Two hours north on I-27, and the High Plains give way to downtown Amarillo — and one of the best minor league ballparks in the state. HODGETOWN (701 S. Buchanan Street, Amarillo, TX 79101) opened in April 2019 and quickly earned a reputation as one of the Texas League's most enjoyable game-day experiences: a sunken bowl that puts 6,631 fans close to the action, a ground-level concourse that wraps the entire park, and the distinction of being the highest-elevation Double-A ballpark in the country at roughly 3,600 feet above sea level. For Lubbock groups, it's the closest pro baseball venue worth making a full road trip out of — and the trip is exactly as straightforward as I-27 suggests.
The catch is what waits at the other end: downtown Amarillo parking on a popular game night is a genuine hassle, and driving two separate cars back to Lubbock after a 9 PM final out is nobody's idea of a good time. One bus rental clears both problems at once.
Why Lubbock Groups Rent a Bus to HODGETOWN
The numbers work against the caravan the moment your group gets past four or five people. A Sod Poodles game on a Friday night in August means team-controlled parking lots at $8 per vehicle — so 10 people in three cars is $24 in parking before anyone buys a hot dog. Add three tanks of gas for the 248-mile round trip, three people who can't have a beer at the game, and three separate cars that need to regroup in downtown Amarillo after the final out when half the crowd is trying to leave at the same time.
That's a lot of friction for a baseball game.
A Lubbock charter bus or party bus collapses all of it. One vehicle makes the I-27 run north, one vehicle drops the group on Buchanan Street steps from the main gate, one vehicle stages nearby during the game, and one vehicle carries everyone home — with the two-hour return drive turning into the postgame recap instead of the driving shift. No one draws straws for who stays sober.
The Lubbock sporting event transportation page covers how this same structure works for other fan group runs, but the Lubbock-to-Amarillo game trip is the most common request in this specific corridor for a reason: the drive is easy, the ballpark is great, and the logistics are exactly the kind that benefit from one vehicle instead of several.
Charter Bus and Party Bus Drop-Off at HODGETOWN
HODGETOWN sits in the heart of downtown Amarillo on a full city block, which gives a bus real street access from multiple directions. South Buchanan Street is the primary approach. The main gate is at the corner of Buchanan Street and S. 8th Street — your bus pulls curbside on Buchanan and the group walks straight to the home plate entrance.
Per the Stadium Journey venue guide, that main gate leads directly into the home plate area and the ground-level concourse that rings the entire bowl. Drop-off on a bus here is clean: you're literally at the front door.
The third base gate is on the north side of the stadium, adjacent to the Embassy Suites hotel at 600 S. Buchanan — that's the team's parking garage location as well, which means the third base side sees the most vehicle congestion on busy nights. For a bus drop, the main gate on Buchanan at S. 8th is the cleaner approach, with a curbside pull-up and an immediate walk to the entrance. Either gate gets your group in through the same 360-degree ground-level concourse, so once everyone's inside, there's no wrong side of the ballpark.
After the game, set your pickup spot before the group walks in. The corner of Buchanan and S. 8th — the same point the bus dropped off — is the most natural rendezvous. Bus staging during the game can use the surrounding grid: Buchanan, Grant, and Lincoln all offer street access near the stadium block, and downtown Amarillo's street layout makes it straightforward for an oversized vehicle to find a staging spot without the kind of single-lot chokepoint you'd get at a suburban ballpark.
One Lubbock party bus rental handles the full loop — Lubbock pickup, Buchanan drop, postgame staging, and I-27 South home — as one smooth itinerary.
Downtown Amarillo Parking: What 7,256 Spaces Actually Looks Like on Game Night
The City of Amarillo has stated that there are 7,256 public, private, and city-owned parking spaces within 1,600 feet of HODGETOWN. That sounds like more than enough — and most nights, it is. But the spaces are scattered across a downtown grid, and on a popular promotion night (jersey giveaways, fireworks, a big Texas League series), the lots closest to the gate fill before first pitch.
Here's how the parking landscape actually maps out.
The Sod Poodles operate three team-controlled paid lots, per the ABC7 Amarillo coverage of game-day parking: the North Lot at 202 S. Lincoln Street is the biggest at 593 spaces; the Central Lot at 302 S. Grant Street adds 238 more; and the East (Santa Fe Railroad) Lot at 301 S. Grant Street accounts for another 334. All three lots are card-only, open 90 minutes before first pitch, and carry a per-vehicle parking charge — check the official Sod Poodles site at milb.com/amarillo for current game-day pricing before you go. The City Hall Lot sits directly across from the third base gate and is another team-controlled option with the same card-only, 90-minutes-before-game open time.
