I am attempting to take my son to a Gator baseball game for the third time. The past two tries resulted in rainouts. In both prior instances, my wife (and/or a UF friend) handled all of the details. Sadly, my wife has recently passed, and my friend is out of town, so I need to do this myself. It shouldn't be too complicated, right? I assumed that I could walk up to a ticket office on gameday and purchase 2 paper tickets, but apparently that is not the case. My questions are these (and yes, I tried to call the ticket office about 20 minutes ago, but they close at 4:00). 1) I download a Gator app. From there, I assume that I would create an account. Then I could navigate within this app and purchase tickets for the JU game. At that point, I would be given some electronic tickets that will be on my phone. I take the phone and show them to whomever is manning the gate. Is that the process, or am I missing something? 2) When I look at the seating chart, ticket prices vary according to non-SEC, SEC, etc. I get that SEC games are more expensive, and I get that better seats are more expensive. What I don't readily see is, for instance, what do you get if you pay a premium for a seat in the "Red" zone? Unless I missed it, this is not laid out clearly. I used to sit down the first base line in the old stadium, and those seats were perfectly fine, but I am willing to pay for the best seats I can get on this one occasion, because I want my son to have a great time. 3) If you are going to the JU game, where is the best place to park, and do you need to get there early to make sure you can get a space? Perhaps my fondest memories of my time in Gainesville were going to the baseball games. It looks like my son will be attending UF in the Fall. I want to be the one to show him the glories of attending these games in person, so I want to maximize the experience the best I can. Any advice on the above, or anything else that improves the overall experience would be most appreciated!
1. Yep, that’s the gist of it. If your phone has a wallet, adding them to your wallet so you can use the tap feature works better than the scan feature. Scan is allowed and does work, just seems more finicky. 2. Don’t know what you’re looking at that’s showing a red zone, but 100 level seats are downstairs. 200 level seats are upstairs. 200 level seats include sodas, tea, hot dogs, popcorn, cookies, etc. There is a also a concession stand up there. I have not sat in a bad assigned seat. I’m not a huge fan of the outfield or berm, but friends with kids like it out there. 3. If you’re there an hour early, you can usually park in the main lot. If it’s full, there’s several other lots nearby. I prefer to park in the garage down by the performing arts center.
If you read the @paidinfull response and skip this one, you may be better off, but I can't help tossing in a couple of comments. There will be plenty of good SEATS available for the game, but most season tix holders who skip games don't put them on resale apps. Regardless of what tix you buy, including berm, there will be better seats open if you just walk up and sit in them. I'm more one to sit in the seat I bought, but there will be a lot of good seats available all over the ballpark. BTW- the opposite will be true for any SEC weekend. There will be a few empty seats, but standing room will be packed. Parking, with concessions- is at the bottom of the otherwise great game experience, but it's much better for midweek games with no softball or lacrosse. One other nearby parking option is around Fifield Hall, across Hull Road from centerfield and there are tips-only shuttles from the farthest reaches of all of the lots.
Hey, thanks for the information, everybody! We decided to go to tonight's game instead. Ironically, my son said that this was the rescheduled game of the one we tried to attend earlier that was rained out. We got the app figured out and my son said that tickets are available in his phone as I type. I will miss the Gatorgal game thread, but that is a small price to pay for getting to take my son to his first Gator baseball game. We bought some tickets down the first base line. We are also "sit in the seat assigned" type people for the most part, but I have no problem moving around for better and different views if there are wide open spaces available and it is clear no one is using the seats. Anyway, that is the plan. Thanks to everyone who took an interest in our gameday experience. Go Gators!
The Gatorgal game thread will be there when you get back (and you can read through and make sure I’m spot on ). Enjoy! We’d love to hear about your experience afterwards.
Postgame Report: Complete success! My son really had a great time and said he will definitely plan on attending baseball games when he comes to UF. I enjoyed my time immensely. It sure brought back fond memories, as I have not been to a game since the mid-late 1990s. In no certain order, below are some of my thoughts: - Ballpark was beautiful and basically spotless (for a ballpark). Seats were comfortable, lines were short, and the bathrooms were clean. - Crowd was pleasant. Very little noise throughout the game, but I heard students are on Spring Break. - Food was okay. I seem to remember being able to get things like jambalaya at the old park. Maybe you can at this one, but I didn't really go through exploring my options. I went to two different concession stands and they were right beside one another. Basic baseball fare: hotdogs, popcorn, etc. - Someone said above that there really isn't a bad reserved seat in the place. I would have to agree. On my next visit, I really am not going to sweat where the physical seat is. You could see the game just fine from any of the seats, I would think. - I can't report on the parking situation because we ended up staying in a hotel where we could easily walk to the game. On top of that, somebody was driving some sort of trolley, and we jumped on it, so we didn't even have to really walk at all! (I tipped him a few bucks). - My highlight was watching the freshman pitcher come in and strike out the side in the 7th. I always root for the freshmen to shine in their big moments, and that guy sure did (Biemiller?). - I liked seeing Donay get his double as well. All in all, it was a great night. I am actually not a huge baseball enthusiast. I only follow Gator baseball and that is it. For me, going to these games when I was in school was sort of a respite from the studying and partying all of the time. The games sort of felt like "family" to me for some reason. It was just a super satisfying place to go to lift me up. I wanted to show my son that, in case he feels the same way when he is alone in Gainesville. I could tell he really liked it, so I am glad we drove down to do this. I hope we can return for another game or two before the season ends. Thanks again everybody! Now, I'll go check out the Gatorgal thread because I am convinced that the Gators recorded one more strikeout than the official record states!
Very nice report, Lost. It was a nice evening for a game and plenty of action- mostly Gators, but FAMU battled. There's not much more to concessions than you saw. The food they have is not bad, mainly plain, but prices are high. The CF food trucks make an effort. The $15 ice cream cone is big and tasty, but costs $15. Sounds like the only thing you missed was a big crowd. SEC home crowds will be packed. The Saturday scUM crowd was three times the size of tonight's, the grandstands were packed and standing room was 4-8 deep or more around the concourse and in the outfield. The crowds are big because of the top competition, which often means exciting games, which means excited, loud and fun fans.
I wish that I had seen this thread earlier. My wife and I have 5 really good season ticket seats (scouts want to sit in them) but with her rotator cuff surgery we can't make most games. I would have given you some good seats.
