AZ Hardball - Arizona Diamondbacks, Cactus League, Fall League » fan fest

Spring Training Weekend Fan Fests

AZ Hardball — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 05:53:47 +0000

Just when you thought that you had a blast at the Diamondbacks Fan Fest, there are three more coming your way this weekend! The cities of Goodyear, Peoria and Surprise will all be holding events of their own to welcome spring training and the fans to the Valley of the Sun. The weather for this weekend looks to be in the mid to high 70s as the festivities take place at three separate locations.

Saturday

The first part of the weekend will include a couple of events. Peoria will be opening their gates at 9am for the day’s events and will be wrapping up around 2pm. Goodyear will be having a ribbon cutting ceremony to dedicate the stadium to the City of Goodyear at approximately 9:30am. The festivities will continue until 2pm as well. In the city of Goodyear, National Anthem tryouts will begin at guest services at 1:30pm.

Sunday

It will be an excellent day to spend in Surprise from 9-5 to see the Kansas City Royals and the Texas Rangers will be hosting a Fan Fest of their own. There will be opportunities to watch the teams’ practice sessions in addition to other activities for visiting fans. Some of the additional activities include; autograph opportunities, player home run derbies, sports card and memorabilia show, batting cages and more.

Information

Peoria Sports Complex
9 a.m.-2 p.m., Saturday 2/21
16101 N. 83rd Ave., Peoria
623-773-8720

Goodyear Ballpark
9:30 a.m. – Ribbon Cutting
10 a.m. – Activities, Saturday
1933 S. Ballpark Way, Goodyear
623-882-7525.

Surprise Stadium
9 a.m.-5 p.m., Sunday
15960 N. Bullard Ave., Surprise.
623-222-2000

Spring Training Fan Fest Locations

Inside the D-backs Fan Fest

AZ Hardball — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 02:32:09 +0000

The 2009 Arizona Diamondbacks Fan Fest was a pretty huge success. We spent some time mingling with fans and chatting with some the ticket sales staff as well as running into Derrick Hall on the field at the 5th annual event. We do not have the exact numbers of the event’s attendees but we were told that there were easily more than three times as many people as last year’s event. This bodes well for an organization that has been under some scrutiny due to some of their recent moves as of late. It appears that, despite recent criticism, there continues to be huge fan support.

You can check out some of the summary that we did on the lifestyle aspect of the event for a neighboring site Rail Life. A site dedicated to the Metro Rail and events along its path. Here we decided that we would let you in on some of the insight that we received on the team for the year to come. It appears that the NFC Champion Arizona Cardinals’ success may have served as a catalyst in the sports fan community resulting in higher participation from fans in all of our local sports venues. The hope is that this trend will carry over into Spring Training and the support for the D-backs once the boys of spring have left.

During a question and answer period, the infielders were asked if they were at all nervous about the Big Unit moving to their NL West rivals, the San Francisco Giants. The infielders simply laughed. There were some interesting comments made by Augie Ojeda that acknowledged the fact that, although intimidating, they feel that they do have an advantage having played with him before. We hope that this is the case and are looking forward to the team knocking him all over the park. There is no question that their demeanor indicated that this is not going to be out of the question.

We also had the opportunity to talk baseball with some of the other members of the organization. Apparently, the Arizona Diamondbacks are one of the best performing teams in the renewal department of season ticket sales. Although this may not seem like a big deal, it lends itself to a solid fan base that will continue to support the team year after year. Additionally, some of our presumptions were validated when they mentioned that some of the roster moves, as of late, have been because the organization is being more focused on bringing up raw talent. Like some of the older major league teams have been doing for years, the D-backs are spending time focusing on bringing up their own talent through the organization rather than going elsewhere to get it. Signing one-year deals to fill the gaps are necessary moves to fill the gaps but, the focus does remain on growing the ball club organically.

In all, the players that were at the event seemed genuinely excited to be back in Arizona and seem to be looking forward to the season ahead. From what we gathered, it seems that the only teams that are on the D-backs radar, as far as challenges go, are the St. Louis Cardinals and the Los Angeles Dodgers, if they are able to resign Manny Ramirez. We were unable to ask Josh Byrnes about a southpaw.

For more pictures from the event, feel free to check out our Flickr page.

D-backs Fifth Annual Fan Fest

AZ Hardball — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:29:55 +0000

Saturday, February 7th will be another day where the Arizona Diamondbacks will be saying thank you to their fans. Without having to worry about getting tackled by the security staff, walk on the field and check out the clubhouse. This is the first time that the fans will be allowed on the field and is a pretty exciting opportunity.

In addition, your D-backs plan on being at the event including Dan Haren, Connor Jackson, Stephen Drew, Justin Upton, Chris Young and more. Also, you will have the chance to meet D-backs Alumni including Jay Bell.

There will also be plenty of other opportunities that will make this event a “must visit” for any die-hard fan. Some of the other activities include baseball skills centers, baseball card shows, a silent auction, autograph sessions, photograph sessions and clubhouse tours! There is so much more to be planned that it can’t all be listed here, so for the official Diamondbacks announcement, click here.

For an even better experience, may we recommend the light rail? Check out RailLife.com for the latest Metro Rail information and to help you to plan you trip.

Date: February 7, 2009
Time: 10a.m. – 5p.m.
Location: Chase Field
Admission: Free