Packing up the Bronco, throwing on a ball cap, and touring the county’s most iconic stadiums is as much an American pastime as the sports those stadiums host. For a true sports fan, the moment you see Fenway Park on the horizon or the fearsome Green Monster up close and personal, you’re overcome with a thrill that is truly once-in-a-lifetime, and there are countless stadiums throughout the nation that offer just such an experience.

As an added benefit, stadium tours have the convenience of being year-round engagements with historic baseball parks active during the summer and football stadiums alive and hopping during the winter. There’s almost never a wrong time to pack up and head out. Some planning is required, and it’s not the cheapest vacation option, but the bountiful returns are stories that will last you for the rest of your days.

Here we’ll discuss the history of three stadiums and parks that belong on any nationwide tour, including one that’s fast approaching “now or never” status. We’ll also make hotel recommendations near each venue to ensure you enjoy a comfortable stay at a reasonable price.

Sports fans, get ready!

Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles

By late 2008, Dodger Stadium in sunny Los Angeles will be the third-oldest stadium in current use by Major League Baseball, although still a good fifty years younger than its elders, Wrigley Field and Fenway Park. With an opening game on April 10, 1962, Dodger Stadium became the largest capacity stadium in existence at the time with seating for 56,000 eager spectators. Unusual for a long-term ballpark, Dodger Stadium’s capacity has remained at 56,000 for the 46 years of its use. Whenever seats are added, an equal number are removed despite the fact that the original design of the park intended an eventual expansion up to an inconceivably vast 85,000 seats.

Dodger Stadium stands apart from other ballparks of its time for retaining the “old guard” of baseball park design. In fact, it’s one of the last baseball-only stadiums built before the early-60s explosion of multi-use parks that ruled the American sports world up until the mid-90s when the quirky personality of asymmetrical stadiums returned to vogue. These newer parks can imitate the look, but they can never capture the feel of a true classic like Dodger Stadium.

Shortly after it opened, Dodger Stadium developed a reputation as a “pitcher’s park” due mainly to the rather deep outfield dimensions relative to the location of the mound, and a notable number of all-star pitchers have come out of the park, including Sandy Koufax, Don Sutton, Don Drysdale, and Orel Hershiser. However, changes instigated by both park owners and league rules have ultimately left the park almost perfectly-neutral in terms of player advantage, a fact that is credited for its fairness but occasionally despised for its lack of character.

While the Los Angeles Angels (now the Angels of Anaheim) spent three short years at Dodger Stadium, it is known best as the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers who have played at the park since its opening. One of the Major League’s most popular teams, the Dodgers have brought four World Series Championships to Dodger Stadium. The team also maintains ownership of the stadium and has done much to avoid corporate sponsorship (and thus renaming) of the park, one the League’s few remaining holdouts.

Accommodations:

Los Angeles is a humongous city and accommodation options are virtually limitless.

For hotels near Burbank Bob Hope Airport, consider the Hilton Los Angeles Glendale.

For a reliable choice in San Pedro, CA hotels, consider the Doubletree San Pedro.

Or if you’re only enjoying one stadium this trip, throw in a little beachfront fun in Redondo Beach at the Crowne Plaza Redondo Beach Hotel.

Wrigley Field, Chicago

Now moving much further back into baseball’s grand history, Chicago’s famed Wrigley Field is the second-oldest baseball park still in use today, tailing Fenway Park by only two years with an opening in 1914. Nicknamed The Friendly Confines by star player Ernie Banks, Wrigley Field stands out for its small size, one of the smallest in the league, as well as its sheer historical significance as the original park to feature the name of a corporate sponsor (although in this situation, the corporate sponsor, Wrigley, was also largely the owner of the team and stadium).

