With the end of the season this past Labor Day weekend, plenty of teams are reporting attendance records. Two of the more noteworthy: the new Richmond Flying Squirrels set a franchise record while pacing the Eastern League in attendance, and the Clearwater Threshers once agains set a season mark.
On Sunday night a sellout at The Diamond — some 9,560 fans — saw the Flying Squirrels prevailed in a brisk pitcher’s duel, 1-0, over the Bowie Baysox. The ninth sellout crowd of the season for Richmond allowed them to overtake Reading and claim the overall Eastern League attendance title, having drawn 457,273 with one date remaining. A crowd of 6,569 on Monday pushed those record totals to 463,842 for the season.
In Florida, for the fifth consecutive season the Clearwater Threshers (High Class A; Florida State League) established a new single season record for attendance with 172,726 fans coming through the gates at Bright House Field this year. The Threshers surpassed last season’s record setting mark of 169,559 on Saturday night when 5,080 fans saw the team take down the Brevard County Manatees 9-8 in extra innings.
“Once again I have to credit our fans here in the greater Clearwater area. They have really been supportive and continue to come out and support our team,” said Clearwater General Manager John Timberlake. “We appreciate them and I think it shows.” “I would be remiss if I didn’t give credit to our front office staff. They have worked incredibly hard this summer. To be able to set an attendance record, despite our weather this year, is pretty remarkable. They are a talented group of people.”
Clearwater has seen steady rise in attendance every season since 2005 and the franchise surpassed the 1,000,000 milestone on May 24. The total number of fans at Bright House Field since its opening in 2004 now stands at 1,101,876.
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