San Francisco is fortunate to have great professional sports. Given their popularity, getting to and from their venues can be a challenge. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend the 49er’s 2013 season opener, a closely contested 34-28 win over Green Bay. With the wonderful weather this time of year I chose to cycle to Candlestick with my son for some pre-game tailgating. I also attend several Giants baseball games each year and cycle to most of those games as well. The contrast in my experiences cycling to these two venues is so striking I wanted to highlight them.

Getting to either venue in San Francisco is possible by car, public transit, cycling or on foot. From our home in Noe Valley we’re 3 miles from the Giant’s AT&T Park and 6.5 miles from the 49er’s current home at Candlestick Park (they’ll be down in Santa Clara next year).

The 49er’s site and a search on Candlestick Park provide internet options for getting to the game, but neither site promotes getting their by bike. It took me over twenty minutes of searching across the sites to finally locate a PDF with a short paragraph stating that bike parking was available at Gate A along with a big disclaimer that they were not responsible for anything stolen.

The Giant’s provide on their website a ‘Getting to AT&T Park’ page showing equal space for cycling there along with all other options. The Giants are supported by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition who run a valet parking service in secure rooms behind right field. At any game I’ve been to they appear to service between 100 and 300 bikes per game. Roll up to their entrance, hand off your bike and enjoy a ballgame with the assurance your bike is safely parked for the duration.

Upon arriving at Candlestick Park yesterday I couldn’t immediately find the bike parking section at Gate A. I asked support staff where to go and was directed to the left of Gate A up hill only to be told to go back down hill to Gate A by another of the support staff. I found a support supervisor who quickly and authoritatively told me to go over to the end of the chain link fence next to the Kinder Gate entrance. We didn’t find bike parking there either. The next support supervisor handled my question about bike parking by smartly calling someone who did give me clear direction, finally to an indented section of chain link fencing a bit to the right of Gate A. There were two signs, elevated 10 feet off the ground, about two feet square each that identified the area behind the signs, in small lettering, as reserved for bikes parked at their own risk. An hour before game time there were no bikes parked in this area. After locking our bikes to crowd control fences provided in the area (not bike racks) my son and I attended a tailgater and then went right into the stadium for a thrilling game. When we returned to claim our bikes (nothing stolen) there were just three bikes parked in the area. Three bikes with over 70,000 game attendees.

I do find riding my bike to either ballpark more efficient and less costly either in time or money than other options. Particularly when heading home cycling allows me to get ahead of anyone on foot and around the thousands of cars shuffling along packed roads while also avoiding the sardine can experience of public transit. The added benefits of a little extra exercise and fresh air almost go without saying.