Which side of town is your game?
Settle that before you settle on a team. Every Cactus League park is inside the Phoenix metro, which is the whole appeal: one hotel, a different ballpark every day, no flights.
It's also the trap. Sloan Park and Surprise Stadium are both Cactus League parks, and they sit on opposite corners of the Valley.
Five parks are on the east side, near the Scottsdale and Tempe hotels where most visiting fans stay. Five are out west, near Glendale, Peoria and Goodyear.
| Ballpark | City | Side of town | Home teams |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salt River Fields at Talking Stick | Scottsdale area | East | Diamondbacks, Rockies |
| Scottsdale Stadium | Scottsdale | East | Giants |
| Sloan Park | Mesa | East | Cubs |
| Hohokam Stadium | Mesa | East | Athletics |
| Tempe Diablo Stadium | Tempe | East | Angels |
| Camelback Ranch | Glendale | West | Dodgers, White Sox |
| Peoria Sports Complex | Peoria | West | Padres, Mariners |
| Surprise Stadium | Surprise | West | Royals, Rangers |
| Goodyear Ballpark | Goodyear | West | Guardians, Reds |
| American Family Fields of Phoenix | Phoenix (Maryvale) | West | Brewers |
East Valley ballparks
Staying in Scottsdale or Tempe? These five are your home field, and none of them asks you to cross the metro.
Salt River Fields and Scottsdale Stadium
Salt River Fields sits just off the Loop 101 at Talking Stick, on the edge of Scottsdale. Two teams share it, so there's a home game most days of the schedule, which makes it easy to slot into a fixed travel week.
Scottsdale Stadium is the opposite animal: an older park in the middle of town, a short walk from Old Town. For a game there, the bus does its real work before noon and late at night. Our Scottsdale pickup guide covers the resort loading zones we use most.
Sloan Park and Hohokam Stadium
Mesa has two. Sloan Park, the Cubs' place, draws some of the biggest traveling crowds in the league, so expect a full lawn and a slow walk out. Hohokam is a few miles away in a quieter part of the city.
From Gilbert or Chandler, either Mesa park is a short, simple run. Our Mesa service page has the pickup details.
Tempe Diablo Stadium
Tempe Diablo sits against the buttes near the I-10, close to both Sky Harbor and Mill Avenue. That makes it a good arrival-day game. Land, drop the bags, go watch baseball.
West Valley ballparks
The west-side parks are newer, more spread out, and surrounded by more parking lot than neighborhood. From Scottsdale, plan on a real freeway drive each way. From Westgate or the northwest 101, they're the obvious choice.
Camelback Ranch and American Family Fields
Camelback Ranch, the Dodgers and White Sox complex, sits in the same stretch of town as State Farm Stadium and Westgate, so a game and dinner pair up without much driving. Our Glendale page covers pickups over there. American Family Fields in Maryvale is the shortest west-side hop from a downtown hotel.
Peoria Sports Complex
Peoria is the rare west-side park with a walkable restaurant district around it, out by the Loop 101 and Bell Road. Two home teams, so there's a game most days. If you want lunch, a game and a drink afterward without re-boarding three times, this is the west-side answer. Locals can start from our Peoria service area page.
Surprise and Goodyear
These are the outposts. Surprise is way out in the northwest Valley, Goodyear is out on the I-10 to the southwest, and both are a long ride from Scottsdale.
That ride is exactly where a bus pays for itself. Nobody navigates, nobody drives home sunburned, and the group stays together the whole way. Run your hotel-to-park pairing through the Phoenix drive time calculator before you commit to tickets.
How big, and how early?
Game-day groups run bigger than a night out. The most common size we see for sports trips is 16 to 20 riders, which is usually a whole office pod or a fantasy league that finally got everyone in one place.
So most groups start at the 18-passenger party bus and step up to the 22-passenger once the maybes say yes. Count the maybes before you call, because sizing up later depends on what's still free that day.
On timing, most Valley groups reach us about a month out. For a Tuesday game in early March, that's plenty of room.
A Saturday in late March is a different story. By then you're competing with early prom dates and bachelorette weekends, not just other baseball fans. Send us the request the same week you buy tickets and you're ahead of almost everyone.
