Phillies Spring Training Games Are Drawing Bigger Crowds Than Marlins Regular Season Games

Before Bryce Harper ever signed his mega-deal, yesterday was bound to be a big day down in Clearwater. St. Patrick’s

Humble brag, I was there. It was awesome. Harper’s foot is still attached. It was another big W in the column for “Philly fans are the best”. In fact, it was so impressive, it was embarrassing for one MLB team.

The Phillies set a Spring Training  attendance record (11,340) at Spectrum Field yesterday. That is higher than the average attendance per game for 2018 Marlins regular season games (10,013) at Marlins Park.

It wasn’t just yesterday for the Harper St. Patrick’s Day Special. The Phillies are spring long have been drawing 10,000+ and they beat the Marlins per home game average each game this weekend (Friday vs Toronto, Saturday vs Houston, Sunday vs New York).

This may seem mean to call out the Marlins like this, but let’s be honest. They did it to themselves. Here’s a tweet from Jon Heyman about some schemes the Marlins are running to improve attendance:

All that sounds great BUT I may have a better idea. What if…the Marlins tried getting players that are good. AND, I’ll take this elaborate scheme one step further. What if…when the Marlins do get good players…they don’t trade them all away.

I don’t blame Marlins fans. I’m not really sure if they exist. But if you gave me constant 85 degree weather, a beach and the best night clubs in the country, why would I go watch a AAAA minor league baseball team?

Good for Philly fans. Bad look for the Marlins front office. There are many different ways to make money. It’s hard to be a fan of the way they’re doing it.

By Aidan Powers | March 18, 2019