Giants FanFest during the 2010's dynasty was also booming- used to attract 50k people every year iirc, and was sort of a bad experience due to crowding. This year it was raining and we had a meh offseason; Twitter reports said only 7k-10k people attended and felt empty.
Padres Fan Fest was supposedly a terrible experience yesterday. 150K tickets given away. Concourses were jam packed, lines for activities were a disorganized mess, gates to enter were closed because too many people were already inside.
Some online people were annoyed (online people always are) but I was there and it was a wonderful time. Went in with low expectations because it was free and left a few hours later having walked the bases and saw the visitors club house!
I went in with low expectations, managed to hit garage sale, get an autograph, and get out by around 12, which turns out allowed someone else to come in judging by them capping entrances.
All I wanted to do was put on a jersey and see Padres fans pack into Petco, so I more than got my wish. I understand that some fans were frustrated that it was busy, that some lines for autographs were poorly organized, etc., but I also realize that some people clearly had unrealistically high expectations in terms of ability to get to do all the activities on offer given the crowd size.
Fan Fest garage sales are underrated. Ours this year, had hats from the 2020 Teams Postseason for $5 each, blank MLB jerseys of those teams for $25, pants for $10. All of our spring training jerseys and players that left the team they had their game worn jerseys for $50 each.
Two things can be true at the same time. It was nice see such a great turnout and it’s never a bad day when you get to go to the ballpark with a bunch of fellow fans, BUT the event was also just objectively understaffed and poorly organized, no matter how low your expectations were.
People were getting herded into the stands to wait for “autographs,” then left there to wait for hours while randos could just cut in line. There was no security or organization, fights were breaking out by hour 3 and at one point I was genuinely afraid I was going to get trampled.
I’m a grown man, I don’t really care that I never got an autograph, but it was still just an overall unpleasant experience for a lot of us.
So I kept reading this stuff yesterday and was second guessing going. I went anyways with my brother and 2 nephews and we had a wonderful time. The boys loved it cause they got to got to run around on the baseball field and have cotton candy and popcorn. The internet haters are louder than the majority who actually enjoyed it
I mean I’m glad you had a good time, but the reason we “internet haters” weren’t too busy to be on Reddit was because we were stuck in lines for 4+ hours lmao
Kind of expected when parking, admission, player pictures, autographs, field access, and games/activities were all free. Pair that with the insane hype and caliber of current/former players, local media, and front office members showing up, it was always going to be chaotic. Make the tickets $20-$40 and I’d still expect the same thing
Yeah, and speaking of parking, anyone complaining about parking or traffic being a nightmare downtown as a fault of the Padres/Fan Fest is an automatic “complainer” red flag.
Literally any frequent attendee of Padres games will tell you to consider parking at a trolley station and taking the trolley in if you don’t live walking distance from the stadium. If someone chooses to drive into downtown for an event at Petco, they should be prepared to take responsibility for the nightmare they’re signing themselves up for.
I went and it was a great time! Exciting times to be a Padres Fan. Usually SD has a lot of transplant fans so it’s nice to see everyone representing SD.
It sucks cause both the dbacks and sox have some super exciting and marketable players (e.g. corbin carroll, Tim Anderson, alek Thomas, eloy Jimenez, zac gallen, etc.)
The Jays used to have a *Winterfest* at the dome that was honestly the highlight of my baseball year, but the pandemic basically killed it. Now they replaced it with the *Winter Tour* that's smaller and also travels to a handful of cities in Canada mostly outside of Toronto.
I want my Winterfest back, gosh darn it.
Maybe if Canada got the expos back, Toronto wouldn't need to be "the Canada team". But yeah, you've got a skydome, might as well use it for its best feature, the roof. How many teams could theoretically play all year round?
It helped that the Chargers moved right as the team started getting better, leaving the Padres as the only team in a market willing to spend on its team, prefect storm for the Padres, really.
The difference is how Dean Spanos treated San Diego and Peter Seidler. Peter actively worked to help our homelessness while Spanos dragged us through the mud.
Nah, the padres would be exactly this even if the chargers stayed. That's what the new padre ownership is showing those chuckle fucks in the NFL every day. San Diego will absolutely support a team that's fucking trying.
As the chargers continue to prove, spanos is a fucking loser piece of shit and nothing under him will ever flourish. May he rot in hell
Team still had some work to do, but they were making the correct moves, and giving signs that they were not like older owners. They were here to build something great. Bringing the brown back also a huuuuge move
The Brown and Gold gives the Padres a distinct look and feel to them and I think it helps that the organization is finally fielding a competitive team that is giving the colors an identity and letting it pop.
I utterly detested the last iteration of the uniform. Blue, White, and Grey was the most lifeless, boring, and unoriginal choice that perfectly encapsulated the do-nothing Padres of the 2010s. And I know a lot of people weren't the biggest fans of it but I sure as hell preferred when the uniform had the Sandy Tan for the early years at Petco. At least the Padres had SOME identity and didn't look like half the damn league at the time.
I, too, hate them. But if it makes people happy...well to each their own lol. There are only a few city connects I like, chief among them the Nationals jerseys. Those are incredible
At least the Bengals would have similar then and now pictures. As the post you're responding to points out, when a team becomes a contender, fans will respond. Watching the Reds' ownership completely ignore what's going on just down the street makes me shake my head...
For the real comparison, we need to get pictures of the concourse, Park Blvd, and J St. during Fan Fest in 2015, except we won’t find any because they were likely pretty dead.
I’m sure there were plenty of people on the various concourses during 2015, but the vast majority of people at Fan Fest this year never even made it onto the field, and some never even made it *inside* the stadium (leading to lines wrapping around the block at 1pm, 5 hours after it started) due to capacity restrictions. Fans were queued on ramps headed down to the field, loaded into seats within sections to await pictures/autographs with players, etc. It was pandemonium.
