There’s gamesmanship…and then there’s ridiculousness.
Depending on which side of the fence you fall on, one may find the following utterly embarrassing in terms of competition at the highest level.
On the official San Diego Padres website (via Major League Baseball), certain parameters have been put in place in terms of purchasing tickets for Game 3 and a potential Game 4 in San Diego for the upcoming NLDS versus the rival Los Angeles Dodgers.
The following is said on the website when accessing the ticket bay:
Petco Park is located in San Diego. Sales to this event will be restricted to residents of San Diego County, southern Orange County, western Arizona, Las Vegas and the surrounding areas, and all of Baja California. Residency will be based on a credit card billing address. Orders by residents outside of San Diego County, southern orange County, western Arizona, Las Vegas and the surrounding areas, and all of Baja California will be canceled without notice and refunds given.
This isn’t the first time San Diego has pulled these sorts of shenanigans. Late owner Peter Seidler orchestrated the same ticket stipulations back in 2022 when San Diego upended LA in the playoffs. Traditionally, Dodgers fans travel very well. They’ve infiltrated Petco Park on more than a handful of occasions to the point where blue was smattered all across the stadium.
San Diego has its best team in years, and the fan base is among the better ones in baseball. With all of that said, is this really needed? It makes the franchise look a bit amateur in nature. If you’re that confident in beating the Dodgers in a 5-game series, why not let their fans buy tickets without fear? You can be assured that LA will still have a strong contingent of fans buying tickets on secondary markets regardless.
Padres fans have been defending this move. Not only do they want to ensure a true home-field advantage, but they’ve also been persistently going at LA for not selling out the first two games of the series. For one, Dodger Stadium is far larger than Petco Park is. Secondly, the Dodgers routinely have the best attendance numbers in the league. You can bet that the stadium will be jam-packed when the Padres bat in the first inning of Game 1 on Saturday evening.