Snow is a rare sight in San Diego, but you wouldn’t know it from visiting Petco Park last month. Holiday Wonderland, the first winter holiday attraction at the ballpark, drew 65,000 visitors to the facility, San Diego Padres officials said.
The event, featuring live reindeer, snowball fights and a “Polar Express” train ride around the bases, took place Dec. 5-24. The Padres would not disclose the investment and revenue figures.
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The Holiday Wonderland at Petco Park allowed the Padres to sell more holiday packages than in past years.
Photo by: SAN DIEGO PADRES
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By comparison, the Cleveland Indians’ Snow Days at Progressive Field, a similar attraction, drew 50,000 attendees in its first year in 2010. Attendance was down in the second year and the event did not turn a profit, said team officials, who discontinued Snow Days after 2011.
In San Diego, the Padres have made a multiyear commitment to Holiday Wonderland. The team bought much of the equipment used to elevate theming on the concourses with Candyland, Santa’s Workshop and Christmas Morning “vignettes,” and a snow-making machine to produce a 15,000-square-foot hill for tubing rides.
One week after Holiday Wonderland opened, the large crowds grew to a point where the Padres expanded the layout to include activities at Park at the Park, the three-acre green space situated behind the ballpark’s center-field wall. Admission was $15 for adults and $10 for children. Kids under age 3 got in free.
“The results were far better than we had anticipated,” said Wayne Partello, the Padres’ senior vice president and chief marketing officer who joined the team in November. “There’s something to be said about bringing families to the park.”
The event enabled the team to sell more Padres Holiday Packages than in past years, he said. The six-game miniplans starting at $99 came with a free Padres tree ornament.
Partello would not disclose the number of miniplans that were sold, but he said the campaign allowed fans to buy tickets to multiple games before the public sale in the coming weeks.
Baseball’s winter meetings were in San Diego in early December, and the Padres held a private reception for MLB officials and other VIPs to get an exclusive look at Holiday Wonderland. Minor League Baseball held its gala at the venue amid the festivities, as well.
The event is part of the Padres’ new ownership’s efforts to book more special events at the ballpark and is the first of several on-field events at Petco Park leading up to baseball season. For the first time, the ballpark will play host to Feld Motorsports’ Monster Jam (this coming Saturday and Jan. 31) and Monster Energy AMA Supercross (Feb. 7). Those events were previously booked at Qualcomm Stadium.
