Pre-Memorial Day crowds a sign of special summer to come at Citizens Bank Park
Memorial Day weekend is the first unofficial checkpoint of the baseball calendar. So far, things are looking great for the Phillies, who are 38-15 and hold the best record in baseball.
They are away in Colorado as most of the area migrates to the Jersey Shore for the holiday weekend, but the town is still buzzing about the local baseball team.
Fans are responding by packing the ballpark in ways we haven’t seen since 2007-2012.
Through 30 home games, the Phillies have drawn a crowd of over 40,000 15 times. They are second behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in overall attendance at 1,171,863.
Of the eight games during the most recent 7-1 homestand, four were sellouts and five drew crowds of over 40,000.
What really opened eyes were the crowds on hand for the first and last games of the Tuesday to Thursday series against the Texas Rangers. The opener drew 41,083 fans and the afternoon finale was a sellout at 42,377.
“You can’t ask for anything more,” Kyle Schwarber said. “We’ve always talked about it. We feed off the energy in the crowd. I don’t think it’s a shock that you see how well we’re performing.”
“We applaud them for that because they make us that much better,” Bryce Harper said. “Each team that comes in here and plays against us, they know we have a fanbase on our side. It’s just a lot of fun. That’s what we signed up for. They show up, man. It just makes you happy. Makes you smile.”
What’s behind the bigger crowds at Citizens Bank Park? The better weather and first place in the NL East place are fueling the good vibes, but it’s more of a culmination of the growing bond between the city and its players over the last few seasons.
In 2022, the Phillies season ticket base, according to Phillies senior vice president of ticket operations John Weber, was over 10,000. The number grew to 15,700 in 2023 and has reached 20,000 in 2024. That number will likely grow as the team resumes season ticket sales in August for the 2025 season.
The crowds should only grow bigger as the calendar turns to June. The team has 15 home games next month and expects the majority of them to have crowds over 40,000.
June, where the Phillies are 21 games over .500 in each of the last two seasons, will likely signal the peak of the summer fun as the number of home games are more limited in July and August.
From July 1 through the end of the regular season , the Phillies play at home only 34 times compared to 44 times on the road. The expectation is that nearly all games in July and August will have crowds over 40,000 and that ticket inventory will be limited. If there’s a specific game you’re eying now, it’s better to act now than later.
“I encourage our fans to plan a little more ahead,” Weber said.
Nothing is guaranteed, but heading into play Sunday, the Phillies have a seven-game lead over the Braves in the National League East and are 11 games clear of a postseason berth. Barring a 1964-esque collapse, the Phillies are likely to be in the postseason for a third straight season.
With that comes a fight for a seat to be in the ballpark for Red October. Tickets were easier to obtain in 2022 when the season ticket base was lower and the hopes for a long playoff run after a decade-long drought weren’t as high.
Fast forward nearly two years later and Phillies postseason tickets will soon again become the hottest ticket in town. The downside of a larger season ticket base is that the supply of postseason tickets available to fans without a plan will be smaller.
“With our season ticket base growing to 20,000, they’re going to take the majority of the postseason tickets,” Weber said. “That’s one of the key advantages to having season tickets is postseason access. There’s going to be limited – very limited – availability beyond tickets to your season ticket holders for the 2024 postseason.”
The franchise enjoyed a special streak that will likely never be replicated again from 2009 to 2012, when the team sold out 257-consecutive regular season home games at Citizens Bank Park. The record is a testament to just how strong the bond was between the fans and the star-studded homegrown core featuring Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard and Cole Hamels. Players such as Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee joined later via trade and free agency and went on to become two of the more beloved players in franchise history.
The current group will likely never post the same numbers at the box office or capture the hearts of Philadelphia fans the way the 2007-2011 teams did, but that shouldn’t take away from what the 2024 team has a chance of accomplishing this season.
The team sold over three million tickets in 2023 for the first time since 2013. A first-place team and a real division race for the first time since 2011 is the setup for an epic summer at Citizens Bank Park.
“Having 40,000 there on a Tuesday night, they recognize that,” Weber said. “They recognize hard-working people coming out, spending their money, supporting them. I know they appreciate it and they marvel at it to see that many people at our ballpark.”
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