bryce Harper skipped this level on his way up, but has since played here on rehab assignments.

Getting There

The Stadium is located in a large public park behind the Prince William County Government Center, not very far off Interestate 95. Basically the only way to get there is by car. It felt more like I was going to attend my kid’s softball game than any other pro stadium I have ever visited. Despite this, there isn’t huge amounts of parking directly next to the stadium. You will likely need to walk from a little further away.

Experience

The small size of the stadium means that there is not much separation between fans and players. The dugouts aren’t as wide as normal and aren’t actually “dug out” at all, they are just at field level. Fans anywhere in the park commonly see the players and coaches hanging out on deck chairs. If you get there during warmups, you’ll likely have the chance to hang over the rail and get autographs from future MLB stars. If you’re not an autograph hound, you could just take the chance to say hi. On the day that I attended, it was “Washington Redskins Day”. Former Super Bowl MVP Doug Williams was hanging out in the concourse signing autographs as well.

Concessions

There is basically one main concession stand, near home plate under the concrete concourse. Offerings include the usual ballpark food of hot dogs, hamburgers, etc., nothing super exciting. One other small stand sits near the seated area around first base. You can get different kinds of sausages and barbecue sandwiches. One problem is that, because those are pretty much the only places in the stadium to get food, the waits can be a little long.

My Take

It’s nice to be so close to the action at Pfitzner Stadium, but most of the seats are so uncomfortable that I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone but the most diehard minor league baseball fans. The location and the concessions are about as unexciting as you will see at a minor league baseball stadium. It’s really the lack of facilities that is the problem Minor League Baseball has, though. Apparently the locker rooms are the same concrete boxes as many of the fan areas, and, as I mentioned, there aren’t even real dugouts. To add insult to injury, in June 2012 the team’s business offices burned down. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but the mascot costume was destroyed.