Cubs Park opens in Mesa with a big open house, and the early reviews of the new Chicago Cubs spring training facility are good.
As you surely know, the Cubs are leaving HoHoKam Park this year for a new Mesa facility, Cubs Park. The new facility will be larger — some 15,000 or so — and eventually have a slew of amenities not found in HoHoKam Park, including nearby hotels and restaurants, and plenty of decent parking. Now that Cubs Park opens, it’s time to sell the tickets and attract the bodies. Yesterday’s open house, which attracted some 30,000 fans, introduced the new facility to potential ticket buyers. From KTAR:
Janet Smith, a lifelong Cubs fan from Tempe, was at Saturday’s event and said she was glad the city elected to keep the team in Mesa.
She said she has family that comes from out of town to see the Cubs play in Mesa, and she said she thinks keeping the team in the Valley with a new park is worth the money.
“I’m really glad they have those people who kept it here,” she said. “I can’t even imagine the city of Mesa coming close to losing this kind of revenue…It’s crazy, I have relatives that come — the money that’s generated between hotels, car rentals, food…I’m astounded at the amount of people.”
One interesting fact: we don’t apparently have any sellouts for Cubs spring games. There are still tickets available for Opening day on Feb. 27 (yes, we’ll be there), but the combination of a large facility (again, capacity is around 15,000) and the unknown may be keeping some fans away. From all accounts this will be one of the better facilities in all of spring training, and with the Cubs a natural draw, we’re expecting sellouts by the middle of March.
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