Record crowds in Albuquerque and Winston-Salem, a record-setting homestand in Colorado Springs, over 6,000 fans braving the cresting Mississippi River in Davenport, and sellouts in Omaha, Richmond and Birmingham were among the attendance highlights on the Fourth of July.
Really, there’s nothing more American than a night at the ballpark, followed by fireworks. (We spent our Fourth of July watching a lovely doubleheader at Warner Park, watching Northwoods League games between the Madison Mallards and Battle Creek Bombers.) Here are some attendance highlights:
- The Albuquerque Isotopes (Class AAA; Pacific Coast League) set an attendance record at Isotopes Park: the crowd of 16,348 broke the previous record of 16,229, set on July 4, 2013. It was the third crowd of 16,000-plus at The Lab in the ballpark’s history.
- A record BB&T Ballpark crowd of 8,184 was on hand to see the Winston-Salem Dash (High Class A; Carolina League) host the Wilmington Blue Rocks. Friday night’s crowd surpassed the previous record of 7,576, set last year in an Independence Day meeting with Myrtle Beach.
- The Omaha Storm Chasers (Class AAA; Pacific Coast League) drew a sellout crowd of 9,023 to see the team drop a game to Colorado Spring Sky Sox. It was the first sellout of the season for the Storm Chasers.
- A capacity Fourth of July crowd of 8,500 watched as Birmingham Barons (Class AA; Southern League) shut out the division-leading Tennessee Smokies 6-0 Friday night at Regions Field.
- The Charlotte Knights (Class AAA; International League) sold out BB&T Ballpark.
- A sellout crowd of 14,303 saw the Indianapolis Indians (Class AAA; International League) take on the Louisville Bats at Victory Field.
- A sellout crowd of 9,560 showed up at The Diamond to see the Richmond Flying Squirrels (Class AA; Eastern League) sweep the Reading Fightin Phils in a doubleheader.
- A sellout crowd of 8,198 was at Canal Park to see the Akron RubberDucks (Class AA; Eastern League) host the Erie SeaWolves.
- Despite the Mississippi River cresting earlier in the day, a very robust crowd of 6,371 turned out to Modern Woodmen Park to see the Quad Cities River Bandits (Low Class A; Midwest League) in action.
- A great crowd of 11,409 fans was at Cooley Law School Stadium to see the Lansing Lugnuts (Low Class A; Midwest League) tangle with the Great Lakes Loons in a game that went 14 innings.
- The Long Island Ducks (independent; Atlantic League) were over official capacity with a crowd of 7,075 at Bethpage Ballpark in the opener of a three-game series.
- Before a very robust crowd of 7,178 at Boomers Stadium, the Schaumburg Boomers, (independent; Frontier League) rallied to a 6-4 win over the Normal CornBelters.
- The Altoona Curve (Class AA; Eastern League) drew the sixth-largest regular-season crowd in team history when 8,845 fans came out to Peoples Natural Gas Field.
- The Martinsville Mustangs (summer collegiate; Coastal Plain League) set a franchise record with an over-capacity sellout crowd of 3,887 fans at Hooker Field.
- The standing-room-only crowd of 8,296 at Dozer Park to see the Peoria Chiefs (Low Class A; Midwest League) host the Burlington Bees was the seventh-largest crowd in the ballpark’s history.
Finally: this isn’t necessarily a Fourth of July story, but it’s still a great attendance tale. After selling out for the fourth time this season on Thursday night, the Colorado Springs Sky Sox (Class AAA; Pacific Coast League) officially set a new eight-day home stand attendance record with 51,919 spectators. The previous record, which was set from August 27-September 3, 2012, drew 47,610 fans to Security Service Field, but that record was broken Thursday as 8,813 fans were in attendance for the annual Independence Day celebration — the second largest crowd of the season.
The Sky Sox also set new three-day and four-day attendance records during the first series of the homestand against the Iowa Cubs with 24,513 fans during the first three games and 29,816 for the entire four-day series. The previous records were set during the final series of the 2012 season against Las Vegas.
“We are humbled and grateful for the continued support from our fantastic fans,” said Sky Sox President and General Manager Tony Ensor. “Our goal is to provide the absolute best in affordable family entertainment to the Colorado Springs community and we very much appreciate the ongoing response to these efforts.”
Over the past six years, the Sky Sox have made significant strides throughout the community as well as within the organization. The Sky Sox drew their six millionth fan to a regular season game during the 2012 season, while 2013 marked the fifth straight year the Sky Sox surpassed 300,000 fans. This season, the Sky Sox are well on their way to drawing more than 300,000 fans for the sixth consecutive time. To date this season, 222,630 fans have made it out to a game at Security Service Field, including six crowds of more than 8,000 spectators.
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