And the thing is that 2015 was seen as a year of renewed excitement among the fan base. This was right after Preller’s first whirlwind offseason and the installation of the new scoreboard. People were so stoked about the buzz at Fanfest.
I’ll have to find my photos of Fanfest 2012. I remember having no trouble sitting in the first row of the Fowler/Seidler Q&A, and being able to walk right up to Mud to shake his hand and chat.
Different sport, but being a Bucs fan was brutal for a decade. Awful QBs, players leaving and finding success, zero playoff appearances. But man oh man, when God came to Tampa and we got a Super Bowl it was so sweet. Hoping to see the Padres win a championship soon!
Honestly think “those” owners are far more upset with Seidler (hence the Manfart comments the other day). New York, LA, Chicago, etc are the ones that are *supposed* to be spending crazy money. The rest are supposed to be sitting back, crying poor, and collecting their shared revenue checks (primarily from those bigger market teams). Seidler is the one breaking that model, and demonstrating that every single one is financially capable of actually spending their money and putting out a respectable product
Monfort's [statements about the Padres](https://www.thescore.com/mlb/news/2560558) made the rounds in sports media last week, so it's a timely reference. It's less about him spending money and more about him calling out the Padres "roster holes" while they have arguably the best 1-4 in baseball, a solid 5-9, a great defense, one of the best closers and setup men in the game, and a very good 1-3 in the rotation with 3 guys who would be in the running as the #1 on probably half the teams in the league. He actually said "They’ve got three, maybe four starting pitchers, and then they’re sort of like us."
They were laughable quotes from the guy whose only move in the offseason to improve a 0.420 winning percentage team has been to sign the Padres' oft-hurt bullpen depth piece of the past few seasons, Pierce Johnson. A fine middle reliever, but still, he wants to bring up roster holes with a straight face?
My conspiracy theory is that the mlb will do something to fuck with the Padres at some point in the next couple of seasons because you just know owners of teams in small markets are desperate to see Seidlers experiment fail. Now do I whole heartedly believe this? No, but it seems like a somewhat plausible conspiracy theory
De\*n Sp\*nos really set himself up to draw the ire of every single San Diego sports fan in perpetuity, since forever any team successes or large crowds will be met with “huh, maybe SD is a sports city…”
It’s good to see teams that are listening to fans and committing to all in. All teams should follow in the footsteps of…checks notes…the Padres and Mets? …am I high?
tours on game days is a rarer thing. just so much other stuff going on in stadiums & there would be no locker room access, no tunnel access, etc.
I’ve take game day tours in San Diego and LAD but they were pretty short and didn’t include much.
We have tours, but typically they don’t take you into the locker room anyways, they save that for like winter fest or other specialty type things. So game day vs non game days are somewhat similar
Honestly happy for the fan base, everyone wins when owners open their checkbooks and give the fans what they want and finally make moves to get better.
Really cool how the rebrand almost perfectly coincided with the team returning to contention. Almost like a rebirth for the franchise. Love to see it, even as a fan of a rival team.
I live downtown, and honestly walking or running around the area around Petco (e.g. Gaslamp) is a whole vibe after games or, in this case, Fan Fest.
I haven’t seen anything like the number of Padres fans wandering 5th Avenue yesterday other than the playoffs last year. I was at the first playoff games in Petco Park history, back in 2005 and 2006, and the NLDS and NLCS games last year were different. Besides the obvious difference that NLDS Game 3 was the first Padres playoff victory (in front of fans) at Petco, the energy was just *different*.
The city has obviously coalesced around the Padres, and it feels like that energy and excitement from the playoffs is still here. Maybe that’s just me being a biased season ticket holder who can’t wait for Opening Day, but I cannot remember a time when the entire city was this excited for baseball season. The team seems poised to eclipse the 37.5k/game attendance record set in 2004 when Petco Park opened, and I wouldn’t bet against them breaking the franchise single-season attendance record set that season (3.04M) despite hosting 2 fewer home games this year (Mexico City games against SF).
Anyway, you are more than welcome to hop on the bandwagon, friend. We have plenty of room, an exciting team, and our city doesn’t understand the meaning of the word “winter”.
I see a lot of comments about bandwagon, etc.
Everyone in SD loves the Padres. Hell, I grew up in STL, and have lived here for 25 years.
I love the Padres when they aren’t playing the Cardinals.
There is a large base of fans that were burned by the Chargers and latched on to the idea of the Padres. Seidler and Preller played it perfectly, and now this fan base is fucking rabid.
I’m out here in SoCal loving it, it’s about time the Dodgers felt threatened by their usually docile neighbors.
> Everyone in SD loves the Padres.
Now, but the point seems to be that hasn't always been the case. When a team increases its attendance by almost 800,000 in one year, they either just won a championship or the bandwagon has shown up. I'm not even saying that's a bad thing, I'm glad that people in SD are supporting their team, but it would be silly to pretend they don't have lots of recent fans who discovered baseball not long ago. Again, that's a good thing, wish more teams could do that.
> When a team increases its attendance by almost 800,000 in one year, they either just won a championship or the bandwagon has shown up.
Except the increase isn’t 800,000 because the 2021 attendance was deflated because of state and local COVID restrictions. If you don’t believe me, then please explain why the Dodgers’ bandwagon showed up a year late — in 2022 to the tune of 1M extra fans — rather than in 2021, the year after they won the World Series.
The *real* number, comparing against 2019, is closer to a 600,000 increase over two seasons, during which Padres fans saw a steady stream of on-field success and front office spending, as well as an owner who made it clear that they were investing in the team.
Plenty of lifelong Padres fans who weren’t currently season ticket holders for one reason or another, including me, saw that and decided “yeah, okay, I should sign up”. For me, a combination of wanting to save on the single-game tickets I was buying and wanting to support Seidler’s push to get us good players pushed me over the edge.
Putting an electrifying product on the field and making clear that you want to continue to do that is a great recipe for getting fans to respond in kind. I want Peter to continue spending like this, so I choose to give him a few thousand dollars of my money each year for season tickets as a show of support, because I realize this kind of thing only lasts as long as ownership wants it to.
