Attendance Geek here again…with numbers from the 2007 Cactus League season from this morning’s Arizona Republic:
| Team | G | Total | Average |
| Chicago Cubs (Mesa) | 16 | 175,891 | 10,993 |
| San Francisco (Scottsdale) | 14 | 148,988 | 10,642 |
| Seattle (Peoria) | 16 | 126,137 | 7,884 |
| San Diego (Peoria) | 14 | 100,061 | 7,147 |
| Los Angeles Angels (Tempe) | 15 | 105,869 | 7,058 |
| Oakland (Phoenix) | 14 | 95,058 | 6,790 |
| Arizona (Tucson) | 14 | 94,291 | 6,735 |
| Texas (Surprise) | 14 | 86,864 | 6,205 |
| Chicago White Sox (Tucson) | 15 | 86,397 | 5,760 |
| Kansas City (Surprise) | 14 | 78,747 | 5,625 |
| Milwaukee (Maryvale) | 14 | 61,888 | 4,421 |
| Colorado (Tucson) | 15 | 57,359 | 3,824 |
| CACTUS LEAGUE | 175 | 1,217,550 | 6,957 |
I have tickets to three Cubs games at HoHoKam Park (and to another in Peoria), and definitely plan to check out the Padres, Mariners and Brewers, who all train near me. It’s amazing how much of a big business Spring Training has become over the years.
My friends and I used to go to games at Al Lopez Field in Tampa back in the day and it was nothing like it is today. Al Lopez was one of those old-time, utilitarian ballparks (it had been built in the mid-1950s, so it was already old by the time we started going there), but it was the site of a lot of memories. I hopped over the railing from a first-row seat next to the dugout to wrestle a foul ball away from a ballboy (I still have the ball, which came off the bat of Dave Concepcion) in 1983. My best friend and I saw the Ft. Lauderdale Yankees beat the Tampa Tarpons in the 1982 Florida State League championship there. (I snagged George Steinbrenner‘s autograph that night, and still have that.)
I’d be amazed if Spring Training games back in dinosaur days drew more than a few thousand folks, on average.
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