If you can, buy seats very far in advance and stick to anything behind home plate.

Typically, if there is a night game (i.e., 7 pm), the gates at Camelback Ranch to see the Dodgers practice will not open until 2:30-3:00 pm. This is different from the typical 9:00 am opening when the Dodgers have an afternoon game either home or away. Notice my use of "typically". It seems like they can and do make daily decisions depending on their own needs and desires and that information seems to be unknown to the general public. In fact, at one night game a week or so back when we arrived at the gate in the morning... even the security person at the gate said that they had just been notified a short time earlier of the gate open times. So, I think the answer is YGIAGAM (your guess is as good as mine).

No. The fan shop is only accessible inside the stadium.

Seats in the shade The Achilles’ heel of Camelback Ranch is that it was built facing the southeast. That orientation is the opposite of every other ballpark in Arizona. What that means in Glendale is that the sun is always beating down on you, instead of retreating behind the grandstand as the game progresses like it does at other Cactus League parks. So you definitely need sunscreen. If you forget to bring some, mini SPF 30 bottles are sold inexpensively in the gift shops. Although almost no seats are in the shade, there are a smattering that are. At the usual 1:05 p.m. game starting time consider yourself lucky to be in the last few rows of sections beneath the press box and upper level party deck. Specifically, rows 16 & up in sections 110-113 and rows 20 & up in sections 114-117. Additionally, the last two rows (21-22) in sections 119, 120 and 122, which are beneath the stadium's suites, are shaded throughout the game. By 2:30, more seats in sections 110-115 enjoy shade and by 3:00 all seats in sections 111-114 are shaded. If you really want to be out of the sun, join the throng standing on the concourse above sections 110-122, where cover is provided by the press box and suites. And if you want to pay a little extra for a lot of shade, the upper level party deck, called the Legends Deck, is the only fully covered and shaded section in Camelback Ranch. Located along the first baseline, the Legends Deck is open to the regular seat buying public, except for games when groups rent out the roomy area, which can hold 100 and has stadium and bar chair-style seating plus unmatched views of the field and the scenery beyond it.

There are tables & seats under a covered area right at the start of the trail, also a bbq