In praise of the understated appeal of Philly’s own Citizens Bank Park

Citizens Bank Park never fares too well in those big-league ballpark rankings. A fresh batch is out for this season, and the Phillies’ 20-year-old stadium falls just a hair better than average among 30 Major League Baseball parks. The Bank is nothing that special — to the outside world.

Explaining why he put the park 14th, between Busch Stadium in St. Louis and Nationals Park in Washington, Andrew Joseph of USA Today wrote, “Citizens Bank Park would benefit from a better location, but it’s held up well over the years and feels unique to Philadelphia.”

You might agree. Like the adjacent Wells Fargo Center and Lincoln Financial Field, the Bank is a solid, handsome facility, but it hunkers down in that vast, asphalt sea of 22,000 parking spaces at the South Philadelphia sports complex. Imperfect, but unique. Like Philly.

First, these raters should put a higher premium on the Bank’s ambience, the best in the big leagues. The Phillies win a lot, and fans don’t have to rely on silly in-game entertainment to have fun. No matter the site, the ballpark has become a civic gathering place, a cool hangout.

Philly loves the Phillies, and the Phils love Philly. I have been around long enough to have gone to games at the Phillies’ last two ballparks — Connie Mack Stadium and Veterans Stadium — and the Bank is the best. (PNC Park in Pittsburgh, to me, is No. 1.)

It seems as if every fan is wearing a piece of red or maroon. Fans wave signs and make it very hard for opponents to concentrate. Connie Mack Stadium was a dangerous dump. The Vet was a concrete doughnut too big for baseball. This place is perfect.

Partly as a result, the Phils are having their best season at the ticket booths in more than a decade. After Sunday’s games, they ranked third in the major leagues in average home attendance, behind only the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees.

The Phillies led the majors in home attendance in 2011 and 2012 — the end of a remarkable run in which the team sold out 257 straight home games. After a dip in performance (and, not so coincidentally, attendance), the Phillies are back to drawing 40,000 per game.

Indeed, the crowds are bigger because the Phillies, who have won about 50 more home games than they have lost in the last 2½ years, are darn good and got hot early. Victories, even at home, are hardly automatic, but during this glorious era it is likely that the Phils will send their fans home happy.

The Phillies announced recently that they would partner with Comcast Spectacor, which owns the Flyers, on a 10-year, $2.5 billion “metamorphosis” (their word) on areas now mostly covered by parking lots. The area would become a year-round entertainment complex!

But wait. It is already a year-round entertainment complex — and it has been since Sept. 26, 1971, when the Eagles played their first game at Veterans Stadium, placing all four big-league pro teams inside that dowdy square half-mile.

I like it pretty much the way it is. Gritty. Uncomplicated. A hard-boiled Philly tradition.

My old pal Ben Shpigel, a Bucks County native, once wrote of Philadelphia in the New York Times, “All four of its major professional sports teams play at arenas hard on the edge of South Philly, in a no-frills part of town situated between interstate highways called the Sports Complex — emphasis on sports.

“There are no shops or restaurants in the vicinity, save for stadium establishments and team stores. Food-distribution sites and warehouses rim the eastern edge. A military shipyard frames the southern boundary. The skyline sweeps three miles to the north.

“Looking for breathtaking scenery? Go elsewhere.”

Ben wrote that 15 years ago, before the Eagles played the New York Giants and the Phillies played the Yankees in the World Series on the same day. A sports bar and a casino have been added since, but the complex still is basically the same: Not breathtaking. But ours.

Now comes a glitch. Comcast and the Phils stand to gain millions by developing some of those parking lots into a concert venue, a hotel, and retail shops. Some of those parking lots would have to be replaced with those horrid, hard-to-escape parking decks.

Sports or music fans go to the complex to be entertained, but that is only part of a day out. Those parking lots serve another important purpose: pre- and post-event tailgating. Bring a case of cold beer and hoagies for all, pay 25 bucks to park, and you are set.

Citizens Bank Park, and the Wells Fargo Center and Lincoln Financial Field to lesser extents, offer tasty food and drink options inside, but you can bring your own grub and enjoy it with other fans for much less money. Here is where the home-field advantage kicks in.

The Phillies won’t eclipse the Eagles as far as the number of tailgaters, but in an interview on WIP FM 94.1 over the weekend about the development project, principal owner John Middleton acknowledged that the tailgating has become a big part of a day at the Bank.

Exactly how tailgating would thrive in an area that will have fewer ground-level parking spaces is to be determined (as well as how the Eagles fit into this project), but Middleton said access to the complex would be improved as a way to lighten lengthy postgame traffic jams. I wonder if that could be done even now, without a massive development project.

Middleton and Dan Hilferty, Comcast Spectacor’s CEO and the Flyers’ governor, pointed to the development of an entertainment district at Truist Park, the Atlanta Braves’ ballpark, as a model project. But that was built on what had been undeveloped land 10 miles from downtown.

If the Phillies stop winning a lot, many fans will disappear. Maybe that is why the Phillies and Flyers feel the need to develop some of those 22,000 parking spaces.

But that lake of blacktop is part of what you could call the complex’s appeal and, um, charm. Why change it just so corporations can grab more money from the fans?

Dave Caldwell, who wrote about sports for The Inquirer from 1986 to 1995, grew up in Lancaster County, graduated from Temple University and lives in Manayunk.