Top Things to Know About 2024 Nationals Games, Plus Glorious Bobbleheads

At the Washington Nationals Media Day (March 25th), with the largest contingent of media present in recent years, the Nats staff showcased all the exciting and pivotal updates for the 2024 season.

Here’s your cheat sheet for the top things to know! Photos at the end.

Opening Day at Nationals Park is April 1st at 4pm.

Tickets are still available!

Game times have changed.

For regular weekday games, the new start time is 6:45pm (previously 7:05pm), and the gates open at 5:30pm. Now you can stay for the whole game and still get home at a reasonable time! For all other early game times or weekends, the gates open 80 minutes prior to first pitch.

There are 56 special ticket events in 2024!

There are five bobblehead nights, shirt and jersey giveaways, themed Blow Out Weekends, Pups in the Park, Heritage Days, and more. Lots of options to get your Nats swag.

$5 District Tickets are a go.

One of the best things is the continuation of the $5 seats. The main differences: 1) Now it is only available to DC residents. 2) You still have to go in person to the Box Office, but now you can buy up to four tickets per game for up to four future games in one transaction. 3) Unfortunately, they say starting at $5, so selected games may cost more.

Nats Access Pass is a outstandingly cheap way to get season tickets.

The Nationals have a season-ticket option at $5 per game for standing room only. And you can still buy the Nats Access Pass throughout the season, at a prorated cost.

Nationals Park is jam packed with local food (and beer) options.

Nationals Park was ranked #5 for Best Ballpark Food and #9 for Best Stadium Food across all sports in the nation (from USA Today’s 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards). It will boast over 40 local businesses, including some of my favorites: Arepa Zone (Sections 148 and 304), La Casita Pupuseria (Section 116), Roaming Rooster (Section 239), and Swizzler (Sections 105, 132, and 318). Some other standouts during the Media Tour taste test includes: Los Cinco Tacos (Section 136), Ssong’s Korean Hotdogs (Section 130) – the Mozzarella Cheese Stick was fire!, Eli’s Crepes (Section 114), and Pratt Standard Craft Cocktails (Section 108).

The Craft Beer Corner (Section 110) will have grab-and-go canned beers from local breweries, while District Drafts stalls will have local drafts and cans and are located everywhere (Sections 110, 115, 129, 140, 223, and 309). New breweries to Nationals Park from Virginia = Lost Rhino and 6 Bears & A Goat, and from Maryland = Annapolis Beer Company and Ten Eyck.

The Tuesday Value Days are the new party day!

Tuesdays are cheap, with tickets starting at $9! Plus $10 parking and a solid value menu: $3 pretzels, $4 hot dogs, $5 cheese & pepperoni pizza, and $5 fountain sodas.

There are three Blow Out Weekends in 2024.

Happy Hour is from gates open to first pitch.

Visit the Budweiser Brewhouse, Budweiser Terrace, or the ULTRA Loft, for 12-oz cans of Bud, Bud Light, or Michelob ULTRA for $5, and Bud Light seltzers for $6. And this year there is no code to order.

The Nats Summer Concert Series has some big names.

Buy a baseball ticket, and get a free concert after the game. Win/Win! Concerts start 30 minutes after the game ends.

There are eight Grab-and-Go Marketplace stations this season.

Three are new locations this year. Grab what you want, pay and enjoy! Includes hot food and Icee’s!! Three flavors!! (Sections 110, 136, 141, 234, 314, plus the new ones at 129, 205 and 306)

Taste of the Majors lets you explore the USA and Canada with your mouth.

Another cool food stall (Section 111) will showcase food from the opposing team’s city or region and will change for every new series.

Nationals Park has a new fancy Scoreboard.

This includes a new graphics display (see photo) of the player information, a clearer and brighter LED screen, better photo quality, and a Fan Tag Board where you can hashtag your way to screen glory.

And this site will forever be a bobblehead stan….

Photos during 2024 Nationals Media Day

Enjoy the season. I have a feeling the Nats will be a decent team this year, with all the young talent like CJ Abrams and Lane Thomas. Will they improve upon last year’s 71-91 record?

Until next time.