Have you ever dreamed of having a sleepover at a Major League Baseball stadium? I’m sure every die-hard baseball fan has. Dream no more – for a pretty penny, you too can watch an MLB game from the comfort of your own room and then fall asleep looking at the field.
Room rates at the Toronto Marriott City Centre average around $940 CAD per night (~$700 USD as of August 2023) and offer you the chance to freely attend any Toronto Blue Jays game you want – and stick around to cheer on the cleaning crew well into the wee hours of the morning. It’s an experience you won’t find anywhere else in pro sports.
It all begins when you check in at the front desk and fill out a waiver in which you promise not to throw anything onto the playing field, among other things. They also issue you a warning about the visibility of your public-facing room – if you can see them, they can see you.
Then it’s up to the room. For the most part, it’s just an average hotel room until you look out the window, where an amazing view looking towards the plate takes your breath away. Depending on the weather and your check-in time, you might just get to watch the 20-minute process of the retractable roof sliding open. It’s truly marvelous to watch the dome in action.
The upper half of the room’s giant glass window slides open to let the sights and sounds of the ballpark pour in. If you’re in time for batting practice, all you’ll hear are the echoes of the crack of the bat. Once the gates open and the music begins, the peace and quiet start to fade away – but that’s when the excitement starts!
As the game gets underway, you’ll really start to relish the fact that you are WATCHING A MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL GAME IN YOUR PAJAMAS.
The only real drawback is that you can’t see the jumbotron … but who cares?? You could quite literally crawl in bed and get all comfy under the blanket while never taking your eye off of home plate. How many people do you know that can say that? Throw the game up on the TV even, if you really wanna get serious. The 10-second delay helps for when you want a closer look at what just happened on the field.
After the game concludes, you don’t have to go anywhere! You’re already in for the night and can stick around the watch Rogers Centre empty out. If the dome was open during the game, you’ll get to watch it close right back up before the last fan has even left the ballpark. Then, settle in for some cleanup crew action. The sound of leaf blowers fills the dome as dozens of dedicated folks work to de-clutter the seating bowl and prepare the place for tomorrow night’s Jays game. Unfortunately, this is an all-night long process that doesn’t seem to conclude until at least 9am the next morning. However, if you close the window and draw the blinds, you’ll hardly hear a thing.
In the morning, you’ll excitedly jump out of bed and stare some more at an empty Rogers Centre, wondering if everything you’ve experienced in the last 18 hours was just a dream. I can assure you, it was not.
Roadtrip51 
Leave a Comment