Visit Date: July 6, 2025

Nestled in Chavez Ravine on the northern outskirts of Downtown Los Angeles, the 56,000-seat Dodger Stadium has been home to The Boys in Blue since 1962.  Now the third oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball, it has established quite the legacy over the years, from Sandy Koufax, to Fernando Valenzuela, to Clayton Kershaw, to Shohei Ohtani today.  In the past decade especially, Dodger Stadium feels like the permanent site of the World Series.  With the palm trees lining the perimeter, perfect weather for every game, the San Gabriel Mountains off in the distance, and a global fanbase that includes some of Hollywood’s biggest celebrities, it is quintessential LA.

But Dodger Stadium is very much defined by its team.  In other words, people love it because the mighty, star-studded, billion dollar Dodgers play there and have built a tremendous legacy of winning, not because the building itself is particularly grand.  If you took a habitually bad baseball organization like the Miami Marlins and moved them into Dodger Stadium, would it generate the same sort of praise that it does today?  Probably not.  For the same reason that some stadium chasers inexplicably knock PNC Park down a few pegs in their rankings because the Pirates play there, Dodger Stadium often sees the opposite effect – it’s old and historic and a great team plays there, so that somehow makes the ballpark better as a result.

However, if you are to fairly judge these baseball facilities, you shouldn’t even be taking the team itself into account.  While your overall experience at the ballpark can certainly be influenced by the product you see on the field, the game is not what determines whether the stadium is good or bad.  I don’t like the Chicago Cubs, for instance, but I can walk into Wrigley Field and love every second of my time there because of the environment I’ve entered into the moment my ticket is scanned.  In my opinion, the true mark of a ballpark is shaped by four categories: location & ease of access, concessions & amenities, the technology & presentation that immerse you further into the game, and the overall beauty & charm that come from the architecture and engineering that surround you.  Dodger Stadium, in my opinion, struggles in each of these areas.

Obviously, people have varying opinions on what they’re looking for out of a stadium experience.  Many fans online heap praise on Dodger Stadium for its aesthetics and because the product on the field is so strong, with many placing it in their top ten.  As I’ve already addressed, I pushed aside the fact that it’s the Dodgers’ home field since I don’t feel that this impacts the strengths of any stadium in any way.  But I wanted to see if it lived up to the rest of the hype.  It did not.

Let me first start by addressing the aesthetics that people speak so highly of.  Yes, the aforementioned mountains off in the distance frame the stadium perfectly, and the palm trees add a certain level of California charm that is very befitting of a venue with this much star power.  But what I don’t care for so much is the color of the seats.  While the pale blue, orange, and yellow present a vintage color palette that is pleasing to many, I find them to be an eyesore.  Frankly, your overall takeaway from the visuals of this stadium are predicated on you liking 1960s design elements or not.  And because I don’t like these seat hues, the wavy outfield pavilion roofs, or the hexagon-shaped scoreboards and advertisements, I don’t find the look of Dodger Stadium appealing.  I will applaud the cohesiveness of it all and their commitment to this style over the decades rather than choosing to modernize.  It does create some nice old-school vibes.  It just wasn’t for me, but I can appreciate why others like it so much.

Navigating the interior of this stadium proved to be the most difficult of any that we’ve visited thus far.  Since it’s built into the ravine, the home plate entrance is actually at the very top level of the stadium, while the outfield entrances are at the field level.  It’s a pretty cool design, but it creates some real challenges once inside.  Our seats were on the top deck, and we had no issues finding them by using the large entrance next to the team store, an area that also displays their retired numbers.  It was when we started to explore the rest of the park that we ran into issues.  There are a lot of tiers here, some which feature some random dead-ends.  If you’re on the top deck and wish to go to the outfield, you will have to use at least two separate staircases, each of which are completely enclosed and take you away from the action of the game.  Most older venues have some sort of snaking ramp system at the very least, but not here.  There are a very limited number of elevators in either foul corner, but even those don’t take you all the way to the top.  And since there are so few, they have long lines that will scare away anyone with claustrophobia.  The escalators, which are only around home plate on the field level up to loge and the suites, were very crammed as well.

I felt like there wasn’t a lot to do here, which was disappointing for sure.  In a city known for its wide variety of offerings and activities, I expected there to be a lot of exciting things to discover.  Concessions were pretty underwhelming, which surprised me given the Los Angeles food scene.  They’re pretty well known for the Dodger Dog, but you can get a hot dog at any ballpark.  We actually spent a ton of the pre-game just walking around looking for something to eat because there were such few things that were really enticing or jumped out at us.  We did enjoy the Dole Whip with popping mango pearls that we bought near our seats, but everything else was run of the mill.  The outfield concourse was a little better, with a kids area, bars and concessions, some nice standing room only spots, and a couple team stores.  However, I’ve never gone through a more crowded shopping experience in my life; the store was completely wall to wall with people and took ages to get from one end to the other.