The Parking Garage at 600 S. Buchanan — the same structure attached to the Embassy Suites next to the stadium — charges per car and has around 754 total spaces, though roughly 300 of those are reserved for the hotel's valet operation and county tenants during business hours. On busy game nights, that garage runs at 60–75% capacity according to local reporting, with available spots shrinking fast as first pitch approaches.
Free parking also exists. Downtown Amarillo metered street spots are free after 5:00 PM on weekdays and free all day on weekends — so for a 7:05 PM first pitch, a lot of the surrounding block-by-block street parking is fair game. The catch: every Sod Poodles fan reading the same game day guide knows it too.
A 2019 local parking guide actually recommended avoiding Buchanan Street itself on game nights because of congestion immediately around the stadium block.
Run the math for a 20-person group in five cars: five parking spots, plus five returns to find those cars in the dark after the game, plus five people stuck sober who can't have the $9 ballpark craft beer. A 15–35 passenger minibus handles the same 20 people in one vehicle, drops them curbside at the main gate, and has no parking to find. For handicapped accessibility: there are no-charge parking spaces available in the City Hall area for vehicles displaying a valid handicap placard or plates, per the team's original game-day parking release.
Confirm current ADA parking details on the Sod Poodles' official site before your visit.
The I-27 Run North: Lubbock to Downtown Amarillo
I-27 North is the only route you need. From Lubbock, the drive is approximately 121 miles and takes about 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours under normal conditions — straight north through the South Plains, past Plainview and Happy, through Canyon, and into Amarillo from the south. There are no tricky interchanges or complicated downtown navigation: I-27 deposits you directly into the Amarillo street grid within a few blocks of the ballpark.
What Lubbock groups need to know for 2026: a long-term construction zone is active on northbound I-27 near McCormick Road in south Amarillo. This is a widening project expanding I-27 from four lanes to six, and it's no minor operation — TxDOT has logged it as the largest project in the Amarillo district's history. The specific piece active near McCormick Road closed the northbound McCormick Road exit during construction, requiring traffic to use the FM 2219/Lair Road exit instead.
Per Newschannel 10's September 2025 report, that section was expected to wrap up in spring 2026, though a broader $312 million expansion running from Amarillo south toward Canyon continues through 2028. TxDOT consistently advises reduced speeds through active construction zones on I-27 — plan extra time through that corridor if any of that work is still active on your game date.
For a 7:05 PM first pitch with gates opening at 6:00 PM, a Lubbock departure of 3:30–4:00 PM builds in solid buffer time for the construction zone and a few minutes to settle into downtown Amarillo before the stadium opens. If your group plans to grab food or a pregame drink along the 6th Street corridor near HODGETOWN — Six Car Pub and Brewery and Crush Wine Bar are within short walking distance of the park — build in an extra 30–45 minutes and plan to leave Lubbock by 3:00 PM. On a bus, that extra time is the pregame, not the commute.
Rent a Bus to HODGETOWN: Which Vehicle Fits Your Group?
Most Lubbock fan groups heading to a Sod Poodles game fall into one of two sizes: a tight group of 15–30 who want the party bus energy for the road trip, or a bigger organized outing of 35–56 where a full charter bus makes sense. Here's how the full vehicle lineup maps to the HODGETOWN run specifically.
| Vehicle | Seats | Best for | Key amenities on the I-27 run |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15–35 passenger minibus | 15–35 | Smaller groups, easy downtown Amarillo maneuverability | Powerful A/C, reclining seats, overhead storage — comfortable for a 2-hour drive each way |
| Party bus (15–50 passengers) | 15–50 | Fan groups who want pregame energy from the Lubbock pickup to the first pitch | LED lighting, sound system with Bluetooth, flat-panel TVs, perimeter seating |
| 40–56 passenger charter bus | Up to 56 | Large organized groups, company outings, the full fan convoy | Reclining seats, climate control, WiFi, power outlets, onboard restroom (essential on a 2-hour run), undercarriage storage bays |
For the 121-mile I-27 run, the onboard restroom on a full 40–56 passenger charter bus is worth calling out specifically — two hours each way is long enough that a rest-stop-free ride is meaningfully more comfortable. For smaller groups in the 15–25 person range, a minibus is the easier vehicle to maneuver on the downtown Amarillo grid and plenty of room for a game-day group. If the game is an occasion — a birthday, a work event, a celebration that the Lubbock-to-Amarillo drive is wrapped around — a party bus with the full LED and sound setup makes the drive itself part of the experience.
