World Series 2026 hotel guide

How it ended: Brewers in five

The Series opened in Milwaukee on Friday, October 23, Brewers 3, Rays 2, and every game on the grid went at 7 p.m. local in Milwaukee, 8 p.m. ET on FOX. MLB’s posted start times were identical across all seven dates. The grid:

Game 1 went to Milwaukee 3-2 in front of 43,250, per MLB’s box score. Two in the first on Christian Yelich’s RBI triple and a William Contreras single, one for Tampa Bay in the fourth, one more for the Brewers on a Jackson Chourio single in the seventh, and a Rays run in the ninth that left them one short. No home runs. Jacob Misiorowski got the win with five innings of one-run ball, Nick Martinez took the loss on five innings and two runs, and Trevor Megill saved it. First pitch was 8:16 p.m. ET and the game ran 3 hours 9 minutes, so the last out landed at 11:25 ET, 10:25 local. World Series Game 2 on Saturday, October 24 went to Milwaukee 5-4 in front of 43,245, per MLB’s Stats API linescore and live feed. Tampa Bay scored four in the first. The Brewers got two back in the bottom half, added one in the fourth, tied it in the sixth and went ahead in the seventh. Hits were 11-7 Milwaukee, and Tyler Wells took the loss. First pitch was 8:09 p.m. ET and the game ran 3 hours 38 minutes, so the last out landed at 11:47 ET, 10:47 local. World Series Game 3 on Monday, October 26 went to Milwaukee 10-1 in front of 40,388 at Tropicana Field, per MLB’s box score. Nothing through two, two Brewers runs in the third, eight in the fifth, and a Rays run in the ninth that was the only thing Tampa Bay got all night. Hits were 16-3 Milwaukee, the Rays made the game’s only error, and nobody homered. Robert Gasser won it with six innings of one-hit shutout ball, Freddy Peralta took the loss, Jackson Chourio went 4-for-5 and Brice Turang drove in two. The game ran an even three hours from an 8 p.m. ET start, so the last out landed a little after 11. World Series Game 4 on Tuesday, October 27 went to Tampa Bay 4-3 in 12 innings in front of 40,514, per MLB’s live feed, 4 hours 20 minutes from an 8:08 p.m. ET first pitch, so the last play ended at 12:28 a.m. ET. Cooper Pratt homered in the top of the 12th to put Milwaukee up 3-2, Jonny DeLuca singled home Cedric Mullins to tie it, and Ben Williamson singled home Nick Fortes to end it. Ian Seymour got the win, Shane Drohan the loss.

World Series Game 5 on Wednesday, October 28 ended it, Brewers 4, Rays 1 in front of 40,489 at the Trop, per MLB’s live feed, 3 hours 5 minutes from an 8:08 p.m. ET first pitch, last play at 11:13 p.m. Cooper Pratt singled home Brice Turang in the second, David Hamilton singled home Pratt in the fifth, and the sixth put it away: William Contreras doubled in Christian Yelich, then Pratt’s sacrifice fly scored Contreras for 4-0. Chandler Simpson’s RBI double in the ninth, scoring Liam Hicks, was all Tampa Bay got. Jacob Misiorowski won it with 5 2/3 innings of two-hit shutout ball, Drew Rasmussen took the loss on four innings and one run, and Trevor Megill pitched the last two. Hits were 8-4 Milwaukee; the Brewers made both errors. Milwaukee wins the World Series 4-1, the first championship in franchise history. Halloween night in Milwaukee, the latest it could have gone, never came.

Nine innings from an 8 p.m. ET first pitch do not end in time for a same-night flight out of either city. Figure 11 p.m. on a normal night and past midnight on a long one. Every hotel decision on this page was built around that clock, and it holds for the next October.

Milwaukee, October 30 and 31: no game, and what is still on the calendar

The building. Lots open at 3 p.m. and gates at 4 p.m. local for a 7 p.m. first pitch, per the Brewers’ game-day guidance reported by WMTV and Yahoo Sports on October 22, and that was the plan posted for World Series Games 6 and 7 here before the Series ended in five. The roof was closed for Game 1, per MLB’s box score. Whether it opens is not the Brewers’ call in October: during the postseason the Commissioner’s Office makes the final decision after consulting the home club and the crew chief, per FOX6 on October 21, which is the detail to keep for the next October this building hosts.

