100 Park Boulevard
San Diego, CA 92101
Monday, May 4, 2009 7:05PM
Colorado Rockies defeat San Diego Padres 9-6
Built in 2004
Seating Capacity 42,445
Stadium Location
The location of PETCO Park is awesome! It's built right in the city with downtown buildings all around it. It's very easy to get to with convenient parking all around, we parked under the convention center and walked over on Tony Gwynn Way, (apparently he was kind of a big deal). Plus, the Gaslight Quarter is right around the corner from the ballpark with bar and restaurants for pre/post game action!
Overall Look and Feel
The Padres website says PETCO Park is spectacular in every way, combining the best sight lines in baseball with breathtaking views of San Diego. Architecturally magnificent, it celebrates the sea, the sky, the natural beauty, cultural diversity and unique spirit of our region. Innovative design features evoke the timeless traditions of baseball in an intimate setting, with state-of-the-art fan amenities to suit every taste and budget.
From the outside, and also inside, the stadium looks like it was built into buildings that were previously there. The historic Western Metal Supply Company Building has been renovated and incorporated into the Ballpark. The main concourse is spacious, open and airy with views of the field all around. Once inside it seems like you entered into another town. In fact, Tim thought we left the stadium as we were walking around! The stadium felt modern but also had historic charm. Condos, office buildings, hotels, and even a gym surround the stadium and can see into the park. The outfield area was done very well. There is a grassy hill you can lay a picnic blanket out on to relax and watch the game. A video screen even faced the outfield so you didn't miss any of the scoreboard antics. There was an awesome mini baseball diamond and a large grass area where kids and their dads were playing catch and wiffle ball. Great views all around and a nice added touch was mini scoreboards in each section.
Food
Funny story... I ordered a pretzel with cheese (as I do at a lot of the games we go to) and the concession man gave me a strange look. He asked me what I was going to do with the cheese. I told him it's for dipping the pretzel. He seemed very confused and brought me a huge cup of cheese with my pretzel. He said that he has never heard of a soft pretzel with cheese before!
Garlic fries were recommended at this park but we couldn't do it. They just smelled so bad when we walked by. The hot dog was on the list of things to avoid, however we decided we had to try a hot dog at every stadium from here on out. We should have stayed away. It was wrinkly and just not good. I think the bun might have even been soggy. Thank goodness for the giant cup of cheese we had to dip it in!
WOW Factor
The outfield in general was very cool. We spent most of the game sitting on the grass hill watching the game. The way the Western Metal Supply Company building was built into the stadium was very neat. We also loved the way the city seemed to be built around the ballpark. Very urban! The park overall was very impressive!
Scoreboard and Entertainment
The video screen was not overly impressive in size but was clear and bright. The black and white screen above the video screen showed the live scores, box score and other player statistics. Tim says classic, I say dull.
Overall Experience
Rating 4.5
While buying our shot glass for this stadium we realized how silly San Diego's mascot is. Padre is Spanish for Father and that's exactly what their mascot is, a priest/monk. We had a great time at this park and thought it was pretty impressive overall! The stadium was family friendly and had lots of details that made it unique from the other parks. As a side note, we were able to make this trip due to the SparkPeople convention hosted in San Diego. We stayed a few days after for a mini-vacation and to go to the game!
good stuff
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