It’s almost time for Dodger baseball. I am standing outside a hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
I could walk six blocks to Union Station and ride the free Dodger Stadium Express. I could jump into an Uber and pay about $18 for the two-mile ride.
Instead, to make that short hop to the ballpark, I am about to board a very nice bus that costs $85.
Is it worth it?
First, some background: The Japanese travel agency JTB last year signed a sponsorship agreement that makes the company the “official Japanese tourism partner” of the Dodgers. JTB sells tour packages to Japanese fans eager to make the pilgrimage to see Shohei Ohtani play.
“Some people go to Disneyland and Universal Studios,” said Masakazu Nakafuji, general manager of JTB’s New York office. “Mainly, people want to see the Dodgers for three straight days at Dodger Stadium.”
The tour packages include game tickets, hotel rooms and transportation. However, not every fan from Japan buys the entire tour package, so the company launched a shuttle service: If you get tickets and hotels on your own, we’ll sell you a VIP ride, with a bilingual guide.
“So far, our shuttle customers are 90% Japanese,” Nakafuji said. “We are going to try to expand in the English-language market.”
On the shuttle bus I rode last week, I met Tsutomu and Sayuri Ichikawa, a couple from Tokyo wearing his and hers Roki Sasaki jerseys. The Ichikawas visited in May, on a JTB tour in which they saw three Dodgers games. The couple came back to see six more Dodgers games on their own, so the shuttle offered them a familiar way to get to Dodger Stadium.
Tsutomu, left, and Sayuri Ichikawa were among those on a JTB shuttle bus for a July 30 Dodgers game against the Seattle Mariners.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
I also met a woman named Colleen and her 8-year-old son, dressed in an Ohtani jersey. Colleen, who declined to give her last name, was visiting from Chicago. She said she had searched for shuttle buses online and considered them a better option than “having to take an Uber or take public transportation at night with a child” on a first visit to Dodger Stadium.
And I met Lina Endo of Seattle, here for three games against her beloved Mariners. She attended the first two games with friends and chose to take the shuttle for the third game, since she would be alone.
“I wanted to check out the early entry too, so it makes sense from a cost perspective,” Endo said.
Ah, yes, the cost. Is the $85 worth it?
As if the Dodgers do not already charge enough for tickets, the team offers an “early entry” add-on option for most games: For anywhere from $40 to $70, depending on the game, you can get in three hours before game time, an hour before most fans. That lets you watch the Dodgers take batting practice on the field, although Ohtani rarely does, and get to the head of the line for giveaway items, stadium attractions and team stores.
The JTB tours and shuttle buses include early entry. For one fan, $45 for Dodger Stadium parking plus $40 for early entry equals $85 for a JTB shuttle.
For a family of four, though, $45 for parking plus $160 for early entry is still less than $340 for four tickets for the shuttle bus. In fairness, JTB is not focusing its shuttle service on locals.
“They are driving, right?” Nakafuji said.
The shuttle bus driver points in the direction he’s trying to go in the Dodger Stadium parking lot before a game last month.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
They might be taking the Dodger Stadium Express from Union Station, or an Uber or Lyft. If there is a sales pitch to local fans, this is it: Just how long do you want to take getting out of Dodger Stadium? The wait for the Dodger Stadium Express or a rideshare pickup, and the slog out of the stadium and along Sunset Boulevard, can be excruciating.
“It’s a headache,” Nakafuji said.
The JTB shuttles leave exactly 30 minutes after the end of the ninth inning. If you want to stay for extra innings, a fireworks show, or a drone show, you risk finding your own way back.
Sounds harsh. But, on the night I rode the shuttle bus, it took just 15 minutes to escape the parking lot and return to the hotel. If time is money, maybe the $85 is worth it.
Of course, in 15 minutes, you can walk downhill from Dodger Stadium to the Metro Chinatown station, and another five minutes to Union Station.
Still, beyond the sales of takoyaki (octopus fritters) at a Dodger Stadium concession stand and Ohtani-endorsed skin serum in the team store, here’s another economic indicator in the Shohei Ohtani Economy: a two-mile bus ride for $85.