Salt River Fields at Talking Stick Named 2016 Best Cactus League Spring Training Facility

By Editor March 31, 2016 15:45

(Phoenix, AZ) — The Arizona Diamondbacks announced that Salt River Fields at Talking Stick has been named the top Cactus League Spring Training complex in 2016 by Ballpark Digest. The honor was voted on by readers of Ballpark Digest and Spring Training Online, with Salt River Fields capturing 70-percent of the vote from more than 12,000 voting participants.

Salt River Fields has led the Cactus League in attendance for six consecutive seasons, welcoming more than 300,000 fans each year and is still the only Major League Baseball Spring Training complex ever to break 300,000 fans in a season. The D-backs recently recognized their millionth fan through the gates of Salt River Fields and in 2013, Salt River Fields passed the one-million attendance mark for all events held at the complex that includes fans for both D-backs and Colorado Rockies Spring Training games as well as events such as concerts and festivals.

In 2016, both the D-backs and the Rockies set single-game attendance records, including 13,514 for the D-backs vs. Royals game on March 12 and 13,236 for the Rockies vs. Giants game on March 20. The award-winning facility had 16 sellouts this year and has had 116 total sellouts since 2011. This season marks the 4^th-best on MLB’s all-time attendance list in which Salt River Fields owns all six top spots on the list. The D-backs have the second-best Spring Training average and total attendance record in 2016 among MLB clubs.

Among the recent awards given to Salt River Fields at Talking Stick are “Best Spring Training Facility” by Arizona Foothills magazine for the fourth consecutive year, “Best Spring Training Destination” by Sports On Earth and “#1 Spring Training Facility” by Concierges magazine. It is also the first Spring Training facility to receive a gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Program and the first Spring Training complex to be built on Native American land.