Padres limit scarce postseason ticket sales to San Diego-area fans

Jeff Sanders, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Oct 3, 2024

Published in Baseball

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SAN DIEGO — The Padres welcomed the largest crowd in Petco Park history on Tuesday in Game 1 of the National League wild-card series. Then they topped that number with the 47,705 who viewed Wednesday’s clincher against the Atlanta Braves.

After breaking attendance records in back-to-back years with 3.3 million fans filing through turnstiles this year, it’s clear the Padres have no problem filling their Gaslamp District park.

They just want no part of the Dodgers fans crashing next week’s party. (Or any other fan base, for that matter.)

For the second time in three years, the Padres are selling playoff tickets on their website to only residents of San Diego, Baja California and Imperial, southern Orange, southern Riverside, La Paz, Mohave, Yuma and Clark counties.

The thing is, there were fewer than 1,000 tickets left for each possible game after a presale for season ticket members and those were gobbled up within minutes of going on sale Saturday. Only suites remain available.

That leaves the secondary ticket market as your only avenue into Petco Park next week if you’re a fan looking to commute from Los Angeles to root for the Dodgers, as so many blue-clad fans have over the years.

The cheapest ticket available at StubHub is $204 for a standing-room only ticket in Gallagher Square. If you want to sit down, it will cost you $312 to sit in Section 325.

The offers are comparable at SeatGeek.

The postseason county-limit policy began in 2022, when the Padres tried to help preserve home-field advantage against the visiting Dodgers in the Division Series.

Throughout the organization’s leaner years, Padres players have noted the number of opposing fans that file into their park.

Padres fans have since turned Petco Park into a legitimate home-field advantage.

“Pitching in front of them is something that I absolutely love doing,” Michael King said after throwing seven shutout innings at the Braves on Tuesday. “I’m really happy we had home field for the wild card, because I think it’s a tough place to play as an opponent.”