MLB All-Star Game At Chase Field Already Has More Than 40,000 Tickets Sold

The D'Backs and MLB have sold more than 40,000 tickets thus far for the '11 MLB All-Star Game, and more than 34,000 each for the Home Run Derby and Futures Game that precede the July 12 event. The club and MLB lowered ticket prices as much as 59% for All-Star Game events this summer and began selling tickets to the general public March 1, roughly seven weeks ahead of normal scheduling, in part to address softer demand for tickets seen last year in Anaheim and more generally the still-battered Arizona economy. "We needed to get out in front of this, and we're very pleased with the demand we've seen so far," said D'Backs President & CEO Derrick Hall. While selling out the All-Star Game itself is definitely not expected to be a problem, Hall also anticipates selling out Chase Field for the Home Run Derby, which did not occur last year at Angel Stadium. With Chase Field's capacity likely to be expanded to about 50,000 for the All-Star Game events, the facility will be the second largest host in the past decade behind the old Yankee Stadium in '08. In addition, more than 90,000 tickets have been sold to the All-Star Fan Fest at the Phoenix Convention Center since those went on sale in February. The strong early sales suggest last year's FanFest attendance of 118,429 will be easily surpassed. St. Louis holds the FanFest attendance record with a draw in '09 of 150,804.