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Comerica Park home of Detroit Tigers [MAP]

I have  recently become quite a baseball fan, and have gone to several games this year at Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Tigers.  As anyone who has ever gone to any professional sporting event can tell you, it gets expensive in a hurry.     So I decieded to try an experiment and see how cheaply I could take in a game and still enjoy myself.

When the Tigers built Comerica they make a commitment to the fans that they would always offer blocks of inexpensive seats, so that people would not be priced out of coming to the ball park.  The Tigers offer their $5 seats, which are in section 345 in the end upper decks by the first base foul pole.  Not the greatest seats in the world, but I don’t think there is really a bad seat in Comerica.  While you are up, you are still close enough to see what is going on, and I like the upper decks as it gives me an overall view of the field.   So, that being said when I tried to order the tickets none were available, after some poking around on the Internet it says that they sell out this section quickly.  Since I was buying tickets for a game 2 days later this really didn’t surprise me.   I ended up buying seats in section 216 for $15 each (plus service fee).  I picked a Sunday game.  Every Sunday is kids day and you get free rides on the Carsoul and Ferris Wheel ($2 value) and kids get to run the bases after the game.

So we had our tickets, next step was parking.   I have parked at various places for games, but it always seems to end up costing $20 regardless of where I am.  Keeping with the theme Tigers offer $5 parking which is way west of the Stadium, and I didn’t feel like dealing with all of that.  So I parked at the Port Atwater Parking Garage Which is next to the Ren Cen  (If you are coming down Jefferson, turn right on Beaubien and it is the first garage on the left , look for the big red sign).  This garage is $3/hr, BUT on weekends the max rate is $6.  Park on the 3^rd level and take the walkway to the Ren Cen, then to to the 2^nd level of the Ren Cen to take the People Mover to the game.   The People Mover is $0.50 each per person each ride, for for me and the 2 kids this added $3 to my parking, still a great deal!   Take the people mover to Grand Circus Park stop and you are about 2 blocks from the Stadium.  This brings you to Gate B, which is also where the Will Call windows are.  Since I bought my tickets a few days before the game, I selected the free ‘pick up at Will Call’ option rather than paying extra to print the tickets at home.  This worked out great, as I walked right up and showed my ID and confirmation and got my tickets.

Continuing the $5 deal, they also offer Kids value meals with a hot dog, chips juice box and toy for $5, and the adult meal with hot dog, chips and soft drink.   So we got 3 of those and headed to our seats.   We were in row 21, which I found out was 1 row from the top of the stadium.  Still decent seats and we enjoyed a Tiger win!    While the $5 deals were great, we did buy a few other things during the game, bag of peanuts, a couple of pops, popcorn and pretzel….

So the total damage is as follows:

$58.50 Tickets 3x$15 + $13.50 service fee
$ 3.00 6 x People Mover tokens
$15.00 3x value meals
$ 1.00 Score Card
$ 8.00  Peanuts, Pop
$12.25 Popcorn, Pretzel, Pop
$ 6.00 Parking

TOTAL Cost $103.75 for 3 people, plus gas to and from Detroit.   Not too bad for a full afternoon of entertainment.  The Tigers also run a deal for the week night games 4 tickets, plus value meals for $55,

http://mlb.mlb.com/det/ticketing/weekday.jsp

not sure where the seats are, but as I said there are really not any bad seats there.  Note the parking garage is $12 during the week.. so it would be $20 for 4 people, about the same as close to the ball park, but one nice thing about parking there is you avoid a lot of the Stadium traffic!

For more info on the Tigers $5 deals, and to purchase tickets please go to http://mlb.mlb.com/det/ticketing/deals_5.jsp

One last money saving tip, you are allowed to bring in a small cooler with (sealed) water bottles  into the stadium.

Detroit Metro Airport (DTW)

We always seem to have early flights out of Detroit, so we go down the night before and stay the night.  The last several times we have stayed at the Fairfield Inn, which is part of the Marriott chain.  A double room runs about $100 a night, and they do have Park & Fly packages that include 8 days of parking.  If you are staying for a longer stay, the parking alone makes this a good deal.  The hotel has a 24 hour pool and hot tub and offers breakfast from 4am to 9am.  The rooms are newer, clean and pretty much what you would expect from a Marriott.  I have always been pleased with our stays here.

One of the reason I like the Fairfield is that it is next to the Qwik Park, which is my favorite parking place.  There are others, but we tried this the first time we flew, it was great, and we never saw a reason to look elsewhere.   The Fairfield shares a drive with the Quik Park (with a LaQuinta on the other side).   They have a fleet of shuttle buses that get you over to the airport (which takes about 10 minutes), and when we return the red buses are always right there waiting to take us back.  Cost for parking is $9 per day, and they do base it on a 24 hour perior rather than midnight… which is nice for those late return flights.   Sometimes they have coupons on their website, or occasionally we receive one with the local coupon flyers.

Metro has opened their new North Terminal, which is where many domestic flights (including Spirit) fly from.  They do have a larger security check points, and it did seem easier to get through.  The terminal has various shops and resturants, but on our early flight out (5am), and late return (midnight)  I noticed that most of them were closed.  Over all it is like every other airport, over priced stuff and a lot of people waiting around.  DTW is a large airport, sometimes I don’t realize how large until you fly into a smaller one (like MYR).  The McNamara Terminal is a whole world unto itself.  It is over a mile long and they have their own monorail to help you get around. I have not flown out of there.. you are on your own.