Tailgating. Allowed in every lot except the employee and rideshare lots, ticketholders only. Gas or propane grills with a shut-off valve, or self-contained charcoal units. No open flames, no wood. It has to end 30 minutes after first pitch, and the lots close an hour after the final out. There are 16 lots and about 12,000 stalls, all read by license-plate recognition, so buy parking in advance or scan the QR code posted at the lot when you arrive.

Bags. Clear single-compartment bags up to 12 by 12 by 6 inches, non-clear bags up to 9 by 5 by 2, or a one-gallon clear resealable bag. Diaper bags up to 16 by 16 by 8.

Getting there without driving. Milwaukee has no train to the ballpark and no county bus that stops at it. The system is bar and hotel shuttles, and it is a real system: approved shuttles drop near the Home Plate Gate, more than 30 bars run them, and the American Family Field guide lists the operators with their departure and return timings, because they differ. If you are on the county bus, MCTS Route 18 serves 43rd and National, Route 74 runs 43rd Street and Miller Park Way, and the CONNECT bus rapid transit stops at 44th and Wisconsin. All three leave you a walk. Rideshare pickup after the game is the designated lot at the south end of the Molitor Lot, and the surge after a World Series game in a city this size is the reason the shuttle bars exist. The Hank Aaron State Trail reaches the park on a bike, and there is a 23-dock Bublr station near the Gantner Lot.

The road. I-94 East-West is torn up between 16th and 70th Streets, which includes the Stadium Interchange. WMTV reports the General Mitchell Boulevard ramps are open on game days. Leave downtown earlier than the drive time suggests.

Friday, October 23, for the record. The Bucks opened their home season against the Bulls at Fiserv Forum at 3 p.m., the tip the club moved off 7 p.m. so the arena emptied before first pitch in the valley, and both ran as posted. Saturday had no second crowd: the Bucks were in Philadelphia for World Series Game 2, so the shuttle bars on Old World Third Street were baseball-only.

Rooms for the 30th and 31st. Neither night has a World Series game on it. Milwaukee closed the Series in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, October 28, so the Games 6 and 7 holds this page told you to carry on 24-hour and day-of terms are holds on no game. The Friday has something else on it now: the championship parade, and as of Thursday evening the Brewers and the city have posted the whole of it. The Parade of Champions steps off at 10 a.m. at Vel R. Phillips and Wisconsin avenues, goes east on Wisconsin, north on Jefferson, east on Mason with a detour past the Bob Uecker mural at Jackson, south on Jackson and east on Chicago, and finishes at Henry Maier Festival Park, the Summerfest grounds. The rally there is free and first-come, first-served until the grounds fill, gates at 8 a.m., programming to 3 p.m.; the amphitheater show itself was ticketed and sold out by Thursday afternoon, with the stage feed on screens around the grounds instead. At least 400,000 people are expected, close to two-thirds of the city’s population. Road closures start at 7 a.m. and run to roughly 1 p.m., one block either side of the route, with the Wisconsin Avenue bridge shut outright and tow trucks working the no-parking signs. That 10 a.m. clock changes the room answer this page carried all week. A parade that is over before lunch is a Thursday-night room, not a Friday-night one: a Friday, October 30 check-in does not get you a key until mid-afternoon, by which time the parade and the rally are both finished. So if the parade is the trip and you took a downtown or Third Ward room for Thursday night, the 29th, you are set and the route is a walk. If you didn’t, do not book Friday night to see it. Drive in and use the park-and-ride the Brewers set up: parking is free at American Family Field, the shuttle is $5 a person for the Brewers Community Foundation, buses roll from 7 a.m. with the last departure at 11:30 a.m., returns provided, and they ask you there 30 minutes before your slot. A Friday night downtown room still earns its keep for one thing, which is not driving back across Wisconsin after a day on your feet, but park it outside the closure box, not on the route. If the game was the trip and the parade is not, cancel. The release wave this page described has happened, and every Milwaukee room held against a Game 6 or 7 went back into inventory on Wednesday night; and with the parade turning out to be a 10 a.m. event, the night that absorbed the parade demand was Thursday’s, not Friday’s: most of the Wisconsin crowd drives in for the morning rather than sleeping downtown on Friday night. What the weekend still has beyond the parade: GalaxyCon Milwaukee is listed at the Baird Center for October 30 through November 1 per the ticketing pages, with one aggregator still carrying a cancelled flag while tickets sell, so treat it as listed rather than certain; the Bucks host the Cavaliers at Fiserv Forum on Saturday the 31st, a 7 p.m. tip per the NBA’s game page and the AXS listing; and Halloween Saturday nightlife downtown. None of that is World Series demand. For a trip that is going ahead anyway, the one near-walk hotel, the Fairfield Inn & Suites on National Avenue about 1.1 miles from the gate, is the first thing to go in any Brewers playoff round, and the ring that works when downtown and the Third Ward are closed out is Wauwatosa, directly north of the park and home to the densest shuttle corridor in baseball along Bluemound Road, and the Mitchell airport strip 15 minutes south. Bay View is the rental neighborhood on that side. The Packers beat Carolina 27-19 at Lambeau on Thursday, October 29, 117 miles north, which took Wisconsin’s Thursday-night room demand to Green Bay rather than here.

