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The Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals will compete Wednesday at 1 p.m. in the first of 30 games taking place at Surprise Stadium, located on Bullard Avenue south of Bell Road.
This marks the sixth season of Surprise spring training. As of Monday, 91,000 tickets had been sold, Community and Recreation Services Director Mark Coronado said. Rangers ticket sales totaled 51,000, an increase of 25 percent over last year. Royals tickets stood at 40
The city’s goal is to sell 170,000 tickets - which would set a record - by the time spring training concludes at the end of March, Coronado said.
“The only thing that would take us backwards would be bad weather,” he said.
Surprise’s best year remains 2005, when 165,686 tickets were sold. Last season, Surprise sold 159,932 tickets, an increase from 142,319 in 2006.
Coronado said sales have been strong for games featuring the Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago Cubs. He recommended fans buy early for other popular teams, including the San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Dodgers. The West Coast teams tend to attract more visitors, Coronado said.
Surprise Mayor Lyn Truitt said he wants visitors to take advantage of the surrounding attractions.
“Once people arrive, we want people to stay in our hotels and visit our museums,” Truitt said. “We want them to have what I call the ‘Surprise experience.’ “
Area attractions include the West Valley Art Museum and Heard Museum West. ,000 sold, a decrease of 5 percent.
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