How long does a game day take?
Five or six hours, usually. Most groups book four, and four is right for a normal night out, but a ballgame doesn't fit inside it.
The game alone runs close to three hours. Add the ride in, the walk from the drop zone, lunch before and a stop after, and four hours is gone before anyone reaches Old Town. Crossing from Scottsdale to Surprise or Goodyear, go longer still.
First pitches are usually early afternoon, with a few night games mixed in. Check the time on the team's own schedule, then build the day backward from it.
| Time | What happens | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Late morning | Hotel pickup | One pickup point beats three |
| About 90 minutes before first pitch | Lunch near the park | Reserve for the full headcount |
| 30 to 45 minutes before first pitch | Drop at the ballpark | Gates open well before the game |
| Early afternoon | Game | Agree on a pickup inning or time |
| After the final out | Pickup, ride to Old Town or Westgate | Meet at the agreed spot |
| Evening | Dinner or drinks, then hotel | Final drop at one address |
Lay your own version out in the event timeline planner and send it with your quote request. It tells us how many hours to quote and whether the bus stays with you or comes back for the pickup, so ask which applies when you call.
Lunch first, Old Town after
The classic east-side day: late-morning pickup, lunch near the park, the game, then into Old Town Scottsdale while the sun is still up.
After a Scottsdale Stadium game you can walk it. After Salt River Fields, Sloan Park or Tempe Diablo, the bus carries everyone over together, and that matters more than it sounds. Groups that scatter into rideshares after a game arrive in three waves and never quite re-form.
West side, the same move is Westgate after a Camelback Ranch game, or the restaurants around Peoria. If your hotel is in Scottsdale and your game is in Goodyear, ride back first and then go out. Nobody wants to start the long drive at the end of the night.
Two games in one day
Worth it only when the schedule hands you an afternoon game and a night game at parks near each other. Salt River Fields with Scottsdale Stadium works. So do the two Mesa parks, Sloan Park with Tempe Diablo, or Peoria with Surprise.
An East Valley afternoon into a West Valley night game is a bad trade. You spend the whole break between games on the freeway in the evening commute.
One thing to raise when you call: what the beverage rules are on your vehicle. Anyone drinking has to be 21 on the bus the same as at the ballpark, and we'll walk you through the rest.
Lawn seats and the drop zone
For a group, the outfield lawn is usually the best ticket in the building. It's general admission, so sixteen people actually sit together and nobody's stranded in the middle of a row.
The catch is sun. Most lawns face it all afternoon, and March in Phoenix swings anywhere from a cool 70 to the low 90s. Pack for that:
- Sunscreen and a hat for everyone, including the ones who swear they never burn
- A blanket or a towel for the berm
- One phone holding the tickets, fully charged
- Check the park's own site for its current rules on bags, chairs and sealed water
The bus helps here in a plain, practical way. It's air conditioned, it holds the extra layers and the clean shirt for the evening, and it's the same vehicle waiting for you afterward.
Where the bus drops you
Every park handles buses a little differently, and the arrangements change from season to season. Ask the ballpark, or ask us and we'll check the drop zone for your game.
Settle the pickup spot before anyone walks in. The lots empty slowly after the final out, and a meeting point a short walk from the main gate, agreed in advance and dropped in the group chat, gets you moving well before the cars parked next to the stadium.
Office outings and visiting fans
A weekday afternoon game is the easiest team outing to sell in Phoenix. It's outdoors, it's done by late afternoon, and it doesn't take anybody's weekend.
What matters for a work group is one pickup at the office, a return to the same door, and a vehicle that fits everyone so there's no second carload of people feeling left out. Past 25 or so, the 30-passenger coach bus is the quieter, forward-facing option, and it suits a group where not everyone wants party lighting at noon.
Visiting fans have the opposite problem. You booked the hotel before you looked at a map, and if you're following one team for a long weekend, about half its games are on the road at the other nine parks.
A Cubs fan staying in Scottsdale gets easy days at Sloan Park and at least one trek out west. Make the trek the bus day. That's the one where a rental car and a designated driver are the least fun, and the one where the ride becomes part of the trip.