Lubbock Party Bus and Charter Bus Rental Prices for the HODGETOWN Run
Pricing on a Lubbock–HODGETOWN trip moves based on vehicle size, how many hours the bus is out (the drive there, the ~3-hour game, and the drive back), and the date. To give you a planning idea: a 15–35 passenger minibus typically runs in the range of $200–$275 per hour on a weekday and $200–$275 per hour on a weekend. A charter bus in the 40–56 passenger range runs a similar range per hour.
A party bus in the 25-passenger range typically lands between $275–$375 per hour depending on the day. These are planning ranges — not a quote, not a guarantee. Your real number for your specific date and group comes back in under 30 seconds: call 806-300-8790 or use the online quote form.
Here's a game-day example for context. A 24-person group rents a 25-passenger party bus out of Lubbock on a Friday night — pickup at 3:00 PM, arrive downtown Amarillo around 5:15 PM, pre-game time on 6th Street, gates at 6:00 PM, first pitch at 7:05 PM, bus stages during the game, pickup on Buchanan after the final out around 9:30 PM, back in Lubbock by 11:30 PM. That's roughly an 8.5-hour rental.
At the weekend rate range, that total might come to $2,300–$3,200 — split 24 ways, around $96–$133 per person. For comparison, the same 24 people in six cars: six parking spots, six tanks of gas for the round trip, and six people who can't share a post-game drink because they're driving. Once you actually price out the caravan, the bus number often looks different.
See the Lubbock party bus prices page for the full vehicle rate breakdown.
HODGETOWN Game Day Tips Every Lubbock First-Timer Needs
The ballpark is easy to enjoy once you're inside — 6,631 seats, no bad sight line, and a ground-level concourse where the whole group can meet between innings. Getting in cleanly is where first-timers trip up. A few things to have sorted before your group steps off the bus at Buchanan and S. 8th.
- Clear bag policy — strictly enforced, metal detectors in place. HODGETOWN is a clear bag facility: one clear plastic bag no larger than 12″ × 6″ × 12″, or a small crossbody bag. Diaper bags and medically necessary items are permitted but will be searched and tagged at entry. Metal detectors were introduced at all entry points as of 2025 — plan a few extra minutes for entry on busy nights.
- Gates open at 6:00 PM, first pitch at 7:05 PM. For the 2026 season opener and most weeknight and Friday games, the Sod Poodles hold to a 7:05 PM first pitch and 6:00 PM gates. Sunday home games shift to afternoon starts — typically 1:05 PM or 5:05 PM. Confirm your specific game time before locking in the Lubbock departure.
- Season runs April through September. HODGETOWN hosts 69 home games across that window. July and August games in West Texas mean genuine West Texas heat — the ballpark has no roof. Your bus's climate control on the I-27 drive there and back is not a minor perk in the middle of summer.
- Paid lots fill early on popular nights. The North Lot at 202 S. Lincoln (the biggest at 593 spaces) can be gone before first pitch on giveaway nights or marquee matchups. Street parking is free after 5 PM on weekdays but goes fast. If any portion of your group is driving separately and not on the bus, the card-only rule at team lots means no cash at the gate — plan accordingly.
- It's the highest-elevation Double-A park in the country. At approximately 3,600 feet, the altitude is genuinely noticeable in how the ball carries — a minor baseball detail that turns into good trivia for first-timers on the bus ride up.
A Few Things Worth Knowing About HODGETOWN Before You Get There
HODGETOWN was built for $45.5 million and opened April 8, 2019 — the inaugural game drew 7,175 fans to a 6,631-seat park, which tells you something about the pent-up demand. It was named in honor of Jerry Hodge, Amarillo's 26th mayor and a local pharmacist and businessman who was instrumental in bringing professional baseball back to the Panhandle. The stadium's Wikipedia entry has the full background, including the field dimensions: 325 feet down both lines and 400 feet to center.
The Amarillo Sod Poodles — the name is a West Texas term for prairie dog, which will feel obvious the second you drive the stretch between Lubbock and Amarillo — have been the Double-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks since 2020. The franchise won the Texas League championship in their 2019 debut season and again in 2023, and picked up the Minor League Baseball Organization of the Year Award that same year. On a practical level, that means any given Sod Poodles home game features genuine top Arizona prospects, which makes the game worth watching even if you don't know the roster.
