HoHoKam Park in Mesa

If you're in Mesa in March, it seems like all roads lead to the Chicago Cubs' Spring Training complex.  Holy cow! Are there ever a lot of Cubs fans around!  

Truly, the club that draws the most fans to the State of Arizona each spring is the Cubbies.  In fact, the Northsiders have led the Cactus League in attendance every year since 1985.  This makes a ticket for the team's home exhibition games in HoHoKam Park a hot commodity!  And if you really want to talk about a hard ticket to find, just ponder the Cub's lone night game of the spring -- and it's on a Friday night.

Well, that's where I was, among an overflow crowd of over 10,000 on March 10, 2000, when I made my initial visit to this park. Since then, I've attended numerous games here, both in overcrowded conditions in March and when you have the place pretty much to yourself during the Arizona Fall League in October. Either way, it's an impressive facility, and I've learned a lot about it along the way.   

I learned that the name HoHoKam is from an Indian tribe, now departed/driven away from the Mesa area.  The name now refers to a local charitable organization that raises funds through the sale of programs, concessions and parking.  In fact, the founder of the HoHoKams, Dwight Patterson, was instrumental in convincing the Cubs to hold Spring Training in Mesa for the first time back in 1952.

The current site of the park is where the team has played its March exhibition for years, but it was in 1997 that HoHoKam was rebuilt. That year over 157,000 fans attended Cubs games -- setting the all-time Cactus League record.  

As you would imagine, this stadium is one of the biggest of the nine such parks in Arizona.  It includes a roof that is trellised -- a very nice and attractive feature! -- over much of the seating area (see 2008 picture below).  The fact that it's trellised is important because of the shade it provides, as most of the games are during the afternoon, and the Arizona sun gets just a little bit hot!  And if you worship the sun instead of hide from it, there's ample and comfortable lawn seating both in right field and left.  The scoreboard, I might add, is also among the best of the Spring Training parks.

And while we're on the subject of the weather, keep in mind that arid climates like this can be quite warm during the day . . . and downright cold at night.  Don't feel silly bringing a jacket with you to Arizona.  In the evening, the fans in the stands are all wearing long sleeves and/or coats.

Although there's no ivy on the outfield walls of HoHoKam, the dimensions were meant to resemble the unusual curved sections ("the wells") of the right-center and left-center-field walls of Wrigley.  A nice touch!

Quite a few fans can be packed onto the outfield berms, as the shot to the right indicates.  It was taken at a Cubs' exhibition game in 2004.  Note that a general-admission ticket might be all you'll be able to obtain for Cubs' games in Mesa.

Not everything is perfect here, though.  The food selection is fairly limited.  Unless you want a hot dog or a Polish Sausage, you're out of luck.  I also didn't like the number of ads for casinos, which abound on Arizona's Indian reservations.  Call me old-fashioned, but I don't think gambling and baseball are compatible.  

The immediate area around the park doesn't have much to offer (unless you like cemetery plots) -- meaning you'll have to drive a ways to find food, which is especially important since the menu is fairly sparse inside the park.  And speaking of the immediate area, expect enormous congestion, as there aren't a lot of different ways into and out of the complex.  

All in all, a stadium worth visiting . . . if you can find a ticket!

 Return to The Parks of Arizona page