Parking app competition heats up for Orioles Opening Day

Along with a big party, Opening Day often brings the chance to test a new way of approaching the game. Just like the players on the diamond, baseball fans are always presented with new options as they seek efficiencies that will allow them to stay at the top over the long season.
As the countdown to the April 10 home opener at Camden Yards winds down, fans are hearing about new vegan food options inside the stadium. And to navigate the area outside the ballpark, they’ll likely begin hearing about a new way to find parking, too.
SpotHero, which allows drivers to prepay for event parking in garages and lots through its app, is timing its Baltimore launch around the beginning of the baseball season. Baltimore is the Chicago-based company’s twelfth market.
Several parking facilities around Camden Yards will be among the 41 parking facilities where the app has available spots. The app features a searchable page dedicated to baseball games, which shows available parking and prices. Ditto for attractions like the National Aquarium and the Walters Art Museum.
The model may sound familiar to O’s fans. Baltimore-born Parking Panda also has an app that identifies parking spots, and is available in more than 40 cities. The Federal Hill-based company also has an official partnership with MLB.com and the Orioles that allows fans to view parking spots on a dedicated O’s page.
“Furthermore, Parking Panda boasts hundreds of partnerships with professional sports teams and sports venues across the nation, including the following MLB teams: Tampa Bay Rays, Cleveland Indians, Houston Astros and Pittsburgh Pirates,” Parking Panda VP of Marketing Mark McTamney said in a statement.
Parking Panda has a similar partnership for spots near Amtrak stations, and just announced a new deal with Megabus last week.
As fans clamor for competition on the baseball diamond, competition among parking apps should yield better options for fans. So let’s compare for Opening Day:
SpotHero has 29 spots available within a mile of Camden Yards, as of 12 p.m. on March 30:

 
Perhaps owing to the fact that it’s already established, Parking Panda shows some spots have already sold out. But baseball is a marathon, not a sprint, folks: As of today at noon, the defending champ still shows 30 spots available within a mile.