Philly loves its baseball team, and has the ticket sales to prove it

So maybe the Phillies did not barrel into the 2023 baseball season with the gallant efficiency with which they finished a glorious 2022. But fans are flocking to the ballpark anyway.

Many, many more fans, as a matter of fact.

The Phillies’ home attendance was up by an astounding 40% over what it was at this point last year: 39,000 per game through their first 30 home games in 2023, compared with 27,000 per game through 30 home games in 2022. By my calculation, that is on pace to be the best increase in single-season attendance since the team moved into Citizens Bank Park in 2004.

I have been a sports writer for more than 40 years, and the best explanation I have for this surge in fan interest is that the Phillies got hot late and unexpectedly made it to the World Series last year. Philadelphians were so taken by a team of talented (and likable) players that they hung around for perhaps another rollicking journey.

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Although the 2023 Phillies took two months to hit their stride, the team is on pace to draw more than three million fans to Citizens Bank Park this season — a plateau they have not reached in 10 years. The Phils were 16th in Major League Baseball, middle of the pack, in home attendance in 2022. They were fifth this year entering last week’s home stand.

Yes, Philadelphia has problems, but Citizens Bank Park is a pleasant refuge. You notice. People are in a good mood, even when the Phillies don’t have a good game. The clientele is decidedly mixed: young and old, Black and white, families and friends.

Fans log runs in scorebooks. Kids in their Little League shirts gather to compare their pitching windups. The youngest watchers dive headfirst into ice cream. Replicas of Bryce Harper’s jersey are most prevalent, but the old-timers, beers in hand, wear their Mike Schmidt jerseys to the park.

People say Philadelphia is a football town. And with good reason: The Eagles are darn good, making the Super Bowl three months after the Phillies went to the World Series. But this city’s affection for baseball runs longer and deeper.

I was reminded of that the hard way two years ago, when I suggested choosing a different team name, as “Phillies” was passive, dull, and badly needed to be updated, with a new mascot and logo that had a more aggressive font (and did not have silly stars dotting any I’s).

I heard about it.

In the wake of publication, my op-ed was “being panned like nothing has been panned before,” wrote Kevin Kinkead on the Crossing Broad website. “Republicans and Democrats have crossed the aisle to condemn the story.” Oh my.

The Phillies were in the doldrums at the time. The 2021 season would be the 10th straight year in which the Phillies failed to make the playoffs. The team’s previous glory era, with Charlie Manuel’s team winning it all in 2008, had grown distant.

But, as they say, hope springs eternal. The fervent love fans held for the team hadn’t died; it was just waiting for an opportunity to express itself once again.

The fervent love fans held for the team hadn’t died.

Still, most of 2022 was slow and was even delayed at its start by a lockout. But then, there was the team’s improbable surge, clinching a playoff berth in the 160th of 162 games — on Oct. 3 in Houston, no less — then winning a wild-card series in St. Louis.

Then the Phillies beat the Braves and Padres to advance to the World Series, which they lost to the Astros (if you need reminding). Philadelphians jumped aboard the bandwagon, and who could blame them? But many wanted to come back in 2023.

In March, the Phillies’ season-ticket sales were up by 50%, to 15,250 from about 10,000 in 2022. I am on the Phillies’ email list: They continue pushing single-game tickets.

Other factors for the surge in interest in home games can’t be ignored: The Phillies’ weeknight games start earlier, making them more enticing for families, and Major League Baseball implemented a series of rules changes so most ballgames don’t drag over three hours. Games are 26 minutes shorter, on average.

Devotion for baseball in Philadelphia was less obvious for a few years, but it is apparent by the size of the huge crowds again in South Philadelphia that the Phillies might have lost more big-league games in history — 11,000-plus — but they still get the love they need right here.

This clearly means something to the Phillies. They notice how many fans are in the seats, how much of a lift a supercharged crowd at Citizens Bank Park can provide in a tight game. It leads to better results: They won six of eight home playoff games in 2022, all before 45,000-plus, then won 19 of their first 30 home games in 2023.

But this means something to Philadelphia, too. Maybe the brick-faced Citizens Bank Park would look better in Center City than in a South Philadelphia parking lot, but thousands find their way when the Phils are doing well. The location of a sports facility is of less importance when the team that plays there is entertaining.

Philadelphia lost a big-league team almost 70 years ago when the Athletics moved to Kansas City, Mo., after years of disappointing seasons and poor crowds. The A’s moved again, to Oakland, Calif., and it is likely they will soon move a third time, this time to Las Vegas.

A few fans suggested recently on social media that the A’s should just move here instead of Vegas. That won’t happen, for many different reasons. But the suggestion was meaningful, at least to me. It meant that Philadelphia is still — or once again — a baseball destination.

Dave Caldwell grew up in Lancaster County, graduated from Temple University, and covered sports for The Inquirer from 1986 to 1995. He has lived in Manayunk since 2021.