Saturday, March 27, 2010

1 million strong, and growing

I saw this news release in the local paper here in Port St. Lucie.
TALLAHASSEE — With a slate of eight games on Thursday, March 25, Florida Spring Training Baseball surpassed one million total attendance and now stands at 1,035,944 through 158 games for an average of 6,557 per game. The total represents only games played between Major League teams in the State of Florida.

A total of nine days and 60 games remain in the 2010 Florida Spring Training season. There have been 15 games cancelled due to rain this season, the most since 2005 when 24 games were cancelled due to weather.

The current per game average of 6,557 fans is the highest among records kept going back to the 1999 season and represents an eight percent increase over the 2009 per game average. The highest per game average attendance on record is 6,478 in 259 games of the 2008 season.

The New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies have already topped the 100,000 total attendance mark. The Yankees have five games remaining on their schedule at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa while the Phillies have four games left at Bright House Field in Clearwater.

Five teams have drawn more than 70,000 fans and have a chance at reaching the 100,000 mark. The Boston Red Sox at City of Palms Park and Minnesota Twins at Hammond Stadium, both in Fort Myers and the Detroit Tigers at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland have topped 80,000 total attendance. The Atlanta Braves at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex and St. Louis Cardinals at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, have both topped 70,000 total attendance.

For daily scores and attendance figures from Florida Spring Training Baseball games, please visit http://www.floridagrapefruitleague.com/Master_Schedule.html.

The 2010 Florida Spring Training season began on March 2 and concludes Saturday, April 3. An economic impact survey conducted during the 2009 season showed a $752 million economic impact to the State of Florida.
My count has the Mets totalling 60,031 total fans, breaking the 60,000 mark today, and an average of almost 5,0003 fans per game for the first 12 games. I account for 3 of those 60K+ fans.


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