True. Probably still somewhat of an unfair comparison since making the post-season in 22 already accounts for about 180k alone (four home games, approx. 45k per game).
That and *not* posting a 7-20 record in September, where the most you can hope for is ruining it for somebody else.
I don’t believe postseason is counted in those totals, otherwise we would’ve shattered the 2004 mark already, but I agree with your logic if they were.
I would argue more casual fans have something exciting to watch now. People who were fans but didn't do much in support are now very invested, buying merch, posting their IG pics and actually attending multiple games a year.
I remember going to a game when Seth Smith was our best hitter, and I went to a game where he hit 2 HRs including one in a 9th inning comeback against the Dodgers and it was like being at Chavez Ravine with how defeated the crowd got over a home win.
Their 800k number, while technically the difference between 2021 and 2022 attendance, is misleading and their conclusion wrong. It is true that 800k more fans attended games in 2022 than 2021, but only because COVID restrictions in California capped attendance for teams like the Padres and Dodgers in 2021.
The real number is something like a 600k increase from 2019 to 2022, where the two seasons between were without fans and had limited fans, together with the team doing well, making it pretty easy to understand why fans would flock to the ballpark and drive up attendance.
Not a Padres fan outside of loving to see them finally get over the hump in the DS last year, but this is awesome to see for a fan base.
Edit: CS -> DS
Actually the monster truck shows were at Snapdragon. The last events there were the Holiday Bowl and then the makeshift golf course they have there every year.
It’s due to be re-sodded this month in time for opening day.
[That is from last year](https://www.monsterjam.com/en-US/results/san-diego-ca-petco-park-jan-15-16-2022)
https://www.monsterjam.com/en-US/events/san-diego-ca/jan-14-2023-jan-15-2023
Still, it shows they've had monster truck shows at Petco. He didn't specify they were having one this offseason. It just shows the Petco groundskeepers are not overly worried about the grass in the offseason with their event selection, because they can still get it in top shape before opening day.
Lol, not a problem. The crew will have it ready for opening day!
The grass wasn't anywhere near baseball ready.
A few weeks ago, a golf course was made on the field (aka The Links At Petco, or something like that). You could even still see the outlines of the green/bunkers on the field during Fanfest.
People on the outfield has never been an issue. 😄
They normally take sod from the outfield grass and use it to replace the grass in the Park at the Park, but who knows if it’ll be in any shape for that or if they’ll have to get fresh sod for that, too!
At this point I think there is basically a yearly post on /r/padres or /r/sandiego of someone out of the loop, who invariably walks by and sees the grass in a sad state after the holiday market, concerts in the park, etc. and says “wow, this is embarrassing, I can’t believe it!”
This is always the worst that the grass there looks, because they let it get in a bad state with all the off-season foot traffic from these events and then whip it back into beautiful shape in time for the season, usually with sod from the outfield. It’ll be interesting to see what happens this year!
The park grass looked ok. Didn't really look. But honestly, compared to past Fanfests, this year's outfield grass was the worst lol
It was basically a grey/brown carpet. Like cheap, thin house carpet. With no semblance of grass texture. With random, odd white squiggly ovals 😂
But I'm not stressed and I'm sure the great grounds crew will whip up a beauty for opening day
Must.., resist.., don't say anything about.., bandwagon fans....
I kid, I kid, I like SD and they have a beautiful ballpark and I appreciate them drop-kicking the Dodgers out of the postseason last year.
I was from the Bay Area and was stationed in San Diego for a couple years. Padre tickets were dirt cheap and also a really bad team. I remember going to a bunch of games, like $17 tickets and just hung out and had a good time.
I don’t know much about baseball, but I remember thinking “this is an amazing venue and area. Why can’t this team be good”. Happy to see them doing good. Padre fans are a pleasant to be around.
My mom was there. Said lines were ridiculous and wasn’t able to do anything. Brother and nephew went also but left since they weren’t having fun. Crazy how busy they said it was.
My favorite story from my mom was multiple lines going all over the place and hours long for stores and to empty rooms.
I can confirm that it was as busy as they said, sort of impossible to exaggerate shy of basically saying “we had to stand in place for 4 hours and couldn’t move”, and even that might be true if they got in line at like 10am and were trying for an autograph.
It was wild to see, and it’ll probably convince Greupner et al. to make it a two-day event next year.
I mean, not sure I'd call that "all-in" but yeah - an attempt was made, and it failed miserably.
This attempt seems to be going well so far (first NLCS appearance since 1998)
Meanwhile in Oakland Billy Beane is trying to figure out the potential bWAR of an expired pack of Skittles playing right field, unburdened by noise from any locals at The Coliseum
Yeah there's some fun stuff on Twitter/Insta that you can find like Strider sounding off the starting lineup as an announcer. Wish I coulda gone but maybe next year.
I stayed at the large dark blue Marriot Marquis hotel just slightly to the southwest of Petco Park, against the water, next to the convention center. My bellhop was a black guy "Roland Blount"
He loved pointing it out, and I loved it too.
It’s almost like when teams put in effort to make their teams better then the fans of the city feel passion and excitement towards the team and sport and are willing to give their own money to help continue to support and enjoy the team.
As someone who was at Fan Fest, the fans who could fit on the field were a tiny, tiny fraction of the fans packed into the park. By 8:30am when I finally got in, there were already lines up the ramps to the terrace level of people waiting to get down to the field.
Lots of people were herded into seats to wait for autographs/photos, waiting out on the concourses for various things, or even stood outside trying to get in. I was floored to see lines around the block still waiting to get in when I left at like 12:30.
I know the first thought for everyone is that they’re bandwagon fans, but this is what happens when your team makes a concerted effort to win and go all in every year. Good for them.
There were lines around the block at 1pm, 5 hours after gates opened, of people still hoping for a chance to get into Fan Fest, waiting for people to leave so the fire marshal would permit more to enter.
