By: Abigail Hrabar
The Blue Wahoos Stadium has been a huge part of the culture of Pensacola for at least the past decade. People on vacation and locals alike have come to a ballgame simply for the experience. With the view of the bay, hot dogs, and fun music, it truly is one of Pensacola’s best fun things to do.
This season will be the Blue Wahoos thirteenth, and their fifth year into a ten-year contract with the Miami Marlins, the ones who oversee much of the roster and baseball of the Wahoos. I talked with senior writer of the Blue Wahoos, Bill Vilona, about the behind-the-scenes of the ballgame experience. “You can’t control who wins or loses and you never will … [so] how do you get the game to be fun?” he said about the stadium’s role in the game. With the baseball aspect of the Blue Wahoos supervised by the Marlins, much of the stadium’s job is to provide the fun. “You have to pretend that baseball isn’t the show, even though it is …”, Vilona said.
As a minor league team in a smaller city, Vilona mentioned how it is imperative that the Blue Wahoos continue to expand and provide excellent customer service to maintain the stadium. This year they have added a grab-and-go station with chili dogs and sweet tea. They also started offering more food options like tacos, seafood, and pizza by the slice. They have also invested more in their beloved firework show, doing shows on both Fridays and Saturdays according to one of our writers, Quincy.
Some of our team from The Corsair got a chance to go to a game on the opening weekend. The Wahoos played Biloxi and won 7-1 that Saturday night. One of our writers, Lydia, said of her experience at the ballgame, “The crowd for the Wahoos was absolutely incredible. Everyone was cheering and singing the song clips that played over the intercom. At one point, someone got a home run or a lot of points or something … and the entire stadium was on their feet yelling …”
As someone with little knowledge about the game of baseball but with a huge passion for Pensacola culture, I am incredibly excited for what the Blue Wahoos have in store for the future.
