An even friendlier Fenway
Red Sox officials hope improvements continue to preserve park’s charm
When fans enter Fenway Park for Friday’s home opener, they’ll notice a new look at the top of the right field bleacher seats— and the Red Sox hope they’ll feel it blends in with the rest of the ballpark.
A project long in the making, the Red Sox have built a two-story addition above the right field bleachers featuring amenities they think fans will love, including a new concourse, event space, new standing room areas and the new home of NESN’s on-site studio.
“The back of the bleachers has long been one of the most under-serviced areas of the ballpark from an amenity perspective,” Red Sox executive vice president/chief operating officer Jonathan Gilula said.
The Red Sox feel like they’ve fixed that with their latest enhancements to Fenway.
The new concourse — which is named the “Truly Terrace” — connects to the back of the right field bleachers, an 8,800-squarefoot space that includes an island bar, food and beverage stands, drink market and restrooms. The new NESN studio sits behind a glass window directly next to it, with a great view of the ballpark.
The top of the right field bleachers previously didn’t have any amenities, and Gilula noted how the new additions provide greater convenience for fans, especially those sitting at the top of the sections.
“You literally would have had to walk up 50 rows to get to the top of the bleachers and then you have to walk back down the same 50 rows to get access to restrooms, concession stands,” Gilula said of the previous situation. “So now, those seated in the upper rows of the bleachers will have much more convenient access to those amenities.”
Above the concourse is a new event space — the “521 Overlook,” a nod to Ted Williams’ career home run total — where Gilula said upward of 600 people can fit, enclosed by a window and overlooking Fenway Park. Gilula said the 8,000square-foot space is designed with the flexibility to host several different types of occasions, from speaking engagements to corporate events and weddings.
“The ‘521 Overlook’ is going to be one of the best event spaces in Boston,” Gilula said.
The improvements to Fenway also include the addition of a new, expanded video board that stands 62 feet wide by 16 feet tall — double the width of the previous video board.
Gilula said the Red Sox have been looking at ways to improve the experience in right field for a long time.
“For the last 20 years we’ve been constantly looking at ways to add more space, provide more amenities to our fans,” Gilula said. “The bleachers have been an area we’ve targeted. We initially enhanced the bleacher experience by creating the big concourse area between Gates B and C at the ground level, but like I said, the upper levels of the bleachers, the right field grandstands have been areas we’ve been trying to address for a number of years.”
Gilula said the construction of the new enhancements was ongoing last season, and it went into overdrive this offseason. Almost immediately after the season ended, the demolition of the back of the bleachers began. The top six rows of the bleacher seats across those sections were removed, and with the addition of one row of stools in front of the standing room area, there was a net loss of about 200 bleacher seats, Gilula said.
Fenway Park’s seating capacity remained unchanged through the renovations, Gilula said.
This latest makeover is a part of the Red Sox’ ongoing effort over the last two decades to keep Fenway Park — MLB’s oldest stadium, now approaching 110 years old — up to date and continuing to thrive. The team believes they’ve made these improvements in a way that doesn’t tarnish the ballpark’s rich history.
“We’re constantly tinkering and trying to find ways to breathe life into the building and to cater to the fans and what they want and what they think is important,” Gilula said. “But I think we’re also very mindful that there’s an inherent charm and character of the building that we cannot harm. And we take that responsibility very seriously. … “When people come and see the new improvements, the best compliment that we can receive is that it’s always looked like it’s been there. We think we’ve achieved that with this latest addition, so hopefully fans will feel the same way.”