Page "San Diego Padres" Paragraph 42

After five straight losing seasons in Qualcomm Stadium ( 1999 – 2003 ), the Padres moved into newly built Petco Park.

Petco Park is situated in downtown near San Diego's Gaslamp District, the main entrance located just two blocks from the downtown terminal of the San Diego Trolley light-rail system.

With new amenities and a revitalization of the downtown neighborhood, fan interest renewed.

Modeled after recent successes in downtown ballpark building ( such as San Francisco's AT & T Park ), and incorporating San Diego history in the form of the preservation of the facade of the historic Western Metals Company building ( now the left-field corner, the corner of the building substituting for the left field foul pole ), the new Petco Park is a sharp contrast to their previous home at Qualcomm ( Jack Murphy ) Stadium which was a cookie-cutter type football-baseball facility located in an outer, mostly commercial-industrial, area of the city near an interstate interchange.