Padres upgraded Petco Park's flooring used for in-season non-baseball events a couple years agoGETTY IMAGES
The Padres are fine with Petco Park hosting the annual KAABOO festival beginning next September because the team has "taken strides to greatly improve how it protects the ballpark's playing surface," according to Kevin Acee of the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. Padres President of Business Operations Erik Greupner said that the team "upgraded the protective flooring it uses during in-season non-baseball events a couple years ago." The ballpark in recent years has hosted several concerts and Comic-Con with "no visible damage to the field" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 9/17).
RELOCATING FROM DEL MAR: In San Diego, George Varga in a front-page piece reported KAABOO, an "upscale music, comedy, art and culinary festival" set to be held Sept. 18-20, 2020, is heading to Petco "after being held for its first five years at the Del Mar Racetrack and adjacent fairgrounds." There is a multiyear contract to hold the event at the ballpark, and Padres season ticket holders will have "access to a special 'loyalty discount'" for the festival. Performances will take place on both the Petco Park field and "on the recently built Sycuan Stage at the Park," as well as at adjacent stages. Greupner said landing KAABOO is a "fulfillment of our promise to the people of San Diego that this publicly funded ballpark will (have) more than just baseball." He added, "I'm not aware of there being any other Major League Baseball team that has hosted, or plans to host, a festival like this" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 9/16).
