(Written by kencraw)

Amenities… that’s what every stinking article about moving to AT&T park is all about. Amenities this, amenities that. Blaw, blaw, blaw, shortcomings this and that, but who cares, great Amenities!

At first I thought, OK, people like their nice amenities, I mean, it’s a big part of the reason for the renovation of Memorial, so I told myself to chill out and not worry about it.

But I’ve reached my breaking point. I read the word ‘amenities’ one to many times and now I’m going postal (or the blog equivalent thereof):

What the @($#@$#@!(R@!#$(@!#$P&(@!asld$!(@#$*@!#)$@!$#&(@!#$@!#$(* BS are you guys talking about!?!

We’ve played in amenity-less Memorial for 75+ years, with one more year to go. Why does it matter what kind of amenities our ONE YEAR replacement has? Why is this on the top of the priority list? Said another way, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE OPTIONS HAS S*I*G*N*I*F*I*C*A*N*T*L*Y BETTER AMENITIES THAN MEMORIAL!?!

So it’s not like we’d be taking a big step back to go play at Candlestick park. It’s not like they’ve been feverishly working to improve the amenities in Memorial in the EIGHT YEARS they’ve been working on this project. It’s not like this is a permanent move that if we didn’t have amenities, we’d be missing the point of a move. No, it’s ONE YEAR, and it’s one year that no matter where we go it’s going to be an amenity upgrade to Memorial.

To be clear, it’s not that there aren’t other upsides to AT&T, public transportation being the biggie. But that’s not what I’m reading over and over. What I’m reading over and over, just to belabor the point 3 times too many is:

Amenities

Amenities

Amenities

And a word for the wise: If you think you’re going to be getting beer at the games, think again. It’s still an NCAA and Pac-10 football game. This isn’t a bowl game where everyone looks the other way. It’s the regular season. I’ll make a bet with anyone who desires that I’ll buy them a domestic beer if they have it for the first game at AT&T if they’ll buy me a large soda if they don’t. Anyone game for that bet?

To be clear, I’m not against AT&T park, every option had their upsides and downsides (even, GASP!, without considering their amenities, GASP!).

But amenities should have been at the very bottom of the list of criteria. Talk to me about public transportation, gaining new fanbases, surrounding neighborhoods for pre/post-game stuff and a feeling of safety, financial considerations, quality of the field (oops! wrong choice!), seating capacity (oop! wrong choice!), scheduling issues (oop! wrong choice!), heck, even weather (oops! wrong choice!) but don’t talk to me about amenities.

So please, someone tell me why amenities are such a big deal?