Petco Park / Padres Baseball

The Padres' downtown ballpark — a genuine gem of modern stadium design, walkable from the Gaslamp Quarter

Petco Park is the San Diego Padres' home stadium in the East Village section of downtown, a 42,000-seat venue that opened in 2004 and is consistently rated among the best ballparks in Major League Baseball. The sight lines are excellent throughout; there is no bad seat in the stadium.

The Western Metal Supply Building incorporated into the left-field corner is the architectural set piece — a four-story 1909 brick warehouse whose roof is now a rooftop seating section with the best view in the park. The Park at the Park, a grassy slope beyond the left-center field fence, is the only spot in the stadium where you can watch the game while sitting on grass.

The Gaslamp Quarter is a three-minute walk from the stadium gate, meaning the postgame crowd disperses into restaurant and bar territory immediately. The weather for baseball in San Diego is essentially perfect: clear, 70 degrees, slight sea breeze, from April through October.

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When Petco Park opened in 2004, it was the first new major league ballpark built in downtown San Diego since the original Padres stadium in 1969. The design team preserved the Western Metal Supply Company building from 1909 by incorporating it into the left-field corner — the building's roof became a seating deck, its facade became part of the outfield wall. The result is a ballpark with genuine historical texture, and the effort to integrate the old building into a new stadium was cited as a model for urban stadium design across the country.

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