MLB sets spring training attendance record

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball has set a spring training attendance record, breaking the 4 million mark this year and averaging nearly 8,400 fans a game.

The league said Tuesday that attendance was up 11.7 percent from last season's total of 3,610,738, and the record average was a 3.8 percent increase from a year ago.

This time, the 481 dates drew 4,034,708 fans for an average of 8,388. That topped the previous record of 3,823,479 set in 2013, while the average attendance eclipsed the previous best of 8,078 in 2014.

The Chicago Cubs drew 222,415 fans to Sloan Park in Mesa, Arizona, the largest spring training attendance total for any team in history.

The Boston Red Sox sold out each of their 15 completed home games. They have sold out all 63 Grapefruit League games at JetBlue Park since its 2012 opening.