The scoreboards at Dodger Stadium absolutely suck.  There’s really no other way for me to put it.  The strange hexagonal shape puts them at a disadvantage because they have to cram the necessary information into odd configurations.  I give them credit for trying though, as the design can’t be found anywhere else.  The bigger problem is that these screens are also far too small. It makes it very difficult to read anything since the font has to be so tiny with all the statistics crammed in.  Meanwhile, the sound system is known for being rather loud compared to other venues.  For a franchise with so much money, you’d think their baseball park would be incredibly high-tech, but it actually might be the most outdated of all the places I’ve visited.

Perhaps you’ve already heard, but LA traffic is a mess.  This problem is compounded by Dodger Stadium’s parking situation.  The ballpark is notorious for having some of the worst lots imaginable, with only five entrances available to enter and exit the facility.  Since the stadium is close to a residential and commercial area, there are very limited options outside of the complex, so you are more or less forced to use their parking.  We didn’t have a huge problem getting in since we arrived so early, although signage could’ve been much clearer.  Getting out was a much greater hassle since all the cars needed to leave all at once.  It was obvious as the game went on that a large percentage of people were leaving early with the hope of somehow beating traffic.  Simply put, the entire ordeal was probably the biggest challenge I’ve ever taken on as a car driver.  I’m not sure how else to capture just how frustrating and crowded these commutes to and from the ballpark were.  And this was for a Sunday afternoon game that had one of the lowest attendance marks of the season at around 41,000 fans, so it only gets worse.

Look, I get why people like Dodger Stadium.  Even if I don’t love the look and design of the ballpark itself, I think the building as a whole has aged gracefully enough since 1962.  You come here knowing that you’ll see a tremendous baseball team on the diamond, and there’s a certain party atmosphere that comes with that since people are so excited about it.  But that has given fans a reputation for getting out of control in the stands.  Regardless, you feel the sense of pride that people have for this team and for the place they call home.  And on top of that, you are almost guaranteed to have a picturesque, perfect weather game every single time you visit.  From what I can find, there have been only three rain delays at Dodger Stadium since 2008.  Be warned, though – there is a horrible lack of shade for those blazing hot day games, which we experienced firsthand.

Few stadiums succeed in every single one of the categories I outlined early in the article.  The fact that each one will be different (and that some will be disappointing) is what makes going to all these venues so exciting.  I feel so much joy at seeing what makes each one stand out and how they compare against one another, no matter if it’s the good or the bad.  Whether two baseball teams play on an overgrown Little League diamond or in the most modern facility imaginable, I can find great enjoyment just from watching them go at it.  But when you step into that environment for yourself and see how the stadium around you impacts your experience, it takes the sport to another level.  I try to go into each ballpark with the same expectations and therefore can hopefully judge them all on an even playing field.  Not all of them will be winners.  You hope, though, that by the final out, you’re already excited for your next chance to take it all in again.  There’s positives to take away from every single stadium, and that’s what makes it so hard to come up with a personal ranking of each one.  

When I see Dodger Stadium in the top ten (or even top five) of stadium rankings, however, I pause to shake my head.  I’m not going to question the reasoning behind the opinions of other fans, as we all have different things we’re looking for.  Something I perceive as a weakness might easily be a strength for someone else.  From my own experience, I see little to justify this ballpark being viewed quite so fondly.  It’s a nice venue that’s befitting of such a powerhouse, but it’s hard to ignore the numerous cons about the stadium when it’s constantly in the spotlight.  You’ll see a fun baseball game here and get your money’s worth, even if the ticket costs are high.  But you’ll also encounter a headache trying to get into the game, you’ll question your sanity trying to maneuver the concourses while you search endlessly for a decent food option amongst the throngs of people, and you’ll find that the in-game technology meant to help you follow the game perhaps detracts from it instead.  Then, as you sit in the parking lot for an hour trying to get out, you might find yourself pondering if the stadium itself was actually amazing in any way or if nostalgia and sentimentality are doing most of the heavy lifting to make this one stand out.  Just because the Dodgers are good doesn’t mean that their stadium automatically is too.

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Thank you for visiting Small World Travel Blog!  We hope you enjoyed the 9th review in our MLB Stadium Tour series.  Please consider subscribing for more content like this!  What do you think about Dodger Stadium, and do you think that people who rank it highly because the team itself is good are justified?  Are there more positives that I’m not seeing?  Let us know in the comments, along with which stadium you’d like us to review next!