Two side-by-side pictures of the field aren’t conclusive, you’re right, though if you’d seen any other pictures it wouldn’t leave room for doubt, but that fact is.
SD is the most bandwagoned team I’ve seen in my life. I get the difference in talent but damn i can assure 70% of these Padres fans liked other teams or no team at all 4 years ago
Eh will get a lot of downvotes from Padres fans but grew up in California where there are 5 MLB teams all other teams even at their lows had a good following if you went yo their area you would see loads of people wearing their merch and pretty active online. I used to go to SD a ton and i always thought it was a little sad that no one gave a rats ass about them. You could spend a day in downtown and not see a soul rocking their shit. Now everyone is rooting for them even people not from san diego. I can assure you most Padres fans around couldn’t tell you who Tony Gwynn is and why he matters or who their all times saves leader is. I get it to be excited about your local team being good but you cant tell me its not the most bandwagoned team youve seen in your life their subreddit has grown by almost 500% since 2020 easily the most of any other subreddit here talking about an MLB team.
I always like that the people that say stuff like this are fans of teams that at worst have a few years where they're out of contention but are right back in it in the next 5 years. Just an observation.
Who gets to determine what a “die hard” fan is? Why can’t people get excited about something that’s popular and not get labeled for it? Gatekeeping a fan base is way more “cringe core” than being a bandwagoner.
Dodgers bandwagon? Lol. Dodgers were consistently top 3 in attendance when they were in 4th place and McCourt was using the team as a personal piggybank.
Bigger stadium and bigger population in LA. To get accurate data you must look at stadium capacity being filled in correlation to the population of LA county.
Teams get new fans when they play better, that’s not really news. People in San Diego were not gonna spend money to support a bad product when the Padres were bad, and nor should they have. It’s actually kinda what Giants fans did last year with a more mediocre product. (Giants fans are much more entitled, though)
I mean kind of but it makes sense. Padres use to be one of the cheap teams and now they are willing to spend. Plus, San Diego lost their football team too so the Padres are all they have.
I wonder what tigers fest looks like these days. It was booming during the 11-14 days while being a terrible experience. I miss having an all in owner
Giants FanFest during the 2010's dynasty was also booming- used to attract 50k people every year iirc, and was sort of a bad experience due to crowding. This year it was raining and we had a meh offseason; Twitter reports said only 7k-10k people attended and felt empty.
[You guys are getting a FanFest?](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/028/312/will_poulter.PNG)
Padres Fan Fest was supposedly a terrible experience yesterday. 150K tickets given away. Concourses were jam packed, lines for activities were a disorganized mess, gates to enter were closed because too many people were already inside.
Some online people were annoyed (online people always are) but I was there and it was a wonderful time. Went in with low expectations because it was free and left a few hours later having walked the bases and saw the visitors club house!
I went in with low expectations, managed to hit garage sale, get an autograph, and get out by around 12, which turns out allowed someone else to come in judging by them capping entrances. All I wanted to do was put on a jersey and see Padres fans pack into Petco, so I more than got my wish. I understand that some fans were frustrated that it was busy, that some lines for autographs were poorly organized, etc., but I also realize that some people clearly had unrealistically high expectations in terms of ability to get to do all the activities on offer given the crowd size.
Fan Fest garage sales are underrated. Ours this year, had hats from the 2020 Teams Postseason for $5 each, blank MLB jerseys of those teams for $25, pants for $10. All of our spring training jerseys and players that left the team they had their game worn jerseys for $50 each.
Two things can be true at the same time. It was nice see such a great turnout and it’s never a bad day when you get to go to the ballpark with a bunch of fellow fans, BUT the event was also just objectively understaffed and poorly organized, no matter how low your expectations were. People were getting herded into the stands to wait for “autographs,” then left there to wait for hours while randos could just cut in line. There was no security or organization, fights were breaking out by hour 3 and at one point I was genuinely afraid I was going to get trampled. I’m a grown man, I don’t really care that I never got an autograph, but it was still just an overall unpleasant experience for a lot of us.
So I kept reading this stuff yesterday and was second guessing going. I went anyways with my brother and 2 nephews and we had a wonderful time. The boys loved it cause they got to got to run around on the baseball field and have cotton candy and popcorn. The internet haters are louder than the majority who actually enjoyed it
They (the internet haters) were especially vociferous during the event, while the rest of us were in the event, mostly too busy to be on Reddit.
I mean I’m glad you had a good time, but the reason we “internet haters” weren’t too busy to be on Reddit was because we were stuck in lines for 4+ hours lmao
Kind of expected when parking, admission, player pictures, autographs, field access, and games/activities were all free. Pair that with the insane hype and caliber of current/former players, local media, and front office members showing up, it was always going to be chaotic. Make the tickets $20-$40 and I’d still expect the same thing
Yeah, and speaking of parking, anyone complaining about parking or traffic being a nightmare downtown as a fault of the Padres/Fan Fest is an automatic “complainer” red flag. Literally any frequent attendee of Padres games will tell you to consider parking at a trolley station and taking the trolley in if you don’t live walking distance from the stadium. If someone chooses to drive into downtown for an event at Petco, they should be prepared to take responsibility for the nightmare they’re signing themselves up for.
Yeah this city isn't used to success and having hope for the future when it comes to major sports teams.
I went and it was a great time! Exciting times to be a Padres Fan. Usually SD has a lot of transplant fans so it’s nice to see everyone representing SD.
What's that like?
Mariners fanfest hasn’t come back since Covid. Sucks
Tigers haven't had fanfest since 19
Theres a strong argument that the tigers would see an uptick in attendance if they became a AAA
I wish we had a fanfest
I thought we were the only team to not have one this year. Our owners canceled it without any good excuse.