Game 5, for the record

The Rays stayed alive on Tuesday, October 27, 4-3 in 12 innings, Seymour over Drohan, and the Brewers finished it the next night: World Series Game 5 on Wednesday, October 28 at the Trop, 8 p.m. ET on FOX, Brewers 4, Rays 1, Misiorowski over Rasmussen, and catcher William Contreras was named Series MVP. The ALCS lost its off day to a rainout and both clubs flew into that clincher on the morning of the game; the World Series gave Sunday back, and both clubs had been in Florida since Game 3. The last out landed at 11:13 p.m. ET, which is the clock to remember for this building: a nine-inning 8 p.m. game here puts you on Central Avenue a little after 11 on a weeknight, the same hour Ferg’s locks its door.

St. Petersburg: how the Trop ran its three World Series nights

Parking. Prepaid only, for every World Series game at the Trop, per the Tampa Bay Times and Visit St. Pete/Clearwater on October 21. Lots opened five hours before first pitch, 3 p.m. ET, and gates three hours before, 5 p.m. No pass meant a downtown garage and the shuttle, which was the better plan anyway.

The Baseball Shuttle. It is free and most visitors never find it. It boards on Second Street South between Central Avenue and First Avenue South, under the pedestrian bridge between the office tower and the garage, and drops on 16th Street just south of Third Avenue South at the ballpark. Through the playoffs it ran about every five minutes with buses and trolleys sharing the route, and the city said on October 21 it would start an hour earlier than usual for the Series. It runs until an hour after the final out, which matters, because the regular downtown Looper stops at 10 p.m. and an 8 p.m. game ends around 11. Miss the last shuttle and you are walking Central Avenue or paying surge. The Tropicana Field guide has the full route.

SunRunner. PSTA’s bus rapid transit from St. Pete Beach stops near the Trop, and more buses were added for the Series. It is the reason a beach room is a workable overflow option on a weeknight; the Tropicana guide has the late-night headways, which are the thing to read before you commit to a weeknight from the beach.

Bags. Clear only. One transparent single-compartment bag no larger than 12 by 12 by 6 inches, plus a non-clear clutch no larger than 5 by 7. No backpacks at any size, no hard-sided bags, exceptions for diaper bags with a child present and medical bags. The policy carried through the postseason per the Rays’ own October release.

Rooms. The Edge District and the west half of Central Avenue walk to the gates and they went first: the Moxy is a few hundred yards out, Tru by Hilton about 0.4 miles. The Beach Drive waterfront is about 1.2 miles, a walk on a warm night or a shuttle ride. If downtown St. Pete priced past you, the beach hotels on the SunRunner line were the overflow that still got you home without a car. Tampa did not: there is no late transit across the bay, so a Tampa room meant driving both ways, the second one after midnight. All three Florida dates were weeknights, which thinned the crowd a little and the hotel inventory not at all.

