With Opening Day on the horizon, fans around the Fredericksburg region are getting ready to welcome in the newly formed Fredericksburg Nationals at their new ballpark on Thursday, April 23.
When preparing to spend your evening at the ballpark, keep in mind the team’s latest backpack policy which will be in effect come Opening Day.
This season and in the coming seasons, the FredNats will only allow clear bags and small purses into the new ballpark. Diaper bags will not be an exception and will need to remain in the car or at home according to the team.
“With the Fredericksburg Nationals moving into a new state of the art facility we took this opportunity to update our safety procedures to adhere to the policies that the NFL, collegiate conferences and some MLB teams have adopted to ensure the highest level of safety for our fans,” the team wrote in an email.
The Nationals know that this new policy may be initially viewed as an inconvenience to fans but the priority here is on safety. The team has included a free 12″x12″x6″ clear bag as a promotional item that will be given out to fans at the third home game of the season on Saturday, April 25.
In addition to the promotional bag, the team will sell a drawstring backpack that is 14″x17″ and another clear bag that will be different than the giveaway bag that will also be 12″x12″x6″ in the team gift store.
The Washington Nationals, the FredNats’ parent club, announced their clear bag policy just prior to Opening Day 2019. None of the other Minor League teams in
Washington’s Minor League system has implemented guidelines for a clear bag policy.
Clear bag policies have seen an uptick in usage in recent years as the NFL implemented a no-backpack policy just after the Super Bowl in 2018. MLB, the NBA, and the NHL, meanwhile, allow for each team to decide its own backpack policy.
The FredNat’s new stadium will be located in Fredericksburg, next to the city’s convention center, at 2171 Carl D. Silver Parkway.