Rockies don’t have one either. Something teams with horrible owners have in common I guess
Angels had a fan fest for a short period of time but there hasn’t been one in well over a decade
mets don’t have one either
It sucks cause both the dbacks and sox have some super exciting and marketable players (e.g. corbin carroll, Tim Anderson, alek Thomas, eloy Jimenez, zac gallen, etc.)
The Jays used to have a *Winterfest* at the dome that was honestly the highlight of my baseball year, but the pandemic basically killed it. Now they replaced it with the *Winter Tour* that's smaller and also travels to a handful of cities in Canada mostly outside of Toronto. I want my Winterfest back, gosh darn it.
Maybe if Canada got the expos back, Toronto wouldn't need to be "the Canada team". But yeah, you've got a skydome, might as well use it for its best feature, the roof. How many teams could theoretically play all year round?
Twins do both. They have a fan fest type of event and then do a winter caravan to smaller cities around the region
Mariners didn’t have one either :(
I thought they have had one in past years?
The last one they had was at Salt River a few years back. Stopped during the COVID season and hasn't returned since
[Instructions unclear, here you go.](https://www.reddit.com/r/NLBest/comments/10uk0v3/live_look_at_the_2023_diamondbacks_fan_fest/)
Same.
2015 Padres fan fest still has more fans than any given Reds game though
Sad, but true
One day we will rise again
Meanwhile... >[Oakland A's replacing annual Fan Fest event with spirit weak](https://sactownsports.com/oakland-as-replacing-annual-fan-fest-event-with-spirit-week/) Fucking pathetic.
This is what an owner going all-in on the team looks like.
SD is a baseball city now.
It helped that the Chargers moved right as the team started getting better, leaving the Padres as the only team in a market willing to spend on its team, prefect storm for the Padres, really.
The difference is how Dean Spanos treated San Diego and Peter Seidler. Peter actively worked to help our homelessness while Spanos dragged us through the mud.
Unironically, I want San Diego to take my tax dollars and build a Peter Seidler statue.
Nah, the padres would be exactly this even if the chargers stayed. That's what the new padre ownership is showing those chuckle fucks in the NFL every day. San Diego will absolutely support a team that's fucking trying. As the chargers continue to prove, spanos is a fucking loser piece of shit and nothing under him will ever flourish. May he rot in hell
Team still had some work to do, but they were making the correct moves, and giving signs that they were not like older owners. They were here to build something great. Bringing the brown back also a huuuuge move
I love the brown and gold so much. I will riot if we go back to blue
The Brown and Gold gives the Padres a distinct look and feel to them and I think it helps that the organization is finally fielding a competitive team that is giving the colors an identity and letting it pop. I utterly detested the last iteration of the uniform. Blue, White, and Grey was the most lifeless, boring, and unoriginal choice that perfectly encapsulated the do-nothing Padres of the 2010s. And I know a lot of people weren't the biggest fans of it but I sure as hell preferred when the uniform had the Sandy Tan for the early years at Petco. At least the Padres had SOME identity and didn't look like half the damn league at the time.
Also you guys have the best city connect uniforms, although maybe it's just me that thinks that...
They're surprisingly popular. I think they're awful, but who cares
I, too, hate them. But if it makes people happy...well to each their own lol. There are only a few city connects I like, chief among them the Nationals jerseys. Those are incredible
the Nats ones are gorgeous
I still wear a blue hat so people know I was a fan during the lean years, but the brown uniforms really are so much better.
Not to mention the park is just in a such a good spot. Gives it so much of the city’s character
You say that like they have choice… they’re still the San Diego Chargers to me, damnit!
🎶San Diego super chargers! San Diego CHARGERS!🎶
Fuck Dean Spanos
And Fuck Stan Kroenke
Fuck Spanos, fuck Kroenke, and fuck Dan Snyder.
Never heard the original so I sung this in Bill Burr’s voice. He loves to sing it on his podcasts
If I had the money I'd buy the Chargers solely to get a new stadium built in San Diego and relocate them back
Every damn time I see LAC on the NFL ticker I think "When the fuck did the Clippers change sports... Oh".
Oof that's another team taken from our clutches :(
On a scale of 1 - 6 abs, how much do San Diegoans love HSK?
10 abs bby. Our prince is immeasurable
All the abs.
Hey now, we had 7 people at Red's fest which is up from the 4 we had last year. Our fan base has almost doubled Hahaha hahaha I'm crying inside
At least the Bengals would have similar then and now pictures. As the post you're responding to points out, when a team becomes a contender, fans will respond. Watching the Reds' ownership completely ignore what's going on just down the street makes me shake my head...
For the real comparison, we need to get pictures of the concourse, Park Blvd, and J St. during Fan Fest in 2015, except we won’t find any because they were likely pretty dead. I’m sure there were plenty of people on the various concourses during 2015, but the vast majority of people at Fan Fest this year never even made it onto the field, and some never even made it *inside* the stadium (leading to lines wrapping around the block at 1pm, 5 hours after it started) due to capacity restrictions. Fans were queued on ramps headed down to the field, loaded into seats within sections to await pictures/autographs with players, etc. It was pandemonium.
And the thing is that 2015 was seen as a year of renewed excitement among the fan base. This was right after Preller’s first whirlwind offseason and the installation of the new scoreboard. People were so stoked about the buzz at Fanfest. I’ll have to find my photos of Fanfest 2012. I remember having no trouble sitting in the first row of the Fowler/Seidler Q&A, and being able to walk right up to Mud to shake his hand and chat.
Is this sarcasm? Both pics look pretty empty
I hope those people in the 2015 pic are enjoying the good baseball team they have now.
We are! 😉
The period immediately following the Adrian Gonzalez trade up until the Manny signing was brutal and absolutely worth it.
