In the midst of their first season in a new ballpark, the Las Vegas Aviators (Class AAA; Pacific Coast League) have broken their previous single-season franchise attendance record.
The 2019 season is one marked by considerable change for the Aviators franchise, most notably with the opening of the brand-new Las Vegas Ballpark. Located in suburban Summerlin, the ballpark has received acclaim since opening in April and was just recently voted by our readers as the winner of the 2019 Triple-A Best of the Ballparks competition.
Fans have responded positively to Las Vegas Ballpark and its offerings thus far, allowing the Aviators to set a new single-season franchise attendance record at a relatively early point in the season. Set over this past weekend, the new single-season attendance mark breaks a record that had stood since 1992. More from the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
The previous record stood at 387,815 in 72 dates in 1992. This year’s team shattered the mark in 42 home games (398,771 entering Monday’s game) with 27 games left on the schedule.
Compared with the rest of minor league baseball, the Aviators rank at the top of both total attendance and average attendance (9,495 per game) despite having the seventh smallest park in the Pacific Coast League.
“There’s a honeymoon period going on right now with the new ballpark,” Aviators president Don Logan said. “I think it’s downtown Summerlin, in proximity to the freeway, not charging for parking was huge.”
This season’s opening of Las Vegas Ballpark ended the franchise’s run at Cashman Field, its home in downtown Las Vegas from 1983-2018. The franchise rebranded leading up to the opening of the new ballpark, announcing in December that it had changed its name from the 51s to the Aviators.
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