The gray sky and first day of December chill provided a fitting addition Monday for the ongoing, Christmas scene transformation at Blue Wahoos Stadium.
For the first time in the ballpark’s history, the entire stadium will be aglow in Christmas lights for the inaugural “Wahoos Winter Nights” community event, which began on Dec. 5. There will be an 11-day opportunity — each of the three weekends before Christmas — to see the stadium like never before.
The interactive experience will be from 6-9 p.m. each night. The schedule will be Dec. 5-7, Dec. 12-14, then five continuous days from Dec. 19-23. Admission is $12 per person. Parking is free at the stadium’s main lot.
This will be a walkthrough experience that will include Santa Claus, the Blue Wahoos’ mascot Kazoo, a children’s craft area, a bounce house on the field, S’mores stations, and food and beverages for purchase. The visiting team clubhouse below the third base seating bowl has been converted into a “Santa’s Workshop” where children can write letters to the North Pole.
In addition, each of three Sundays (Dec. 7, 14, 21) will include a family Christmas movie shown on the stadium videoboard, all culminating on Dec. 23 with a grand finale experience and fireworks show sponsored by Marcus Pointe Baptist Church.
“We’re very excited about it,” said Kevin Grimes, vice president of operations for the Mobile Sports and Entertainment Group, which began installing lights on Nov. 24. “To use a baseball phrase, I think it will be a grand slam. It’s such a great environment to be out here with the stadium on the water like it is.
“This is something that is going to be different for us as well,” Grimes said. “We spent a lot of time on the design and how we want to lay things out and how we think it’s going to look.
“I have probably looked at 100 different ballparks across the country that are doing something that is similar, but we have never done a walk-through experience like this one will be.”
Grimes and his company have done various light display experiences in Mobile, Alabama and Baldwin County area. The group decorated Mobile’s Hank Aaron Stadium parking lot for a drive-through experience that ended in 2021.
That helped spurred the idea among the Blue Wahoos management team to create a stadium Christmas lights show in Pensacola.
“This is something we have talked about and really been wanting to do in the nine years I have been here,” said Shannon Hannah, the Blue Wahoos events manager. “We always thought it would be fun and we just weren’t able to pull it all together.
“We’ve had New Year’s Eve celebrations at the stadium, some Christmas celebration events and private company parties at the stadium, but this year it all fell in place to partner with the folks in Mobile and produce one for our community.”
Unlike drive-through Christmas lights events, the one at Blue Wahoos Stadium will allow people to spend as much time as they desire inside the stadium and enjoying a festive scene with other families or friends.
“We are not going to be shuffling people through,” Hannah said. “People can enjoy and experience the lights on the concourse and the field, as long as they want to. They can go through the displays as many times as they want. We’ll have music going on and it will be very interactive and fun each day.”
On Sunday nights, the first movie night on Dec. 7 will feature “Elf,’’ the Christmas comedy produced in 2023, then “Home Alone” on Dec. 14, followed by “The Grinch” on Dec. 21.
“Anywhere within the stadium, families and children can enjoy different experiences throughout,” Hannah said. “And seeing the faces of the little kids will be so rewarding.”
As Grimes and his team have worked on installing the lights, there have been challenges to overcome with a concrete concourse area and artificial field playing surface.
“It’s hard to put structures on an artificial turf playing surface, so we are having to come up with different ways to secure those elements to the field,” he said. “Obviously, you can’t drive a stake into artificial turf. To put, say a 20-foot tall poll, with a Christmas tree on it without being able to secure it to the ground is a challenge, so we’re having to make some adjustments there.
“A drive-through experience like we had at Hank Aaron Stadium, and our other shows, obviously had a specific route. Here it’s an open floor plan where the public will have access to pretty much anywhere. So we’re adjusting for that.
“We had high expectations for our drive through shows. And I hope when it’s all installed and we flip the switch for the first time, that it meets expectations.”
Beginning on Dec. 5, the event will be held, no matter the weather.
Wahoos Winter Nights schedule
WANT TO GO?
WHAT: Wahoos Winter Nights, a Christmas lights show experience.
WHEN: Dec. 5-7, Dec. 12-14, Dec. 19-23 at 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. each night.
WHERE: Blue Wahoos Stadium.
TICKETS: $12, can be purchased online at www.bluewahoos.com or at the stadium box office during regular business hours and prior to each night’s event.
CONCESSIONS: Food and beverages will be available for purchase at the stadium concourse locations
SPECIAL NIGHTS: A Christmas-theme movie will be shown each Sunday. Dec. 7 will feature “Elf,’’ “Home Alone” is Dec. 14, and “The Grinch” is Dec. 21.
FIREWORKS: The final show on Dec. 23 will feature a fireworks display sponsored by Marcus Pointe Baptist Church.
Bill Vilona is a retired Pensacola News Journal sports columnist and now senior writer for Pensacola Blue Wahoos. He can be reached at bvilona@bluewahoos.com
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Blue Wahoos Stadium transformed into walk-thru Christmas lights experience
Reporting by Bill Vilona, Special to the News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
