The Joseph L Bruno Stadium

Try to get a seat alongside the 3^rd base/​left field side to avoid the glare of the sun. Once the sun sets its okay but those first couple of innings can be rough! Otherwise it’s a great park to watch a baseball game and the Valley Cats are usually title contenders year in and year out in the NY-​Penn League. They also have several post game fireworks shows each year which are fun to watch.

I’m a veteran of many, many ballparks — over 150, including the entire old configuration of the New York-​Penn league, as well as the old Albany-​Colonie ballpark — but we only recently got here to see the ValleyCats. I review with that experience/​bias in mind and with the perspective of having to manage a couple of smallish boys.
This is a AA-​sized ballpark in a AAA-​sized region hosting a low-​A ballclub, an eccentricity in itself in that it’s attached to the community college and appears to have had its origin as a bit of dual-​purpose pork. Casting aside the question of the public good for the moment, as such it comes across as not quite entirely a professional ball park, but it’s new, clean, and well-​appointed.
High up there on the plus side are the relatively low ticket prices, and the free (at least when we were there) parking not too far away. It’s a bit of a maze getting in and out of the parking areas, but now we’ve waypointed it, it should be easier.
The sight lines are good all the way around, but they ballpark designers angled the outfield seats towards the outfield, not home plate, which to me is a fairly serious sin in this day and age. Because it’s a one-​level concourse (there’s plenty of room for expansion), most of it not under a roof (I’m excluding the «luxury» boxes, which have to have the worst views in the infield, they’re so far back), everything is pretty open and easy to get to. They did make the mistake of making the outfield sections longer than they need to be, so combined with the angling problem you will be looking over people’s heads if seated out there, but it’s not really too bad.
The bulk of the infield seats are behind the protective screen, which is modern in that it’s easier to see through, but I’m still not fond of watching my baseball through a screen. If you want the best viewing experience, I’d suggest midway up behind the dugouts or perpendicular to third base or first base, where there’s less foul territory and the seats are actually just as close to the players if not closer than the vaunted behind the plate locations.
Concessions are what you’d expect — nothing particularly memorable here, and they’re still at movie-​concession prices, which to my mind is a bit high for low-​A short season ball. Lines were not bad, but folks did tend to congregate on the third base side, so they’re shorter on the first base side. There is a picnic shelter area in right field, although you cannot BYOPicnic. You can also get specialty beers, which is nicer than your average ballpark swill, but prices are ballpark standard, which is to say, high. They also have the malt liquor beverages (Mike’s, etc.) and bad wine. As far as healthful choices for kids, it’s slim pickings. Be prepared for the full-​on carnival food experience if you bring the youngsters.
They run the usual minor league fun activities between innings, but do a very bad job of announcing them in advance and prepping the crowd for the fun, so it goes by quickly and confusingly. That’s too bad.
I will say one thing I appreciate is that the PA system is not overamplified; perhaps it’s the lack of a covering for the field, but most ballparks we go to these days are horror zones of constant aural stimulation, which drives my kids crazy (not in a good way) and me deaf.
Some downticks on making it hard to exit the ballpark after the game; they should open up more gates. Everybody has to funnel out through the main entrance area, basically.
I can’t say as far as greatest ballpark experiences the «Joe» is going to ever be special for me, but for the low-​key class of ball that’s played here, it’s a better than average ballpark experience and worthy of 4 stars within the category, and it’s far friendlier for smaller kids than any big league ballpark is.

What a great little stadium! It is the home of the Tri-​City Valley Cats who are the Class A Affiliates (i think) of the Houston Astros. It is conveniently located on the campus of Hudson Valley Community College and has a ton of parking (it was free during the Monday afternoon game that I went to). Admission is $ 6-​$ 11 and there is a family grandstand package for $ 25. Beverage and food prices were reasonable and they serve micro brew from The Troy Brew Pub (aka Brown’s). The staff at the ticket window was helpful in helping me find my group.
The bathrooms were immaculate!
I was at a networking event held in the Diamond Suite which was great. The staff was attentive, the ballpark food looked good (I had to skip as I went to a Yanks game over the weekend and was already at my hot dog quota for the month), it was air conditioned.
Reasonably priced, family friendly environment.
The locals call it «The Joe»