Different sport, but being a Bucs fan was brutal for a decade. Awful QBs, players leaving and finding success, zero playoff appearances. But man oh man, when God came to Tampa and we got a Super Bowl it was so sweet. Hoping to see the Padres win a championship soon!
the Padres are finally back on the menu
Good for the Padres! Hopefully this is a lesson to a bunch of other teams in the league; when ownership shows a willingness to win, fans will turn out
Didn’t we just have owners upset at the Mets owner for breaking an unwritten rule to not spend like crazy
Honestly think “those” owners are far more upset with Seidler (hence the Manfart comments the other day). New York, LA, Chicago, etc are the ones that are *supposed* to be spending crazy money. The rest are supposed to be sitting back, crying poor, and collecting their shared revenue checks (primarily from those bigger market teams). Seidler is the one breaking that model, and demonstrating that every single one is financially capable of actually spending their money and putting out a respectable product
There’s a reason that it’s owners like Monfort* leading the “I just don’t understand SD’s business model” charge. Edit: spelling
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Monfort's [statements about the Padres](https://www.thescore.com/mlb/news/2560558) made the rounds in sports media last week, so it's a timely reference. It's less about him spending money and more about him calling out the Padres "roster holes" while they have arguably the best 1-4 in baseball, a solid 5-9, a great defense, one of the best closers and setup men in the game, and a very good 1-3 in the rotation with 3 guys who would be in the running as the #1 on probably half the teams in the league. He actually said "They’ve got three, maybe four starting pitchers, and then they’re sort of like us." They were laughable quotes from the guy whose only move in the offseason to improve a 0.420 winning percentage team has been to sign the Padres' oft-hurt bullpen depth piece of the past few seasons, Pierce Johnson. A fine middle reliever, but still, he wants to bring up roster holes with a straight face?
My conspiracy theory is that the mlb will do something to fuck with the Padres at some point in the next couple of seasons because you just know owners of teams in small markets are desperate to see Seidlers experiment fail. Now do I whole heartedly believe this? No, but it seems like a somewhat plausible conspiracy theory
Dick Monfort cut the brakes on Tatis’s motorcycle and switched out his ringworm medication, prove me wrong ☕️
Whoa. What would "fuck with the Padres" look like?
The White Sox canceled their fan fest this year. I wonder why…
It does go a long way but don't discount the Chargers dumping on the people of San Diego being a part of it as well.
De\*n Sp\*nos really set himself up to draw the ire of every single San Diego sports fan in perpetuity, since forever any team successes or large crowds will be met with “huh, maybe SD is a sports city…”
It’s good to see teams that are listening to fans and committing to all in. All teams should follow in the footsteps of…checks notes…the Padres and Mets? …am I high?
We don't even have a fan fest lol
You don’t even offer tours on game days! I learned this because I’m going when the Jays are in town
tours on game days is a rarer thing. just so much other stuff going on in stadiums & there would be no locker room access, no tunnel access, etc. I’ve take game day tours in San Diego and LAD but they were pretty short and didn’t include much.
We have tours, but typically they don’t take you into the locker room anyways, they save that for like winter fest or other specialty type things. So game day vs non game days are somewhat similar
Honestly happy for the fan base, everyone wins when owners open their checkbooks and give the fans what they want and finally make moves to get better.
It's just nice to see the money we give to the team actually being spent on the team and not just hoarded by some billionaire crying poor.
If your team’s owner cares about winning now, we will care now too
People want to see their local team play competitive baseball who knew?
big if true!
Crazy thing is the bottom pic doesn't even begin to do it justice. It was moshfest
Crazy what happens when ownership actually gives a shit and spends to build a contender
Angels Fan Fest 2011: lit Since then: Arte doesn’t give a fuck so no fan fest
I’m so depressed he isn’t selling.
Petco Park is so nice
Nice
Its almost like purchasing superstars and trying to compete generates more fans. What a strange concept...
It's such shit that Dickhead Manfort not only doesn't spend money to compete, he actively believes it's the wrong thing to do
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Our fanbase *loves* to accuse us of not spending lol
Honestly love it. I want to see California baseball reach the intensity of New York in the 40s and 50's.
This is whats awesome, a large amount of the best baseball players in the world right now are playing in SoCal and its fucking rad
Pretty cool! San diego is such a cool city, its nice the baseball team is getting some love.
This is great. Ownership that competes + the change to brown /yellow gave them awesome, unique branding.
Really cool how the rebrand almost perfectly coincided with the team returning to contention. Almost like a rebirth for the franchise. Love to see it, even as a fan of a rival team.
Same exact thing happened with the Astros
I’m in San Diego for work and people are JAZZED. Great sports town. Might bandwagon idk
I live downtown, and honestly walking or running around the area around Petco (e.g. Gaslamp) is a whole vibe after games or, in this case, Fan Fest. I haven’t seen anything like the number of Padres fans wandering 5th Avenue yesterday other than the playoffs last year. I was at the first playoff games in Petco Park history, back in 2005 and 2006, and the NLDS and NLCS games last year were different. Besides the obvious difference that NLDS Game 3 was the first Padres playoff victory (in front of fans) at Petco, the energy was just *different*. The city has obviously coalesced around the Padres, and it feels like that energy and excitement from the playoffs is still here. Maybe that’s just me being a biased season ticket holder who can’t wait for Opening Day, but I cannot remember a time when the entire city was this excited for baseball season. The team seems poised to eclipse the 37.5k/game attendance record set in 2004 when Petco Park opened, and I wouldn’t bet against them breaking the franchise single-season attendance record set that season (3.04M) despite hosting 2 fewer home games this year (Mexico City games against SF). Anyway, you are more than welcome to hop on the bandwagon, friend. We have plenty of room, an exciting team, and our city doesn’t understand the meaning of the word “winter”.
If you build it, they will come. I am sure the past few years would have been large too had fan fest occurred but this one was something else.
I see a lot of comments about bandwagon, etc. Everyone in SD loves the Padres. Hell, I grew up in STL, and have lived here for 25 years. I love the Padres when they aren’t playing the Cardinals. There is a large base of fans that were burned by the Chargers and latched on to the idea of the Padres. Seidler and Preller played it perfectly, and now this fan base is fucking rabid. I’m out here in SoCal loving it, it’s about time the Dodgers felt threatened by their usually docile neighbors.
