Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants

For the second time in three days, we attended the Giants game at AT&T Park. Yesterday, we had planned to purchase the Chevron ticket deal we had purchased for Friday’s game. However, in order to avoid the ticket handling fee from tickets.com and since we were buying 6 tickets, we planned to buy the tickets at the Giants’ box office.

Ticket Buying Tip #8:
When attending a game with more than 4 people it generally makes sense to buy tickets ahead of time or at the box office. Normally scalpers do not have 5 or more tickets together – meaning that you either will not all sit together or you will have to sit in an empty area of the stadium in order to do so.

I hopped out of the car as we pulled into the $15 parking lot we had parked in Friday (a good deal compared to spending $30 in the official AT&T Park parking lots) and walked over to the park.

Surprisingly, the scalpers on the way actually had 6 tickets together. I offered the first guy $5 each ($30 total). He laughed and walked away. I offered the same to the next scalper. He said, “Hey man…the A’s are back in town tomorrow night. Why don’t you go home today and save your money for the A’s tomorrow night?” I continued my way to the box office – upping my offer to $10 per ticket but no scalper would accept that price.

At the box office, I asked for the Chevron ticket deal – View Reserved seats would cost $12.50 each, plus I needed to purchase a $25 Chevron gift card. The total should be $100. “That will be $143,” said the ticket seller. She eventually explained that I needed to buy tickets in lots of 4 for the Chevron deal. I could not buy 6 at the cheap price. She was charging me $34 each for the final two tickets. I told her no thanks and walked back to the scalpers.

I offered the first guy I saw $74 – as much money as I had in my wallet. He hesitated at first but talked to his buddy who accepted the offer. I had bought the six tickets for the same price I had wanted to pay at the Giants’ box office but did not have to buy the $25 Chevron gift card.

After buying tickets, I met the family at Tres Agaves – a Mexican restaurant a few blocks from the ballpark. We ordered Mexican brunch and margaritas to start the day. The area around AT&T Park is definitely one to hang out in before or after a game. It has multiple restaurants and bars to choose from.

The Dodgers beat the Giants 5-3 as Rich Aurilia recorded his 1500th hit on a home run in the bottom of the 4th inning. Aurilia wanted his milestone ball back so he traded an autographed bat to the fan that caught the home run ball.