SAN DIEGO'S HOTEL-SHOW-BUSINESS
Story and photography
by Eric Anderson & Nancy Allen

The Omni Hotel connected to Petco Park by a skybridge offers, in season, another type of attraction beside it, or rather below it; the trials and tribulations of the Padres, the baseball team that -- along with the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox – alternatively raises the hopes then breaks the hearts of its fans. Still the 32-story, 511-room hotel brings its guests easily and almost romantically to Norman Rockwell’s America above a park built in the mold of other classically inspired baseball stadiums such as Baltimore’s Camden Yards and Pittsburgh’s PNC Park. At Petco you can thrill if not to “the smell of greasepaint” at least to the smell of popcorn and still get “the roar of the crowd.”

Successful hotels brag about their staff and often mention their location. This hotel is well placed at the bottom of Sixth Avenue at the tip of East Village just across from the Convention Center and Petco Park. An unexpected additional pleasure at the Omni is finding baseball memorabilia displayed in the lobby and on the fourth, fifth and sixth floors. The exhibits from the personal collection of John Moores, owner of both the Padres and half-owner of the hotel, range from a baseball autographed by Joe DiMaggio to a bat signed by Robert Redford while making that classic movie “The Natural.”

One of the thirty or so restaurants developed across the United States by McCormick & Schmick’s sits on the ground floor and in addition provides the Omni’s 24/7 room service. There’s a grill at the pool and an expresso bar in the gift shop so you have choices if you are too hungry to wait for the Petco Park franks.

You can choose rooms with a view of San Diego Bay, or the downtown skyline or Petco Park but it’s the private condos that rise above the hotel that have a full view of the baseball diamond. Nevertheless, if you are a baseball fan you’ll want a room whose view allows you to sense the excitement of the game to help hurry you across the hotel’s fourth level skybridge to your special seats. You will be in the company of many enthusiastic fans because Yogi Berra could never have been referring to Petco Park when he said: “If the people don’t want to come out to the park, nobody’s going to stop ‘em.”

Bottom Line?
Hotel occupancy is well ahead of projected figures. So it’s fun for San Diegans to be sharing in its success -- and great to be part of the new, bustling, lively downtown. The energy and vitality of Petco Park and the Omni Hotel belie the former image of San Diego as a small, sleepy navy town. All that remains for our movers and shakers is to give us more confidence in our politicians!