Box seats are usually very close to the field, often offer the best views of the action, and are the most expensive tickets (but not always --
grandstand tickets cost more at
Fenway Park than box seats). The origin of the term 'box seats' comes from early in
baseball's history.
Bleacher seats were standard wooden benches which would be bleached over time by the sun's rays. Those who could afford more expensive seats could buy
grandstand tickets, which featured more comfortable chairs with backs. But they were still located with the general populace. For the big bucks ($1 or so), fans could buy
box seats. Box seats were closer to the field, and were 'boxed' -- a physical
barricade enclosed each section of seats, allowing for a cleaner
environment, and a touch more
privacy, as ushers refused admittance to the box without a proper ticket.
"Our grand-stand seats almost two thousand, counting the boxes. But only the snobs, and the girls with new hats, sit in the boxes.
Box seats are comfortable, it is true, and they cost only an
additional ten cents, but we have come to consider them
undemocratic, and unworthy of true fans."
- Edna Ferber, "Buttered Side Down"
Nowadays, very few parks in any sport actually box their box seats, but the name has remained.