Cactus League attendance tops 1.7 million
Apr 5, 2012, 10:51 PM | Updated: 11:54 pm
It was yet another record-setting year in Arizona’s Cactus League.
In 2012, 1,712,042 fans made their way to ballparks across the Valley to catch some of Major League’s Baseball’s best, topping 2011’s record by 7.3 percent.
In total, an average of 7,444 people made it to each of the 230 Spring Training games that took place in Arizona this year.
“Arizona shined this March. The weather played a huge role in attendance this year and the increases in fan attendance tracked early in the month were remarkable,” said Cactus League President Brad Curtis in a press release. “The fans really responded to the game’s heavy hitters helping more teams set all-time firsts for their stadiums.”
The hometown Arizona Diamondbacks retained the title of most-watched team, with an overall attendance of 186,828. They were followed by the Colorado Rockies, San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs.
The team with the biggest increase in attendance was the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, who saw a 47 percent increase thanks to the offseason signing of slugger Albert Pujols.
2012 also saw the biggest crowd at a Spring Training game ever, when 13,655 fans piled into Camelback Ranch in Glendale to watch the Giants take on the Los Angeles Dodgers.