By admin 
There is a scene near the end of the movie “A League of Their Own,” where league general manager Ira Lowenstein looks out from the stands behind home plate and breathes in his surroundings.
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After overcoming financial hardships, skepticism and general disinterest in the league, Lowenstein’s vision, drive and faith is rewarded with a ballpark filled with enthusiastic fans. The GM claps his hands and beams with a sense of pride and accomplishment.
“I sold your product when there was no product,” he says to the candy bar magnate backing the league. “This is a product.”
That is Petco Park.
Somehow, a city that can barely build anything beyond a bike lane created an iconic venue regarded in some circles as America’s best ballpark. How appropriate for big games, like the past two nights, when fans are handed gold towels imprinted with “For the Faithful.”
It’s more than a baseball game at Petco Park. It’s an event. Every night. From the moment fans are handed a giveaway at the gate to the wide and varied food and drink offerings to the video board engagement.
“All the Small Things,” indeed.
Top it off with excitement on the field, and you have all the ingredients for a memorable experience.
There were at least half a dozen “moments” in Tuesday’s game, like when Fernando Tatis Jr. came all the way home after an errant catcher’s throw on his steal of second base.
“After Fernando’s run home I looked at my wife and said ‘that’s a memory,’ ” came a tweet from @sugarcanechopIG.
Petco Park is that most unusual place that is better in reality than anyone dares to dream. So what if it had to overcome 19 lawsuits and a two-year construction delay to realize that reality in 2004?
Padres ownership officially announced public plans for a downtown ballpark three decades ago. It was an ambitious plan to revitalize the East Village while also providing a baseball-specific venue that could make the franchise more than a “small-market” team.
Most of the fond memories of the Padres center around the World Series teams from 1984 and 1998.
Before that, there were years of futility. The Padres posted four 100-loss seasons in the first six years. It took 16 years to reach the playoffs. They were parties to the postseason five times in their first 50 years. The Padres matched that over the past seven seasons.
Moving from the minors to the majors was received with a collective shrug. San Diego Stadium wasn’t even half-full when the Padres debuted in 1969, with only 23,370 showing up to see them edge Houston 2-1.
It was six years before the franchise drew 1 million fans. It was seven years before they had a sellout – when a crowd of 49,168 fans came through the turnstiles on “Central Federal Jacket Night.”
The Padres this year drew more than 3 million fans for the fourth straight season. Wednesday night’s Game 2 of the NL Wild Card Series was the 67th sellout in 83 games this year at Petco Park.
There are so many touchpoints at Petco for fans even before they get to their seats.
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Before Tuesday night’s game, a fan was observed on an upper-level walkway. He stopped his buddy and pointed west, where the Cutwater Coronado Club framed sunset on San Diego Bay.
“Look at that,” he said.
A few steps to their left, someone took a selfie with the Coronado Bridge in the background.
Incorporating the Western Metal Supply Co. building into the design was a stroke of genius. What other ballpark has such a distinctive feature?
Fans can sit on the ledges outside and watch home run balls bounce off the building, or go inside where the activity gets as raucous as outside.
New Padres owners Kwanza Jones and José E. Feliciano made their way through the Budweiser Loft an hour before Tuesday’s first pitch, stopping on a stairway to acknowledge sustained applause from the fans.
Gallagher Square was overflowing with fans the past two nights, with people enjoying another unique game perspective on grassy knolls adjacent to statues of Hall of Famers Tony Gwynn and Trevor Hoffman. Another cool feature of the ballpark is the several standing areas that allow fans various perspectives behind the plate and down the lines.
The entire area beyond center field was reimagined three years ago to improve the fan experience. Improvements were made inside the Western Metal building a year later.
Padres CEO Erik Greupner said at the time: “Our goal is to never allow Petco Park to look more than five years old. We’re busy from Day 1 of the offseason to the night before opening day, not only improving the ballpark but maintaining it.
“The stadium we had down in Mission Valley was sort of the cautionary tale for what it looks like when you’re not committed year in and year out to taking the time and spending the money to maintain and improve a facility.
“You eventually reach a point where you have no option but to tear it down and build something new.”
Recent new ballparks for the Atlanta Braves and Texas Rangers replaced facilities that were only 20 to 25 years old. The Padres want Petco around for many decades to come.
“We feel like the bones of Petco Park are really good,” Greupner said. “The location is really good. As a result, we want to preserve it and maintain it over the long term. I believe it could be a 100-plus-year-old ballpark and eventually be a Wrigley Field or Fenway Park.”
The next ballpark renovation may need to be at the San Diego Padres Hall of Fame, which is located behind the left-field stands.
The way things are going on the field, the Padres are going to need more space to tell their story. For the Faithful.
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This story was originally published September 30, 2026 at 7:39 PM.