The Weekend Trick Nobody Uses: Touring the Stadium Instead of Buying Tickets

There's a short list of buildings a kid will happily walk through with a parent, and most of them have a scoreboard hanging in the middle.

Which is why I keep an eye on venue tours. Four game tickets, parking and a soft pretzel is a real number — the kind that makes you check the account balance twice. A guided tour of the exact same building, on a random Wednesday, usually isn't. And you actually get to look at the place instead of squinting at it from row 400.

What's running right now

This week the tour list is unusually full. SoFi Stadium in Inglewood is running tours — note that the version listed is specifically the no-field-access tour, so if your kid's whole dream is standing on the turf, read the ticket page carefully before you buy. Intuit Dome, also in Inglewood, is doing tours. So is Crypto.com Arena downtown, on their VIP tour. Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego picks up on the 10th.

And then there's the Dolby Theatre guided tour in Hollywood, which is the one I'd point non-sports families toward. It's the Oscars building. Kids who have opinions about movies tend to get quiet in a good way inside rooms like that.

The honest part about the drive

From Mission Viejo, Inglewood is not a casual morning. On a Saturday it can be an hour and change each way if you leave early, and considerably worse if you don't. Downtown and Hollywood are the same story. So this is not a "let's see how we feel" outing — it's a day you commit to, ideally with an early tour slot and a plan for lunch that isn't a gas station.

If you're driving up anyway, Long Beach sits right on the way home, and the Aquarium of the Pacific is an easy second stop that doesn't require anyone to walk another three miles. That's the pairing I'd build the day around. More ideas for the long-drive category are on our day trips page.

If a game is the actual goal

There's plenty of live sport this week too. The Dodgers host the Reds, LAFC hosts Red Bull New York at BMO Stadium, the Padres host the Nationals at Petco, and San Diego FC plays San Jose at Snapdragon. Soccer is worth a thought for younger kids — shorter than baseball, constant motion, and nobody has to explain what an inning is. Check the calendar for what's still on.

And if you'd rather not leave the county

Some weekends the answer to "can we do something big" is just no, and that's fine. If your kid wants the adrenaline without the freeway, K1 Speed in Irvine and Boomers! Irvine both live twenty minutes from most of South County. For a rainy-ish or too-hot afternoon, Discovery Cube OC in Santa Ana holds up longer than you'd expect with a wide age gap in the car.

Full lists as always on our weekend page. If your family has done one of these tours and it was better or worse than the website suggests, tell me — that's the stuff I'd rather publish than a press release.

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