Since opening with a capacity of 14,000 in 1914, the stadium has undergone near constant renovation, trying whenever possible to build onto existing structures and expand the seating naturally, an idea presented and pushed by team owner William Wrigley Jr., the chewing gum baron. While many of these early changes were in response to fledgling attendance and a shaky team reputation, today the home team, the Chicago Cubs, is among the most attended teams in the country. In fact, in 2008 the Cubs set a record with over one million attendees by only the 25th game of the season.

The striking popularity of the team is due not to overwhelming success but in fact to the team’s longtime lack of success. The Chicago Cubs have not competed in the World Series since 1945 and have not won a World Series since 1908, the longest drought in league history. Some attribute the team “curse” to an infamous game of the 1945 World Series in which devout Cubs fan Billy Sianis, who had brought his pet goat with him to the game, was ejected from game 4 against the Detroit Tigers by then owner P.K. Wrigley himself. Upon his ejection, Sianis declared that the Cubs would never win again, and while they certainly have not lost every game since, the Cubs’ inability to attain World Series placement, and the curse the supposedly caused it, has become a thing of baseball legend.

During your visit, be sure to take time to explore Wrigley Field’s surrounding area, known locally as Wrigleyville. This far-reaching assortment of bars, restaurants, and shops captures the essence of a diehard sports town like you can’t find anywhere else.

Accommodations:

Like Los Angeles, the options are vast, but you may have better luck shopping outside of Chicago proper if you want to save on the room. If it’s not an issue, O’Hare Airport and the Magnificent Mile are great choices.

For a hotel near O’Hare Airport, consider the Wyndham O’Hare.

For an upscale choice in Magnificent Mile hotels, try the Hilton Garden Inn Chicago/Magnificent Mile.

For an affordable Chicago area hotel in Schaumburg, choose the Doubletree Hotel Chicago/Schaumburg.

For Wood Dale, IL hotels, Doubletree Wood Dale provides a convenient location.

For an upscale choice just a little out of town, Embassy Suites Deerfield is the Chicago North Shore Lodging for you.

Texas Stadium, Dallas

While it hasn’t yet attained the prestige of tour staples like Wrigley Field, Texas Stadium is a new list contender because as of 2009 it faces team abandonment and possibly even the wrecking ball. Longtime home of the fearsome Dallas Cowboys, Texas Stadium will see its last season in 2008, so there won’t be another chance to see where the league’s most successful modern team has played ball for the last 37 years.

Texas Stadium opened in 1971 to replace the Cotton Bowl as home field for the Cowboys, although the Cotton Bowl is still in active use as the site of the like-named NCAA bowl game and also the Red River Rivalry, both major college football events.

At the time of its construction, Texas Stadium stood out from the crowd of contemporaries with an unusual design more common to European football (soccer) stadiums than American football fields. The design created a roof that was only partially open, meaning that the field itself was directly under the opening while the majority of the stands were enclosed. The Dallas Cowboy’s new state-of-the-art facility, which the team will move into for the 2009 season, is being built with a retractable roof and a setting to mimic this design out of respect and tradition for the beloved stadium.

After the relocation of the Cowboy’s to the new stadium, it is still unclear whether Texas Stadium will continue to function as an events venue as it has in the past, or if it will face demolition in response to local venue saturation. One thing, however, is for sure: if you want to see the Cowboy’s play at Texas Stadium, you only have one more season to do it. So if you’re heading out on a football stadium tour this winter, make sure Texas Stadium is on the list. It’s now or never!

Accommodations:

Located in Irving near central Dallas, accommodations near Love Field Airport and downtown do well for visiting Texas Stadium, and the prices are consistent throughout.

For hotels by Dallas Love Field, consider the Embassy Suites Love Field Airport hotel.

For suburban hotels in Dallas, Texas, try the Doubletree Hotel Dallas-Campbell Center.

For convenient downtown Dallas hotels, the Hilton Garden Inn Dallas Market Center is perfect.

This is obviously just the start of a broad list of must see stadiums and parks to get you thinking about all the fun, the excitement, and the history of a dedicated Stadium Tour. We’ll see you at the game.