Rainbows baseball attendance hits 15-year high
University of Hawaii home baseball crowds hit a 15-year high this season and head coach Mike Trapasso said they brought a corresponding decibel level and electricity to Les Murakami Stadium.
"The energy in our stadium this year was tangible and that made it a really fun season from that standpoint," Trapasso said. "I think Sunday’s (stirring 9-8 ninth-inning comeback victory over San Jose State) game was an example of that," Trapasso said. "It was an incredible crowd that stayed in the game the whole way."
Sunday’s crowd was 3,597, helping UH average 2,230 fans through the turnstiles and 3,409 tickets distributed per game this season, the most since 1995.
Turnstile crowds were up almost 11 percent over 2010 and 60 percent from three years ago.
"They came not just in great numbers but with energy and our team thanks them for that," Trapasso said. "We knew every single weekend at home that we were going to play in front of a great crowd," Trapasso said.
Ticket receipts are expected to be up about 12 percent when the final figures are in, UH officials said.
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"Our baseball program has made tremendous strides," athletic director Jim Donovan said. "I think the combination of the job Coach Trapasso and his team have done along with the dropping of some ticket prices and concession prices have made for high-value entertainment. We were also able to get the Paciolan (ticketing system) people to lower the print-at-home cost by $1 so fans don’t have to wait at the ticket window."
UH, at 30-21, concludes its regular season with a four-game series that starts tomorrow at New Mexico State.