BBBLEACHER BOUND

Why Petco Park Matters

The quick read

Petco Park opened in 2004 and, unlike a lot of new downtown parks, came with a piece of the city built into it: the Western Metal Supply Co. building, a 1909 brick warehouse whose corner is the left-field foul pole. The Padres are not an old franchise (they joined the National League in 1969) and they have never won a World Series, but the team has two pennants, two Hall of Famers in Tony Gwynn and Trevor Hoffman, a strong Navy identity that runs through the city, and a run of recent postseason teams that has made the park loud again.

What Petco replaced

The Padres played their first 35 seasons at Qualcomm Stadium, the multipurpose bowl in Mission Valley that opened in 1967 and was known for years as San Diego Stadium and then Jack Murphy Stadium. It was the Padres’ home from their 1969 debut through 2003, shared with the NFL’s Chargers. Petco opened downtown for the 2004 season, the first Padres game there coming on April 8, 2004 against the San Francisco Giants. Construction had started in May 2000, the project ran about $450 million, and it was designed by HOK Sport (now Populous) with architect Antoine Predock.

The Western Metal Supply Co. building

The defining feature of Petco Park is older than every other brick in it. The Western Metal Supply Co. building went up in 1909, a four-story brick and heavy-timber warehouse of about 51,400 square feet designed by architect Henry Lord Gay. It supplied wagonmakers and blacksmiths, closed in 1975, and was named a San Diego historic landmark in 1978. When the city planned the ballpark, preservationists pushed to keep it, and the architects did something better than keep it: they made it part of the field.

The Western Metal Supply Co. building beyond the left-field stands at Petco Park at sunset, its brick facade and signage lit by the late sun
The Western Metal building down the left-field line. Its southeast corner, painted with a yellow stripe, is the left-field foul pole.

The building’s southeast corner is the left-field foul pole, 336 feet from home plate (the painted yellow line on the brick is just for the umpires’ eyes). The whole stadium was laid out from that corner. As architect Joe Spear put it, “We built from the corner of that building.”

Inside and on top, the building was adapted into the park: a team store, a restaurant, party suites, three decks of seating cantilevered over left field, and a public rooftop, with the original facade, timber framing, maple floors, painted signage, and vault preserved. It has its own home-run history, too: Phil Nevin hit the first ball into it on April 15, 2004, Hunter Renfroe was the first to homer onto the roof during a game in 2016, and Wil Myers’ 2020 Wild Card home run caromed off it.

A young franchise: 1969, and two pennants

The Padres came into the National League in 1969 as an expansion team alongside the Expos, Pilots, and Royals, and they lost 110 games in year one. The franchise has reached the World Series twice, both times from the old stadium and neither time winning it. The 1984 club, managed by Dick Williams, won the NL pennant and lost the World Series to the Detroit Tigers. The 1998 club, managed by Bruce Bochy, beat Atlanta in the NLCS and lost the World Series to the New York Yankees. No titles yet, but the pennant flags are part of what the team carries into Petco.

Tony Gwynn and Trevor Hoffman

Two Padres define the franchise, and both are in the Hall of Fame.

Tony Gwynn, “Mr. Padre,” spent his entire 20-year career in San Diego and won eight batting titles. His 9.5-foot bronze statue, sculpted by William Behrends mid-swing, was the first statue at Petco and now stands in the Tony Gwynn Terrace in Gallagher Square.

Trevor Hoffman closed games in San Diego from 1993 to 2008 and retired as baseball’s all-time saves leader at the time with a franchise-record 558 saves. His bullpen entrance to AC/DC’s “Hells Bells” is one of the great stadium traditions in the sport. It debuted July 25, 1998 against Houston at the old stadium, carried over to Petco, and ran for 16 years.

There is also Jerry Coleman, the Padres’ broadcaster for 32 years and a 2005 Ford C. Frick Award winner, known for “Oh, doctor!” and “You can hang a star on that one.” A former Yankees infielder and a decorated Marine aviator, he died in January 2014 and is honored with a bronze statue at the park.

The 2016 All-Star Game

Petco hosted the Major League Baseball All-Star Game on July 12, 2016, the American League winning 4-2 with Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer named MVP. Giancarlo Stanton won that year’s Home Run Derby at the park.

The Navy city

San Diego is one of the Navy’s largest home ports, and the Padres lean into that connection more than any team in the league. Military Appreciation began in 1996, and the team has worn camouflage uniforms since 2000. Since 2008 the Padres have honored the military at every Sunday home game plus Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Labor Day. The camo has evolved over the years, from Army woodland to a Navy blue digital pattern (the “blueberries,” unveiled aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt in 2016). Inside the park, a scale model of the USS Midway and a wall honoring military members sit in the Power Alley food area, a tribute the first-timer’s guide points visitors to.

The name

The park has been Petco Park from day one. The naming rights belong to Petco, the San Diego pet-supply retailer that traces back to a 1965 local mail-order veterinary-supply business. The original deal was reported at around $60 million over 22 years; the company extended it in March 2021 through the 2027 season.

October comes back: 2020, 2022, 2024

After years in the wilderness, the Padres have been one of the more watchable teams in baseball, with three postseason trips in five years.

  • 2020: the team reached the postseason in the pandemic-shortened season, its first October appearance since 2006.
  • 2022: an 89-73 club beat the 101-win Mets in the Wild Card round, then upset the 111-win Dodgers in the Division Series (the franchise’s first advance past the NLDS since 1998) before losing the NLCS to the Phillies in five games.
  • 2024: a 93-win team swept Atlanta in the Wild Card round at Petco and pushed the Dodgers to a deciding fifth game in a charged Division Series, with Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. at the center of it. Game 3 at Petco featured a six-run second inning, the highest-scoring postseason inning in franchise history.

The Padres-Dodgers rivalry that runs through those October series is one of the most heated in the game now, and it is the reason Petco gets loud and packed for those weekends. The when-to-visit guide covers planning a trip around it.

See it in person: the Padres Hall of Fame

The franchise’s history has a home inside the park. The Padres Hall of Fame, behind the left-field stands and opened in 2016, holds game-worn jerseys, multimedia, and plaques: the Padres in Cooperstown, special pedestals for Tony Gwynn and Dave Winfield, and the members of the San Diego Padres Hall of Fame. It is free to browse with a ticket and easy to walk past if you do not know it is there. (It is a different thing from the Breitbard Hall of Fame, a San Diego multi-sport hall mounted on the Western Metal building wall along the main concourse.)