Nationals Stadium

I'm supposed to go to my first baseball game of the season tonight, sadly it is a hot mess of rain out there. I'm hoping it stops so we can go to the game, but right now it isn't looking all that promising. I guess we'll have to see what's going on with it around 5pm. I definitely don't need to get sick again due to sitting in the rain all night. Either way, great topic for today is Nationals Stadium.

• It is the first LEED-certified green major professional sports stadium in the United States
• Designed by Populous (formerly HOK Sport) and Devrouax & Purnell Architects and Planners, cost $611 million to build
• The stadium originally seated 41,888 fans, but some seats from various parts of the stadium have been removed since its opening to reduce the capacity to 41,546
• The stadium has 23 seating/pricing zones. 3,300 seats are available for $10 or less.
• The infield dirt comes from Maryland and is topped off with Turface that is a shade of deep red.
• The warning track is a clean, crushed aggregate stone that comes from Culpepper, Virginia.
• Inspiration for the look of the ballpark is taken from the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art, by architect I.M. Pei.
• More than half the crowd will walk straight off of the street into their seats, without ever climbing elevators, escalators, ramps or stairs because the field is 24 feet below street level and the main concourse is at the same height as the sidewalk.
• The ballpark has approximately 3,500 pieces of steel in the bowl structure, equaling 7,800 tons.