The if-needed nights, graded

Two of the three dates left after Game 4 were never played, which is the outcome this page priced for. The grade:

• Wednesday, October 28 in St. Petersburg. World Series Game 5 was certain the moment the Rays won Game 4, so it was the one night to buy outright, on an ordinary refundable rate. It was played, and it ended the Series.
• Friday, October 30 and Saturday, October 31 in Milwaukee. World Series Game 6 needed the Rays to win Game 5, and they lost it 4-1, so neither game was played. A 24-hour cutoff on the 30th closes Thursday afternoon, after the result, which is why this page said 24-hour terms on the Friday and day-of on the Saturday. A 48-hour window on the Friday closed Wednesday afternoon, before first pitch, and that is the rate that got burned.
• The release wave. The hour the Series ended, every Milwaukee room held for October 30 and 31 dumped back into inventory, and the parade announcement landed on it within hours, but on the Thursday night, once the 10 a.m. step-off was posted, rather than on the Friday the dead Game 6 had been holding. If you want Milwaukee on Halloween weekend for its own sake, that is the inventory you are shopping, against Friday’s parade, GalaxyCon and a Bucks game rather than a World Series.

Put every cutoff in your phone the day you book. The free-cancellation cutoff guide covers the fine print.

On rentals. A whole-home rental in Walker’s Point or Bay View, or on the St. Pete side of Central Avenue, is often the only way for four or more people to stay inside the walk or the shuttle radius, and for a certain night like the 28th was, it was worth pricing all-in against two compressed hotel rooms. It was the wrong instrument for the two if-needed nights, and the result showed why: rental refund windows run weeks, not hours, and the cleaning fee does not prorate when the game you booked for never happens. Airbnb pays us nothing and we will still name it, because its Flexible tier, cancellable to 24 hours before check-in, was the one rental term that would have cleared a Game 6 night.

What these rooms cost and why

Two small markets, no big-metro half to absorb anything. The receipts from recent Series cities explain the number on your screen. When Toronto hosted last October, CP24 priced ordinary downtown hotels during Series week at CA$1,133 at the Sheraton Centre, CA$1,151 at the Ace and CA$1,593 at the Hyatt Regency, and a stadium-view king inside Rogers Centre at CA$8,759 against CA$310 a month later. When Arlington hosted Games 1 and 2 in 2023, WFAA found Live! by Loews, the hotel next to the ballpark, at up to $2,089 a night, with a Sheraton around $500 and a Holiday Inn around $400 nearby. Phoenix, the other half of that Series, was the counterexample: Cronkite News sampled downtown at $356 to $600 because deep inventory absorbs a Series. Milwaukee and St. Petersburg are Arlington’s shape, not Phoenix’s. Revenue managers, the people who set hotel rates, had a confirmed compression night on the calendar from the pennants on, which is why the discount tiers closed and minimum-stay fences showed up on the opener nights. The downtown-versus-airport math is how you decide whether to pay it.

How it got here, for the record

Milwaukee finished 103-59, the first 100-win season in franchise history, and swept the Dodgers in the NLCS, closing it 6-4 at Dodger Stadium on Thursday, October 15. It was the club’s first National League pennant; the only previous Series was 1982, as an American League team, and the title is the first in franchise history. Tampa Bay finished 98-64 and beat Cleveland 7-3 at Tropicana Field on Monday, October 19 to win the ALCS 4-2, after a Friday rainout in Cleveland pushed ALCS Game 4 to Saturday the 17th. The better record hosts Games 1, 2, 6 and 7 in the 2-3-2 format, so the Series opened in Milwaukee and the middle three were at the Trop, and the last two were never needed. Neither club had won a World Series before this one. The who-hosts breakdown has the whole bracket, and the postseason booking playbook is the strategy for next year’s version of this, which starts in August.

Guide updated 2026-10-30