Surprise, Arizona (What a Surprise!)

 

This evening was quite surprising.

Today was a day I planned to go to two Arizona Fall League games. The afternoon game was a walk-filled game that lasted over three hours, so it cut down my transit options, but I still had nearly two hours to get out of one stadium, get some food, and get to the other stadium, with the total driving only 20 or 25 minutes. After waiting 20 minutes without success to get waited on at an Applebee’s, I got a quick bite to eat at a fast-food restaurant, then headed to the Glendale stadium.

I was surprised when Google told me I was within a mile of the stadium, and I could see stadium lights on the horizon, but they didn’t look like they were on.

I was more surprised when I pulled into the stadium parking lot and there wasn’t a soul in sight.

I thought I must have misread the schedule, so I got on the web to see what was what, and it said that Glendale had a home game tonight. As I was doing that, a security guard came up and tapped on the window of my car, and asked what I wanted.

I said that I was hoping to go to a baseball game.

He said, “Oh, you must have used the MLB app. It’s got the game wrong. The team bus left about 45 minutes ago for Surprise.”

This was a surprise to me. I have been to Surprise, the stadium most distant from central Phoenix of the six in the AFL. At least I was on the right side of town, so I plugged the address into Google maps, and it said that it was a 25-minute drive, and I could get there 10 minutes before gametime. I can’t resist a challenge, so off I went.

Oh, and I saw a half-dozen cars at a locked gate to the Glendale stadium, presumably trying to go to the same game I was trying to go to. Maybe I should have stopped to explain things to them, but a) I was in a hurry, and b) in retrospect we’re all better off that I didn’t.

As I got within about a mile of the Surprise stadium, I could see stadium lights on, which was comforting.

But with a quarter-mile to go, I was surprised to find that the lit fields had hundreds (maybe it was only dozens) of kids playing soccer, and the baseball field was dark.

So I gave up, and drove back to central Phoenix.

When I got to our condo, I pulled up the app, and was able to get live updates on the game between Surprise and Glendale, with Glendale listed as the home team. It wasn't until after the game was over, and I studied the box score, that I understood what had happened. The game was at Goodyear Ballpark (another Spring Training stadium). Turns out there are a total of six AFL games at Goodyear this year. 

I must admit, I don't understand why. Typically, you play games at a "neutral" site either to make it so that no team has a home-field advantage in a crucial game (think Superbowl or Final Four), or because you want to make your sport accessible to a different audience (think NFL games in London, MLB games in Tokyo, Sidney, and San Juan). But the AFL is not high stakes like the Superbowl or Final Four, and AFL crowds are pretty neutral anyway. And if they're trying to get different fans, Goodyear Ballpark is only a few miles from Glendale's park, and the attendance at Goodyear tonight was a paltry 386. Of course, it would have been more if it been listed that way on the app, or on the main schedule on the website (which was where I'd originally gotten the information).

I guess I'm just Surprised they didn't do a better job.