PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Spring training brings thousands of baseball fans to the Valley, and this season, it brought in the most attendees in three years.

“We had 1.6 million-plus fans in our stands this season,” said Cactus League executive director Bridget Binsbacher.

Despite the rainy weather and 10 canceled games, the Cactus League said they are almost back to prepandemic levels for attendance.

“The average per game was up over 7,500 from last season at 7,300,” Binsbacher said.

A big driver of the increase in attendance was the World Series.

“We came off of an all-Cactus League World Series, and that was tremendous. So, the Texas Rangers out of Surprise stadium saw a 40% increase. The Diamondbacks saw a 16% increase,” Binsbacher said.

The games benefit the Cactus League and our state’s economy. Last year, spring training brought in more than $700 million for our state’s economy.

“We know that attendance number is critical to the impact of tourism, and we know that in Arizona, tourism is one of the top drivers of the state’s economy,” Binsbacher said.

They’re still crunching 2024 numbers, but they know it’s going to be a home run.

“Arizona is feeling this from Tombstone all the way to the Grand Canyon. It’s a huge impact,” Binsbacher said.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Copyright 2024 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.