The ballpark interior is worth noting for group trip planning: there's a large tiered picnic area in left field that's popular with organized groups, a grass berm along the right field fence for casual seating, a children's play space in right field that makes the venue practical for family groups, and Bar 352 positioned above the left field wall. The five private open-air field boxes behind home plate at field level are an option for corporate groups or special occasions — worth contacting the Sod Poodles' group sales team at milb.com/amarillo well ahead of your game date if that's on the table.
Frequently Asked Questions: Renting a Bus to HODGETOWN from Lubbock
Where exactly does a charter bus or party bus drop off at HODGETOWN?
Curbside on South Buchanan Street, at or near the main gate at the corner of Buchanan and S. 8th Street. HODGETOWN sits on a downtown city block with full street access, so there's no long staging road or single bus loop to navigate — your bus pulls up on Buchanan and the group walks directly to the home plate entrance. The third base gate on the north side (near the Embassy Suites at 600 S. Buchanan) is the other option, though that side sees heavier parking garage traffic on game nights.
How long is the drive from Lubbock to HODGETOWN?
About 121 miles on I-27 North, which runs approximately 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours under normal conditions. Construction is active in south Amarillo near McCormick Road — a widening project that closed the northbound McCormick Road exit and redirected traffic to FM 2219/Lair Road — so build in extra buffer time through that stretch. For a 7:05 PM first pitch, a Lubbock departure of 3:30–4:00 PM is usually comfortable.
If your group is doing dinner or a pre-game stop near the ballpark, push that to 3:00 PM.
How much does parking cost at HODGETOWN?
The Sod Poodles operate three team-controlled paid lots — the North Lot at 202 S. Lincoln Street (593 spaces), the Central Lot at 302 S. Grant Street (238 spaces), and the East Lot at 301 S. Grant Street (334 spaces) — all card-only, opening 90 minutes before first pitch. The City Hall Lot across from the third base gate is another team option. The parking garage at 600 S. Buchanan charges per vehicle.
All of these prices are subject to change — check the official Sod Poodles site at milb.com/amarillo for current game-day rates before your visit. Free street parking is available after 5:00 PM on weekdays and on weekends, but it goes fast on popular game nights. Vehicles displaying a valid handicap placard or plates park at no charge.
What bus size does a typical Lubbock Sod Poodles group need?
For most Lubbock fan groups, a 15–35 passenger minibus or a 25-passenger party bus hits the sweet spot. For larger organized outings — a company group, a large friend group, a multi-family road trip — a 40–56 passenger charter bus with an onboard restroom handles the two-hour I-27 run more comfortably. Call 806-300-8790 with your headcount and Partybuslubbock.com can match the right vehicle size.
When should a Lubbock group book a bus to HODGETOWN?
For a regular-season Sod Poodles game, two to four weeks of lead time is generally workable — but for popular promo nights (jersey giveaways, bobbleheads, fireworks finales) or high-demand summer weekend games, earlier is better. The season runs April through September with 69 home games. If your trip is tied to a specific promo night that you've already got tickets for, lock the bus in at the same time as the tickets.
That way the transportation is handled before either sells out of what you want.
What is the bag policy at HODGETOWN?
HODGETOWN enforces a clear bag policy: one clear plastic, vinyl, or PVC bag no larger than 12″ × 6″ × 12″, or a small crossbody bag. Diaper bags and medically necessary bags are allowed but will be searched and tagged at the gate. No opaque backpacks, large purses, or non-compliant bags.
Metal detectors are in place at all entry points as of 2025. Arrive a few minutes early on high-attendance nights to account for entry lines.
Book Your Lubbock Party Bus or Charter Bus to HODGETOWN
A Sod Poodles game at HODGETOWN is one of those nights that's genuinely better as a group — 6,631 seats close to the field, a ballpark designed for hanging out, and a 121-mile I-27 run that's a road trip in its own right when you're not the one watching the headlights. Partybuslubbock.com makes it easy to find and compare the right bus for your Lubbock group: fill out the quick online form or call 806-300-8790 any time, get a quote in under 30 seconds, no account required. The Sod Poodles play April through September. Summer weekends go fast.
If you've got a date on the schedule, get the bus sorted while the right vehicle is still available.
Also headed to other Amarillo-area destinations on the same trip? The Amarillo party bus page covers transportation to other Panhandle venues. And if you're planning Lubbock home games alongside the road trip, the Rip Griffin Park guide has the full drop-off and parking breakdown for the Hubbers' home field.
Call 806-300-8790 and get your group to HODGETOWN.
