Want to take a boat to Arizona State football games? Now you can

Arizona State football fans have a new way to travel to Mountain America Stadium.

Water taxi, anyone?

The new game day service on Tempe Town Lake is made possible through a partnership among Hundred Mile Brewing, Boat Rentals of America and the City of Tempe. It allows fans to avoid traffic and experience something that not many other college football fans get to do.

The boats launch just a three-to-five-minute walk from Hundred Mile Brewing and take passengers from the north side to the south side of the lake. After drop-off, it’s another short walk to the stadium. Tickets are $10 one way or $15 for a round trip. Discount packages are also available: two round trips for $25 or four for $45.

Two boats are in operation, each holding 11 passengers plus the driver. On game days, rides are available starting two hours before the game through kickoff, then again from halftime until an hour after the end of the game. Parking isn’t included in the ticket price, but fans can use the Watermark parking garage near the brewery for just $5, a fraction of the price that many other lots charge.

Tim Gomez, longtime fan and ASU alumnus, welcomes the new option.

“It would be the top way to get to the game,” he said. “Hanging out at a brewery, walking with a bunch of fans to go on a boat to cross a lake in the middle of a desert to go see ASU football play in a sold-out stadium. I honestly don’t think it can get any better than that. That’s got to be the best way to get there outside of maybe a helicopter dropping you in.”

Gomez was among the first to try this new game day experience during the test run. Known for his LEGO creations, he made sure to bring his handheld pitchfork made entirely out of yellow and maroon LEGO pieces, showcasing his love for ASU and the popular building brick company.

Brooke Thul, Boat Rentals of America manager and one of the drivers on game day, said fans immediately embraced the new concept.

“We had a super super good first day of this,” she said. “We were completely sold out and ended up even going over what we were originally planning on selling just because we had the room on the boats. It was a successful first game and I’m hoping that trend continues throughout the rest of the home games this season.”

The idea itself came from Sue Rigler, owner of Hundred Mile Brewing. A proud ASU alumnus and Tempe’s 2025 Business Woman of the Year, she helped spearhead the project as another way to support the Sun Devils community. The brewery, which also won Tempe’s 2024 Small Business of the Year award, has quickly become a central part of the ASU football pregame tradition. Rigler is not the only ASU graduate at Hundred Mile. Many others work there including marketing manager Olivia Sopko.

Sopko said Rigler’s vision reflects both her passion for ASU as well as the Tempe community.

“Sue is an ASU alum and she’s very proud of it so any time we get the chance to offer anything that supports ASU we definitely are on top of it and want to do it,” Sopko said. “The city has been looking into something like this for a while, just because the parking over there tends to be a lot so adding another option for people was a definite yes for us.”

Parking aside, Sopko also believes the water taxi has brought back some of the missing energy around game day.

“I’ve heard that everyone loves it,” she said. “It kind of gets you into that tailgating spirit which we have been lacking at ASU the last few years, I would say. So just adding that atmosphere and excitement back I think is going to bring more people to the game.”

For now, the game day boats offer fans a break from traffic and a new way to get into the game day spirit. If it sticks, the ride across the lake could become another important part of what it means to spend a Saturday rooting for ASU football.