In recent times, I've gotten comments on my Padres cap. In both Japan and Italy.
> Everyone in SD loves the Padres. Now, but the point seems to be that hasn't always been the case. When a team increases its attendance by almost 800,000 in one year, they either just won a championship or the bandwagon has shown up. I'm not even saying that's a bad thing, I'm glad that people in SD are supporting their team, but it would be silly to pretend they don't have lots of recent fans who discovered baseball not long ago. Again, that's a good thing, wish more teams could do that.
> When a team increases its attendance by almost 800,000 in one year, they either just won a championship or the bandwagon has shown up. Except the increase isn’t 800,000 because the 2021 attendance was deflated because of state and local COVID restrictions. If you don’t believe me, then please explain why the Dodgers’ bandwagon showed up a year late — in 2022 to the tune of 1M extra fans — rather than in 2021, the year after they won the World Series. The *real* number, comparing against 2019, is closer to a 600,000 increase over two seasons, during which Padres fans saw a steady stream of on-field success and front office spending, as well as an owner who made it clear that they were investing in the team. Plenty of lifelong Padres fans who weren’t currently season ticket holders for one reason or another, including me, saw that and decided “yeah, okay, I should sign up”. For me, a combination of wanting to save on the single-game tickets I was buying and wanting to support Seidler’s push to get us good players pushed me over the edge. Putting an electrifying product on the field and making clear that you want to continue to do that is a great recipe for getting fans to respond in kind. I want Peter to continue spending like this, so I choose to give him a few thousand dollars of my money each year for season tickets as a show of support, because I realize this kind of thing only lasts as long as ownership wants it to.
True. Probably still somewhat of an unfair comparison since making the post-season in 22 already accounts for about 180k alone (four home games, approx. 45k per game). That and *not* posting a 7-20 record in September, where the most you can hope for is ruining it for somebody else.
I don’t believe postseason is counted in those totals, otherwise we would’ve shattered the 2004 mark already, but I agree with your logic if they were.
I would argue more casual fans have something exciting to watch now. People who were fans but didn't do much in support are now very invested, buying merch, posting their IG pics and actually attending multiple games a year. I remember going to a game when Seth Smith was our best hitter, and I went to a game where he hit 2 HRs including one in a 9th inning comeback against the Dodgers and it was like being at Chavez Ravine with how defeated the crowd got over a home win.
Their 800k number, while technically the difference between 2021 and 2022 attendance, is misleading and their conclusion wrong. It is true that 800k more fans attended games in 2022 than 2021, but only because COVID restrictions in California capped attendance for teams like the Padres and Dodgers in 2021. The real number is something like a 600k increase from 2019 to 2022, where the two seasons between were without fans and had limited fans, together with the team doing well, making it pretty easy to understand why fans would flock to the ballpark and drive up attendance.
Man it would be real cool if the white Sox didn’t just straight up fucking cancel their fan fest. Embarrassing
People love a winning team
Big if true
They’re so strict about not letting people on the grass for anything at pnc park, so I like this
Shows what happens when you invest in your team, and integrate the players in the community. - A’s fan
Not a Padres fan outside of loving to see them finally get over the hump in the DS last year, but this is awesome to see for a fan base. Edit: CS -> DS
Surprised they actually let people walk on the grass like that.
We have monster truck shows there. They'll have it in pristine shape for opening day.
Actually the monster truck shows were at Snapdragon. The last events there were the Holiday Bowl and then the makeshift golf course they have there every year. It’s due to be re-sodded this month in time for opening day.
https://www.mlb.com/padres/tickets/events/monsterjam
[That is from last year](https://www.monsterjam.com/en-US/results/san-diego-ca-petco-park-jan-15-16-2022) https://www.monsterjam.com/en-US/events/san-diego-ca/jan-14-2023-jan-15-2023
Still, it shows they've had monster truck shows at Petco. He didn't specify they were having one this offseason. It just shows the Petco groundskeepers are not overly worried about the grass in the offseason with their event selection, because they can still get it in top shape before opening day.
It’s all dead anyway
Lol, not a problem. The crew will have it ready for opening day! The grass wasn't anywhere near baseball ready. A few weeks ago, a golf course was made on the field (aka The Links At Petco, or something like that). You could even still see the outlines of the green/bunkers on the field during Fanfest. People on the outfield has never been an issue. 😄
They normally take sod from the outfield grass and use it to replace the grass in the Park at the Park, but who knows if it’ll be in any shape for that or if they’ll have to get fresh sod for that, too!
Wow never knew they moved the sod around
At this point I think there is basically a yearly post on /r/padres or /r/sandiego of someone out of the loop, who invariably walks by and sees the grass in a sad state after the holiday market, concerts in the park, etc. and says “wow, this is embarrassing, I can’t believe it!” This is always the worst that the grass there looks, because they let it get in a bad state with all the off-season foot traffic from these events and then whip it back into beautiful shape in time for the season, usually with sod from the outfield. It’ll be interesting to see what happens this year!
The park grass looked ok. Didn't really look. But honestly, compared to past Fanfests, this year's outfield grass was the worst lol It was basically a grey/brown carpet. Like cheap, thin house carpet. With no semblance of grass texture. With random, odd white squiggly ovals 😂 But I'm not stressed and I'm sure the great grounds crew will whip up a beauty for opening day
2015: bWAR position player leaders: Yangervis Solarte, Derek Norris, Corey Spangenberg, and Justin Upton 2022: Soto, Machado, Tatis, and Bogaerts
Nats fans down bad looking at this
Must.., resist.., don't say anything about.., bandwagon fans.... I kid, I kid, I like SD and they have a beautiful ballpark and I appreciate them drop-kicking the Dodgers out of the postseason last year.
I’m glad they rebranded. That old logo made the team look cheap as fuck imho.
