Petco Park, San Diego, California

"Now batting for the Padres, not you."

Technically, Petco Park should not count as I only went on the tour. I did not include this in my rankings but it's worth mentioning as it is a really nice ballpark.

Not too far from the shoreline and the lively Gaslamp district, the Padres finally have a baseball park to call their own. I took a tour of this facility and was impressed by this ballpark. Unfortunately missing going to a game by a few weeks, the tour will have to do. (I was actually in the area to see the last game of the 2008 NLCS in Los Angeles and the Padres ruled themselves of a playoff run a few months ago.)

The very comprehensive tour was about 1.5 hour long and consisted of visits to the following areas:

• The expensive seats directly behind home plate.
• A walk through the lower level concourse
• Restaurant exhibits and seats located in the Western Metal Supply Warehouse. (The corner of the building makes up the left field foul pole.)
• Luxury club level and box
• Press box
• Club (la-dee-dah) Restaurant
• The warning track behind the plate
• Home team dugout
• Visitors clubhouse
• (The last stop being, surprise, surprise) Padres official team store
  

During the tour, as all the seats are angled towards the infield, it seemed like there was no bad seat in the house less those green bleacher seats out in right/centerfield. The view is obstructed as you can't see anything from centerfield over to right. The tour didn't include the upper deck so I can't comment on that. If you can spring the money, I am assuming that the terrace style seating of the warehouse section provides perspectives of the game unmatched at any park. After all, it's a national preserved landmark and the signature of the ballpark. (As told by our tour guide, when the Padres purchased the patch of land to build the ballpark, they got the warehouse with it. Since it's a preserved landmark, they had to build around it utilizing the corner of the building into the construction of the ballpark. The corner of this building is also the left field foul pole.) My reaction after hearing this, "Well done, Padres. Well done."
If paying just enough to get into the ballpark is your only goal, see below.

Left photo shows exterior of the warehouse and right photo shows the view from the seats in the warehouse terrace, 2nd floor up.

Before you read on, I just want to warn you that I am a big fan of the open concourse; the type of concourse that you can see out to the field while going to the concessions. Most new ballparks incorporated this concept into it's construction. Not only do you not miss the action while getting food and drink but if you're okay with standing the duration of the ballgame, you're not married to one view of the game! For the cost of the cheapest entrance to the stadium, you're watching it from a row behind the guy that paid a ginormous amount of money for a seat at the last row field section. Then, in an inning or two or when you need a refill of that $9 beer, you move along for a new vantage point. While you risk the overhang issue of the deck above, it's still a great and frugal way to watch a ballgame.

Picture taken from the lower level concourse behind home plate.

One fact, as told by our informative tour guide, that peaked my interested was the team's encouragement of fans to explore the open concourses. And why not? Be proud of the ballpark you built and let the fans regardless of economic divide enjoy aspect of it! The lower level of Petco Park has a wide open concourse. There were neat exhibits on the field level (leading into the warehouse) that commemorated San Diego's rich baseball past. Not to mention for a mere $5.oo (the cost of a ticket to sit out on the distant grassy knoll beyond the outfield) you can wander the ballpark and if you don't mind standing, watch the game at the same level as the folks paying top dollar. There are even ledges for you to rest your food and beer on while you watch. Concessions seem well distributed throughout the lower level concourse so you're never far from beer stand to the action. For $5.00, you can't beat that.

Well, pending the accuracy of this tidbit of information, I retract my "for $5.00, you can't beat that" statement. How about free, unless you buy useless consumer product with Padres logos on them? In the team store, you can view the game through the leftfield wall fencing. Sort of like getting the relief pitcher's perspective of watching a game in the bullpen. I don't really know how full that little area gets but if I remember correctly, you can comfortably fit maybe 10 people before thoughts of claustrophobia kicks in. I'm sure it makes for pretty good leftfielder heckling. Sightlines are horrible but you get what you pay for.



The only thing I hate about tours is that you get a tiny glimpse of a sterile environment. I'll have to come back for a game.