For the second consecutive day, Cubs fans helped set a record attendance for the Cactus League at 13,413 again at Camelback Ranch. Yesterday's record-breaking attendance came against the White Sox. The Cubs won 8-4. While it appeared there were more Cubs fans in attendance than Sox fans, in the fourth inning Marlon Byrd was able to nail one Sox fan's cell phone on a solo home run to left field.
What does this tell you about the Cubs and the Cactus League? First, the Cubs are a huge draw. It helps that Camelback Ranch holds more fans than HoHoKam. Capacity at HoHoKam is approximately 12,074, as opposed to Camelback Ranch, which holds approximately 13,000.
It also tells you that Cubs fans are willing to travel to see their team.
Mark Tiby from suburban Des Moines, Iowa, has been coming to Spring Training for 14 years, usually staying six to eight days. He stays in Mesa, close to HoHoKam, but will travel to see the Cubs play elsewhere, except Tucson, which he says is just too far away. Over the years, he has says Spring Training has gotten more popular and he has seen more Cubs fans traveling to away games.
"It seems like wherever the Cubs go the games are sold out," he says. "I think there are more Cubs fans going to road games. The road games, man if they've got the Cubs, they're packed, that's a sell out. I don't think it was like that when I started coming."
Chicagoan Al Yellon has been coming to Spring Training in Arizona for 20 years. He agrees that more Cubs fans are coming to see Cactus League baseball and are following the team from park to park. He cites sitting in a traffic jam at Camelback Ranch the other day for 45 minutes just to get out of the parking lot.
"That didn't happen years ago. In 1984, my first year, there were assigned seats but in those days they didn't have the grass berms. You paid 3 bucks and pretty much could sit wherever you wanted, nobody cared. It was much more low key, he says.
Jessica Rosner has been coming to Spring Training from New York for four years. Staying close to a week, she follows the team where they are playing. "It seems more like regular season games," she says. "I guess geographically if there are more teams closer in, you see more Cubs fans traveling."
Tiby, Yellon and Rosner find it easy to follow the team in the Phoenix area because for the proximity of the ballparks.
"I have been to Tucson a couple of times, but it's a hike. It's two hours each way. It kills an entire day to go there. It's very easy to get around Phoenix. Everything's within 45 minutes to an hour, that is if you don't have to sit 45 minutes in a parking lot to get out," says Yellon.
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