If you're running a small business that serves Publix Sports Park in Panama City Beach, your vehicle does triple duty as storefront, warehouse, and crew shuttle all at once. A used minivan or three-row SUV covers all three jobs without wrecking your budget, as long as you pick the right one for what tournament weekends actually demand. We'll walk you through how we see it from the lot.
August in Bay County is no joke. A capable used minivan can mean the difference between a profitable event weekend and a crew that's too beaten down by heat to function.
What's the Plan at a Glance?
| Stop / Task | What You're Doing | Best Time | Parking Reality |
|---|---|---|---|
| Load at your home base | Pack coolers, gear, signage | Before 7 a.m. | Your driveway |
| Drive to Publix Sports Park (50 Chip Seal Pkwy, PCB) | 25-35 min from central Panama City via US-98 W | Beat the first wave of teams | 1,000+ spots on-site; arrive early for shade |
| Set up your operation | Unload flat, organized cargo | First 30 min on-site | Pull-through row preferred |
| Serve through peak hours | Run concessions, photography, coaching support | 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. | Vehicle stays parked; interior becomes a break room |
| Reload and head home | Repack in failing afternoon light | After last game | Same lot; temps still above 85 degrees F |
Publix Sports Park: What Your Vehicle Is Walking Into
The complex spreads across 200 acres just north of Highway 98 in Panama City Beach, and it hosts soccer, lacrosse, football, baseball, and softball events year-round. Scale like that matters for anyone running a service business out there. Twelve AstroTurf fields plus natural grass, seven batting cages, three concession stands, and more than 1,000 parking spots mean that on a busy tournament weekend, you're operating alongside hundreds of family vehicles in a wide-open asphalt lot under a Gulf Coast sun.
A used Ford Explorer earns its spot here on cargo flexibility. Fold down the second and third rows and you open a genuine flat loading surface, and the Explorer's rated tow capacity on properly equipped models reaches 5,600 pounds, which matters if you pull a small trailer loaded with tables, generators, or photography rigs. What it doesn't do as well is seat eight without squeezing cargo space. If you're hauling a crew of six plus gear, you'll feel that tension by the second stop.
Why Minivans Are Doing Real Work at Sports Venues
The used Honda Odyssey fits this specific situation about as cleanly as anything we stock, seating up to eight passengers and offering 32.8 cubic feet of cargo space behind the third row, with room that climbs to 140.7 cubic feet once you fold all the seats. EPA rates the Odyssey's 3.5-liter V6 at 19 city / 28 highway mpg, so the US-98 run from Panama City to the park won't punish your fuel budget. The honest downside is the Magic Slide second-row seats, which reposition but don't fold flat into the floor. If you need a completely flat cargo surface from the driver's seat to the rear gate, the Pacifica wins that contest.
Which brings us to the Pacifica. A used Chrysler Pacifica's Stow 'n Go system folds both the second and third rows directly into the floor, giving you 140.5 cubic feet of flat, obstacle-free space. Load a folding table across the full length of the van floor and you'll see the appeal. No competitor has matched that feature in more than two decades. The Pacifica's 3.6-liter V6 produces 287 horsepower and matches the Odyssey's EPA fuel economy figures at 19 city / 28 highway mpg. Its real limitation on a used lot is model-year related (earlier years carry documented complaints around electrical components), so run a NHTSA recall check on any used Pacifica you're considering. It's worth three minutes.
A few things matter most for a business serving a multi-field, all-day outdoor event:
- Cargo floor: Flat and wide enough to slide gear in organized, not stack it like Jenga
- Sliding doors: Quicker and safer to open in a tight parking row than swinging doors
- Rear A/C: Keeps the back of the vehicle livable when your crew takes a break between shifts
- Tow capacity (if relevant): Any of these at a properly equipped trim can handle a small utility trailer
- Fuel economy: The US-98 corridor is stop-and-go during peak tournament drop-off
Matching the Right Vehicle to Your Business Type
The Park draws all kinds of service operators, and what you haul determines what you drive, so it's worth matching the segment to the actual work before a spec sheet talks you into the wrong thing.
Browse our used inventory to see what's on the lot, but here's how we'd match segment to business type:
Concession or catering operator: The Chrysler Pacifica or Honda Odyssey handles the full-crew-plus-coolers scenario. Sliding doors are genuinely useful when you're working in a parking lot and cars are tight on both sides.
Sports photographer or videographer: The used Ford Explorer's flat cargo area and towing capability cover you if you're pulling a trailer with backdrops and lighting. Go with a model year from 2020 onward to get the third-generation platform's improved rear liftgate clearance.
Coach, trainer, or skills clinic operator: If you're moving a small group of athletes and their gear between fields or back to hotels on US-98, the Odyssey's eight-passenger seating keeps everyone together without a second vehicle.
Event setup / breakdown crew: The Pacifica's Stow 'n Go makes loading and unloading quick enough that you'll run two trips in the time it takes a less efficient cargo layout to manage one.
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Getting There, and Getting the Most Out of the Day
Publix Sports Park sits on 50 Chip Seal Parkway in Panama City Beach, directly accessible via Highway 98. From Bay Cars at 615 W. 15th St. in Panama City, you're looking at roughly 30 minutes in normal traffic heading west on US-98. Tournament weekends bring real congestion into the beach corridor, especially Saturday mornings.
A used full-size SUV is worth mentioning here if your business runs a larger crew or you're regularly pulling a heavier trailer. It seats up to eight passengers with genuine full-size interior dimensions, and properly equipped models carry a significantly higher tow rating than the minivan segment. The tradeoff is fuel economy and parking ease in a busy sports complex lot. The full-size SUV is the right call when the load demands it and the wrong call when you're threading between minivans for a tight spot at 7:30 a.m.
Right now the used market has solid inventory in the 2019-2023 range across all three segments, a genuine sweet spot of modern safety tech, working rear climate zones, and used-vehicle value. Any of them will do the job at Publix Sports Park. The question becomes which job you're showing up to do.