Out of all the parks I’ve been to, I definitely think the area surrounding Coors (”LoDo”) is the most vibrant.

I’d put Kenmore Square (the neighborhood where Fenway Park is located) above the Coors area, but Coors does have a great location: walking distance from the downtown retail area, with lots of restaurants and stores. Better than Safeco’s location, which is within walking distance of the International District and Pioneer Square but annoyingly far.

Two items about Coors which have not been mentioned, but are two of my favorites:

1. A single row of seats, all around the entire ballpark, is purple. “Why are those seats purple?” I asked the guy next to me (this was at a SABR conference a few years ago). The explanation: that row is exactly 5,280 feet above sea level.

I love the local touches like that that some ballparks have; the Ted Williams seat in the center field bleachers at Fenway, the bronze baseball plaques in the sidewalk outside Camden Yards, etc.

2. If you sit in the upper deck facing west for a twilight game, you get to watch the sun set over the Rocky Mountains. Overall the view’s not as good as the best ones from Safeco Field (or Petco Field in San Diego) but the sunset performance is pretty spectacular.

I do agree with the consensus in the other comments: Coors is a very nice ballpark, not quite as good as Safeco.

I went to Camden Yards for the first time last year; I mildly disagree with putting it above Safeco, I’d rank it about the same. I have not been to … I have given up keeping up with the commercial names, the ballpark in San Francisco, I can imagine that that’s a fabulous place to be on a sunny day.

No view of the game in vendor areas and VERY sparse screens as well. Exactly ONE brand of beer. ONE. If you ask for any alternatives they look at you like you came from another planet.

Scoreboards are hard to see from some locations, and the big screen is just about the same size as Safeco even tho the place was build much later.

Viewing from the few places I checked was OK, but not as good as Safeco. No seats behind girders like Fenway.

There is nothing going on in the park between innings. Nothing like the constant show put on at Safeco, (or even Kauffman Stadium).

Some would say that’s fine, but my observation was that the crowd gets bored, drinks more beer, gets rowdy. Rinse repeat.

I got the feeling they didn’t know how to use the facility.

I still have scoreboard lust for Kauffman Stadium’s scoreboard. I think Safeco could use a face lift in this regard. Take the whole score board area, put in a horizontal version of Kauffman’s, slanted to prevent sun glare.

Wriggle? It needs a fresh coat of bulldozer. Blasphemy, I know, but there you have it.

No Vidro.

Newcastle in the bottle is your example of good beer selection?

RRRRrrgghhh.

Newcastle in a bottle is my example that in the good-beer carts all through the stadiums it’s not just two Mexican beers and Molson, it included imports from other quality beer-producing countries.

But that doesn’t quite fit into the “short” part.

Out of the “new” parks, I’d put the Safe right in the middle behind PacBell and Camden, in the same category as Coors/Comerica/Busch/Petco, and ahead of the BOB and Jacobs.

I’ve only ever been to three stadiums: SafeCo (numerous), Comerica (three or four times), and the Kingdome (numerous). There is no doubt in my mind that the gap between each of these is quite large. SafeCo is much better than Comerica and Comerica than the concrete bucket.