Garth Brooks announces March 5 concert at San Diego’s Petco Park, his only West Coast stop this year

The thunder may roll, figuratively if not literally, when Garth Brooks performs at San Diego’s Petco Park for the first time in his storied career. The March 5 concert will be his first here since Brooks performed five triumphant back-to-back shows in 2012 at Valley View Casino Center (now Pechanga Arena San Diego).

The country-music superstar announced his March 5 Petco Park show Wednesday morning. It is the only West Coast date of the year for the world’s top-selling solo artist, who will perform at the stadium — the home of the San Diego Padres Major League baseball team — on an in-the-round stage located at the center of the playing field.

Capacity for the concert will be approximately 50,000.

“We are extremely excited to welcome Garth Brooks to Petco Park for his first visit to San Diego in seven years,” said Padres CEO Erik Greupner in a statement released Wednesday morning.

“Our venue and its location in downtown San Diego offer the perfect setting for a premium entertainment experience. Being selected as the only West Coast stop on Garth’s stadium Tour further establishes Petco Park as an iconic entertainment venue in Southern California. We look forward to welcoming music fans from all over the western region for an unforgettable show.”

The timing of Brooks’ Petco Park concert suggests healthy optimism that the currently surging COVID-19 Omicron variant will have subsided enough by early March for his performance to proceed smoothly. On Wednesday morning, the 2022 edition of the Grammy Awards — which had been scheduled for Jan. 31 — was postponed because of the pandemic. No new date has been confirmed yet.

Last August, Brooks personally decided to cancel five of his 2021 stadium concerts, citing concerns that such massive outdoor performances could become super-spreader events.

“In July, I sincerely thought the pandemic was falling behind us. Now, watching this new wave, I realize we are still in the fight and I must do my part,” Brooks said in a statement last August about his decision to cancel the five stadium performances.

”... the most important thing to me is fulfilling my end of the ‘Stadium Tour’ by making sure every show is doable before putting tickets on sale ... and making sure the environment these people are trading their time and money to put themselves into is not only the best experience ever, but also the safest one we can provide.”

The announcement of Brooks’ March 5 Petco Park concert states that anyone purchasing tickets for the concert “assumes COVID risk.” It also states that “all COVID rules apply,” without stating what those rules are.

All tickets for Brooks’ Petco Park concert are priced at $94.95 each, including service charges, and will go on sale Jan. 14 at 10 a.m. through ticketmaster.com. However, the Ticketmaster website for the concert notes that “ticket prices may fluctuate, based on demand, at any time ...

“In some instances, events on our platform may have tickets that are ‘market-priced,’ so ticket and fee prices may adjust over time based on demand. This is similar to how airline tickets and hotel rooms are sold and is commonly referred to as ‘Dynamic Pricing’.”

There will be no advance Petco Park box office sales and no advance sales for Padres season-ticket package holders.

To expedite ticket purchases, concertgoers are encouraged to visit the “On Sale Tips & Hints” section of ticketmaster.com/garthbrooks in order to create an account to buy tickets, or or refresh their existing Ticketmaster account.

More information is also available via Ticketmaster’s Garth Brooks phone line at (877) 654-2784 and through the Ticketmaster phone app.