HoHoKam Stadium

Oakland Athletics(Spring Training)

8/10

The exterior of the ballpark was somewhat bland and didn't do it justice. See the new one further down.

The stadium teems with rooters for a Satuday afternoon clash with San Diego.

Another shot of a nice crowd.

Bonus Picture: This shot from the left field pole shows the layout of the grandstand, with only a few spectators dotting the seats.

The newly repainted exterior really "pops" (I hate that phrase, but it's true). No wondering who plays here.

A giant new LED scoreboard welcomed me in 2014

Pre-game preparations for Cubs/Oakland

HoHoKam Stadium was the Chicago Cubs Spring Home from 1997-2013. I've been to two games here, a Fall League game in 2011 and a Cactus League game the next spring. HoHoKam was the last Cactus League park I went to and I was glad to have all of them in the bag.

My first experience with this park was in the fall league, seeing a decent game with only around 50 people in the stands. The fans ended up bunching up in the middle innings as it began to rain, with the only cover in the back few rows.

Still, the Fall league doesn't give you a really good picture of a park, so I decided that I had to get this one in for 2012. We headed over for a Saturday afternoon game versus the Padres and found out that in March, the area gets unbelievably crowded on game days. Traffic is bad, parking is worse and you must brave the crowds for everything from food to the toilet. This place averaged over 10,000 people....in 1999(!) and it hasn't let up since. I'd recommend avoiding the Cubs when they're on the road and only going to their home games when you feel you must(Cubs fans are exempt from this). The Cubs know they have a good thing going in Mesa, so prices for everything from tickets to concessions can be relatively high. The exterior is a bland grey, although Cubs legends names and numbers are in the sidewalk outside, which I thought was a nice touch.

On the plus side, this is a nice place to watch a game. There is an upper concourse effectively dividing the park in half, the lower seats are close to the action, but the loge seats have most of the shade. The atmosphere is pretty good, the Cubs have a pretty good contingent come to Arizona from the Chicago winter, following them from park to park around the Valley.

But, the park was at its limit and the Cubs decided they'd rather build their own and for 2014, they will be training at Cubs Park, a brand new 15,000(!) seat facility about two miles west, but still in Mesa. The Cubs were giving up a few thousand paying customers for every home game and the neighbourhood wasn't handling the game day crowds too easily. But unlike most ballparks that get passed by, HoHoKam is still relevant. The Oakland A's, training in Phoenix at Municipal Stadium, see HoHoKam as a massive improvement over their current digs, particularly on the training side of things, so after a year to get ready, Cactus League baseball will return in 2015. HoHoKam is now one of the older parks in the area, but with the A's wisely choosing to move in, it will be in the Cactus League loop for years to come.

Update 2016: I managed to get back here to see the A's version of this place in 2015, it's first season since Oakland's return and was pretty happy with the work that'd been done. The two big differences I caught were the Facade and the Scorboard. The board is a big new LED job which in my opinion, does add to the experience slightly, while the park is painted(on the outside) in A's colours. On the inside, things are only so different, with concessions being adequate and the atmosphere being around normal for Spring Training. Still, the improvements here are worthy of a point for facility, so this place goes up to 8/10. If I was in the East Valley(as opposed to out west) I'd likely make this a regular.

Linescores

2011-10-16
                                  123    456   789    RHE
Surprise Saguaros         000   052   001   891
Mesa Solar Sox             201  210   001   791
Temp: 83F  Time: 2:45  Att: 145

2012-03-24
                                123    456   789    RHE          
San Diego                  000  300   002    591
Chicago Cubs             010  000   000    133
Temp: 86F  Time: 2:40   Att: 12,872

2015-03-24
                         123    456   789    R  H  E
Chicago Cubs      101    000   000   2  6  2
Oakland               226    120  10x    14 18 1
Temp: N/A  Time: 3:27   Att: 9,032