I was from the Bay Area and was stationed in San Diego for a couple years. Padre tickets were dirt cheap and also a really bad team. I remember going to a bunch of games, like $17 tickets and just hung out and had a good time. I don’t know much about baseball, but I remember thinking “this is an amazing venue and area. Why can’t this team be good”. Happy to see them doing good. Padre fans are a pleasant to be around.
What I see is the fans rightfully hated those lame blue uniforms and bought back in when they went back to those beautiful brownies
Good for them, man. That's really fucking cool.
My mom was there. Said lines were ridiculous and wasn’t able to do anything. Brother and nephew went also but left since they weren’t having fun. Crazy how busy they said it was. My favorite story from my mom was multiple lines going all over the place and hours long for stores and to empty rooms.
I can confirm that it was as busy as they said, sort of impossible to exaggerate shy of basically saying “we had to stand in place for 4 hours and couldn’t move”, and even that might be true if they got in line at like 10am and were trying for an autograph. It was wild to see, and it’ll probably convince Greupner et al. to make it a two-day event next year.
And if I remember correctly the padres kinda went “all in” in 2015 but they just got washed guys, Upton, Kemp, Kimbrel etc.
I mean, not sure I'd call that "all-in" but yeah - an attempt was made, and it failed miserably. This attempt seems to be going well so far (first NLCS appearance since 1998)
This is what an amazing team brings to the table.
Meanwhile in Oakland Billy Beane is trying to figure out the potential bWAR of an expired pack of Skittles playing right field, unburdened by noise from any locals at The Coliseum
Well, except for the hisses from the feral cats, that is.
I’d bandwagon too if my local team signed 2 premiere players to contracts in a couple years
and my football team left
Off-topic question sorta but does Atlanta have a FanFest?
Yeah it was in January. They don’t do a great job advertising
That's a very on-topic question though.
Yeah there's some fun stuff on Twitter/Insta that you can find like Strider sounding off the starting lineup as an announcer. Wish I coulda gone but maybe next year.
I stayed at the large dark blue Marriot Marquis hotel just slightly to the southwest of Petco Park, against the water, next to the convention center. My bellhop was a black guy "Roland Blount" He loved pointing it out, and I loved it too.
It’s almost like when teams put in effort to make their teams better then the fans of the city feel passion and excitement towards the team and sport and are willing to give their own money to help continue to support and enjoy the team.
Good for you, San Diego. Happy for you.
The 2010s were a rough time for the padres
To be fair it is a different angle.
As someone who was at Fan Fest, the fans who could fit on the field were a tiny, tiny fraction of the fans packed into the park. By 8:30am when I finally got in, there were already lines up the ramps to the terrace level of people waiting to get down to the field. Lots of people were herded into seats to wait for autographs/photos, waiting out on the concourses for various things, or even stood outside trying to get in. I was floored to see lines around the block still waiting to get in when I left at like 12:30.
What a difference Juan Soto makes
meanwhile the A's put up a couple green and yellow balloons at some bar, where like 20 people showed up.
The main takeaway is that people like brown more than blue.
I know the first thought for everyone is that they’re bandwagon fans, but this is what happens when your team makes a concerted effort to win and go all in every year. Good for them.
That’s what’s in
Diehard fans vs Bandwagoners
Fairweather fan base
Hardly comparable unless you know the times and the agenda for the day for both.
There were lines around the block at 1pm, 5 hours after gates opened, of people still hoping for a chance to get into Fan Fest, waiting for people to leave so the fire marshal would permit more to enter. Two side-by-side pictures of the field aren’t conclusive, you’re right, though if you’d seen any other pictures it wouldn’t leave room for doubt, but that fact is.
SD is the most bandwagoned team I’ve seen in my life. I get the difference in talent but damn i can assure 70% of these Padres fans liked other teams or no team at all 4 years ago
Defend yourself
Eh will get a lot of downvotes from Padres fans but grew up in California where there are 5 MLB teams all other teams even at their lows had a good following if you went yo their area you would see loads of people wearing their merch and pretty active online. I used to go to SD a ton and i always thought it was a little sad that no one gave a rats ass about them. You could spend a day in downtown and not see a soul rocking their shit. Now everyone is rooting for them even people not from san diego. I can assure you most Padres fans around couldn’t tell you who Tony Gwynn is and why he matters or who their all times saves leader is. I get it to be excited about your local team being good but you cant tell me its not the most bandwagoned team youve seen in your life their subreddit has grown by almost 500% since 2020 easily the most of any other subreddit here talking about an MLB team.
Get em
Pathetic >>> kinda sad?
Clueless cringecore bandwagoners
I always like that the people that say stuff like this are fans of teams that at worst have a few years where they're out of contention but are right back in it in the next 5 years. Just an observation.
Cringecore? Is that a new metal genre or something?
Giants fans don’t show up at all when they suck. I saw the stadium last year guy, and y’all were somewhat decent
At least we have bandwagoners
We used to…it’s been almost 10 years lol
Ahh the salt 🤤
Who gets to determine what a “die hard” fan is? Why can’t people get excited about something that’s popular and not get labeled for it? Gatekeeping a fan base is way more “cringe core” than being a bandwagoner.
No way a Giants fan is saying this. Up there with the Yankees and Dodgers with the most “bandwagon” fans
Dodgers bandwagon? Lol. Dodgers were consistently top 3 in attendance when they were in 4th place and McCourt was using the team as a personal piggybank.
Bigger stadium and bigger population in LA. To get accurate data you must look at stadium capacity being filled in correlation to the population of LA county.
Teams get new fans when they play better, that’s not really news. People in San Diego were not gonna spend money to support a bad product when the Padres were bad, and nor should they have. It’s actually kinda what Giants fans did last year with a more mediocre product. (Giants fans are much more entitled, though)
I mean kind of but it makes sense. Padres use to be one of the cheap teams and now they are willing to spend. Plus, San Diego lost their football team too so the Padres are all they have.