Is It Too Late For Spring Training Tickets?

I received this email from Steve today, and I figured there are about 2,853 others of you out there with the same question:

Do you have suggestions or information about hotels in a central location for the different parks in the Phoenix or Tucson areas....My 11 year old son just expressed an interest in going to spring training, so we decided to spend a week of his spring vacation...hanging out around the cactus league.

We're driving from Albuquerque, and haven't bought game tickets yet. It's been 10 years since the last time I was at spring training, and I realize tickets, especially last minute ones, are hard to get, so it seemed like a good idea to find something centrally located, and we can just try our luck at different parks. If you have any suggestions or can point me to other sources of info, I'd greatly appreciate it....

Yes, Steve, I have a few suggestions!

This year I actually added an article to the Cactus League Guide that addresses that central hotel issue. In my opinion, downtown Scottsdale is most central to the Phoenix area stadiums, and easiest to get around from. I tried a couple of random choices and dates, and hotel rooms did come up. If you can't find what you want there, my next choice would be downtown Tempe hotels.

It is unusual, but there seem to be plenty of Spring Training tickets still available. There are even a few Cubs tickets available online right now, so you could still buy tickets to games without taking any chances. Your best bet for Cactus League games that don't involve scalped tickets are weekdays that are NOT Cubs or Diamondbacks games in the Phoenix area. In Tucson, even the Cubs vs. Dbacks game isn't sold out. If you are intent on taking your chances when you get here, get to the game more than an hour early to get on line at the box office, bring a blanket in case lawn seats are all that's left, or seat pads in case you get bleachers.

Last comment: sometimes the prices on scalped tickets aren't too bad, but for some people that's a political issue, so I won't go there right now!

Have fun!

(Spring Training Photo © Judy Hedding)