The time existed when the only thing a baseball stadium needed was two teams on the field, reasonably comfortable seats, concession stands and vendors to sell hot dogs, sodas, peanuts and adult beverages.

Those days are gone.

Modern stadiums are entertainment centers. They require gourmet food, something to keep children occupied before and during games and seats that are more than comfortable.

Welcome to Nationals Park in Washington.

The Nationals open the 2008 season and new stadium, located at South Capitol Street, tonight at 8:05 against the Atlanta Braves. The game is sold out.

Nationals Park is something of a wonder, which is what $611 million can buy.

There is a 4,532-square foot scoreboard, three restaurants, almost 200 "points of sale" for food and other items, 33 to 42 inches of leg room between rows, a Sony PlayStation Pavilion, a Build-a-Bear workshop and, oh yeah, Major League Baseball games.

There is one drawback. Parking around the stadium is almost non-existent. The Nationals have a parking deck, but that is reserved for suite and season-ticket holders.

Single-game ticket holders are on their own. There are some surface lots and parking decks in the neighborhood. The Nationals offer free parking at RFK Stadium, complete with free shuttle service to the new stadium.

The difference between Nationals Park and RFK Stadium, where the Nationals played for the past three years, is similar to the difference between a fully-loaded Rolls Royce and a used Yugo with a standard transmission.

"It's night and day," Nationals manager Manny Acta said. "Obviously, RFK was a very old stadium."

RFK opened in 1961, and the old Senators' first season in the park was 1962.

"I believe it will help our hitters a little bit more than RFK," Acta said. "I think going into this new stadium, these guys are pumped, the adrenaline is flowing."

Nationals Park is practically the same length down each foul line as RFK, but center field and the power alleys are as much as 10 feet shorter.

And unlike RFK, which has more than a few "bad" seats, fans in Nationals Park should see everything with little problem.

What should be two of the worst seats in the house -- the last seat in the upper deck down the first base-line, Section 420, Row N, Seat 1, and the last seat down the third-base line, section 401, Row N, Seat 3 -- really aren't so bad.

While the seats are well above the field, the location is not so high that players look to be miniature samples.

If you are sitting high above the third-base line, you can look over your left shoulder and get a stunning view of the Capitol building.

Down the first-base line, you can look over your right shoulder and see the Anacostia River.

The Presidential seats are the best in the stadium. They are at field level, behind home plate. And they're not cheap.

The cost is $325 per game, $335 for "exclusive" games. You can save by buying one of these seats for the season for $300 per game.

The players, who can afford Presidential seats, don't have to pay anything to work in the palatial setting.

They have an expansive, oval-shaped locker room with dark-wood paneled lockers. They have video rooms to study opposing pitchers and hitters.

They have a hydrotherapy pool, complete with a treadmill, two whirlpool tubs, a sauna, a weight-training room, a physical therapy room and a training and treatment room.

Nothing is perfect, though.

The Nationals readily admit there are bad seats in their new stadium -- five of them.

"We're not selling those," said Lisa Pagano, director of communications manager for the Nationals. "They don't exist."

That leaves 41,888 seats and 80 remaining home games to fill them.
Contact Paul Woody at (804) 649-6444 or pwoody@timesdispatch.com. John O'Connor contributed to this story.