Michael A.
Yelp
My second Mariners game! It was on Saturday, 4/13/24, for the 6:40 PM game. Decided to leave the house at 1:45 PM and actually arrived in downtown Seattle by 2:30 PM. But once we got near the ballpark, it was SO frickin' difficult to find parking! First, we went to the Mariners parking garage and askes the attendant and he was asking for $60+ for parking! We decided to drive around for a bit. We saw signs for $55, $50, $45, $35 as we went further away from the stadium. After almost an hour, we decided to park right by Krispy Kreme for $35+. It was about a 1/2 mile away from the ballpark, but at least it was reasonable enough for a parking rate since I wasn't gonna pay $60+ for a bloody parking space!!! Not sure if the rates were that high due to the Tina Fey & Amy Poehler Restless Leg Tour happening at the WAMU Theater as part of Lumen Field at 3:00 PM, but don't recall paying even $30 the last time for a Mariners game.
Getting into the stadium at 5:20 PM was a breeze. Gates opened at 5:10 PM and there were long lines of people, but No Bag Check In lines went pretty quickly. Once inside, walked around to see which vendors were there, what kind of merchandise sales and food purchases were available. Got to check out the Team Store, which was wicked crowded!!! Prices were steep, as expected, but they had a good variety of inventory in hand. Tons of hats, jackets, jerseys, shirts and accessories. Looked around for about 15 minutes before buying an Adjustable Blue Seattle Mariners cap for $28 + tax.
After checking out the Mariners' Team Store, walked around to get some food and refreshments before walking up to our section in 314. Received free tickets, so that was good. Got a free hat for the Salute to the Military Day at the gate as well. Stayed until 4th inning, so about an hour after the game started. By then the Mariners were losing 2-1 to the Chicago Cubs. And we had seen enough, so decided to leave and try to avoid the crowd and traffic rush. Overall, we had a good enough time. Just did not like the fact that we couldn't find reasonably priced parking lots or garages around the area. Event Parking meant you had to pay more than a $25 baseball ticket for one person!!!