 Baseball Pilgrimages
The Best
Sloan Park in Mesa, where the Cubs train, drew all-time spring training record crowds in 2015. The total of 222,415 was 8,600 more tickets sold than the record amount that the Cubs had set at the same ballpark in 2014, which was the year it opened. Meanwhile, the Cubs' per game home average (14,828) was 1,828 more than the capacity of any other spring training park.
As for the most crowded spring training ballpark in 2015, it was the dually used Salt River Fields, which reported 345,948 tickets sold to the 33 games hosted by its tenants, the Diamondbacks and Rockies.
The Worst
Osceola County Stadium, where the Astros have been since 1985, failed to top 50,000 in total ticket sales for the second straight season and the Astros' average game crowd of 3,675 there was easily the worst average by a team in 2015.
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The 30 major league teams that are evenly split between the Cactus and Grapefruit leagues had total ticket sales of 3,446,420 for 458 games in 2015.
Attendance figures are based on tickets sold for the games that were played between major league teams in the spring training ballparks in Arizona and Florida. There were 4 games rained out in 2015. The games that were played drew an average of 7,525.
All numbers are from Spring Training Connection and teams are sorted by highest to lowest average attendance within each league.
Cactus League
1,867,935 tickets sold by 15 teams for 229 games (8,157 average)
| Team | Total | Games | Average | High | Low | Ballpark (Capacity) |
| Chicago Cubs | 222,415 | 15 | 14,828 | 15,342 | 11,132 | Sloan Park (15,000) |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 191,849 | 17 | 11,285 | 13,507 | 6,252 | Salt River Fields (11,000) |
| San Francisco Giants | 168,924 | 16 | 10,558 | 12,196 | 7,453 | Scottsdale Stadium (12,000) |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 147,066 | 15 | 9,804 | 13,342 | 5,137 | Camelback Ranch (13,000) |
| Colorado Rockies | 154,099 | 16 | 9,631 | 13,126 | 5,088 | Salt River Fields (11,000) |
| Seattle Mariners | 132,519 | 16 | 8,282 | 13,055 | 4,085 | Peoria Sports Complex (12,224) |
| Kansas City Royals | 105,271 | 14 | 7,519 | 9,329 | 5,147 | Surprise Stadium (10,500) |
| Los Angeles Angels | 111,672 | 15 | 7,445 | 9,641 | 4,679 | Tempe Diablo Stadium (9,558) |
| Oakland A's | 110,059 | 15 | 7,337 | 10,324 | 4,067 | Hohokam Stadium (10,000) |
| San Diego Padres | 106,328 | 15 | 7,089 | 11,474 | 3,960 | Peoria Sports Complex (12,224) |
| Texas Rangers | 96,353 | 15 | 6,424 | 8,728 | 4,489 | Surprise Stadium (10,500) |
| Chicago White Sox | 87,294 | 14 | 6,235 | 13,101 | 2,725 | Camelback Ranch (13,000) |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 85,022 | 15 | 5,668 | 10,142 | 3,214 | Maryvale Baseball Park (10,000) |
| Cleveland Indians | 84,836 | 16 | 5,302 | 10,511 | 2,919 | Goodyear Ballpark (10,311) |
| Cincinnati Reds | 64,228 | 15 | 4,282 | 7,332 | 2,526 | Goodyear Ballpark (10,311) |
Grapefruit League
1,578,485 tickets sold by 15 teams for 229 games (6,893 average)
| Team | Total | Games | Average | High | Low | Ballpark (Capacity) |
| New York Yankees | 171,715 | 17 | 10,101 | 10,936 | 8,240 | Steinbrenner Field (11,076) |
| Boston Red Sox | 148,862 | 15 | 9,924 | 10,156 | 9,659 | JetBlue Park (10,823) |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 127,479 | 16 | 7,967 | 9,815 | 5,553 | Bright House Field (8,500) |
| Detroit Tigers | 134,377 | 17 | 7,905 | 9,817 | 6,536 | Joker Marchant Stadium (9,000) |
| Baltimore Orioles | 112,257 | 15 | 7,484 | 8,535 | 5,305 | Ed Smith Stadium (8,500) |
| Minnesota Twins | 118,579 | 16 | 7,411 | 8,951 | 6,147 | Hammond Stadium (9,300) |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 106,038 | 15 | 7,069 | 9,018 | 5,577 | McKechnie Field (8,500) |
| Atlanta Braves | 127,131 | 18 | 7,063 | 9,980 | 5,272 | Champion Stadium (9,500) |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 98,533 | 15 | 6,569 | 7,662 | 4,973 | Roger Dean Stadium (7,000) |
| New York Mets | 91,329 | 15 | 6,089 | 8,205 | 4,044 | Tradition Field (7,160) |
| Washington Nationals | 82,849 | 14 | 5,918 | 7,413 | 3,851 | Space Coast Stadium (7,200) |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 71,472 | 14 | 5,105 | 7,030 | 3,946 | Charlotte Sports Park (6,823) |
| Miami Marlins | 70,982 | 14 | 5,070 | 7,177 | 3,304 | Roger Dean Stadium (7,000) |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 69,101 | 15 | 4,607 | 5,550 | 2,755 | FL Auto Exchange Stadium (5,509) |
| Houston Astros | 47,781 | 13 | 3,675 | 5,097 | 2,784 | Osceola County Stadium (5,300) |
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While not included in official spring training attendance, tickets are sold (although usually not at full prices) to the handful of exhibitions played between a major league team and what's usually a collegiate squad. For example, the Red Sox play an annual doubleheader against Boston College and Northeastern University to begin their spring training schedule at JetBlue Park, a DH that 7,821 attended in 2015, when a grand total of 44,771 attended 10 exhibitions in nine spring training ballparks. |
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