Padres: Don’t sell tickets to Dodgers fans, get a ‘special surprise’ instead

It happens every year: The Dodgers play in Petco Park, and their fans overrun the ballpark.

This year, the San Diego Padres boast one of the best teams in baseball, and they would like to try something new when the Dodgers come to town.

A home-field advantage. And an incentive for fans to keep their tickets off the resale market.

With Petco Park operating at limited capacity to start the season, the Padres have decided not to sell single-game tickets for now. The Dodgers play at Petco Park on April 16-18.

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“We really, really want our season-ticket members to hold on to their tickets,” Padres Chief Executive Erik Greupner said Tuesday during a media tour of Petco Park, “because our hope is they’re going to want to be here, dressed in brown and gold, cheering for this team, and we can get 100% Padres fans in the ballpark for those games.”

Padres fans could put their tickets for that weekend on the resale market and recoup much of the cost of the season ticket. As of Tuesday afternoon, StubHub tickets for this weekend’s series against the Arizona Diamondbacks started at $35, while tickets for the weekend series against the Dodgers started at $320.

“We’re going to be announcing … a special surprise for that weekend,” Greupner said, “for our season-ticket members that keep their tickets and come to the game. We’re going to have a number of really neat things for them that weekend.”

He did not reference the Dodgers by name, instead calling the Padres’ opponent that weekend “a team from a little ways up north.”