Diamondbacks announce expanded return of popular Summer Pass ticket program at Chase Field

The Diamondbacks are bringing back an expanded version of their app-based subscription ticket program that last season reduced per-game costs and helped spark a 26-percent increase in attendance over the dog days of summer.

The team’s Summer Pass tickets will go on sale at 9 a.m. on Monday, providing access to home games from Memorial Day to Labor Day, offering 40 games for $80 for fans who sign up through the MLB Ballpark app.

The $2 per game maximum value is significantly lower than the typical rate of about $20 per ticket. Fans can attend as many games as they choose and would need to attend five games to beat the everyday rate.

“It’s such a different price point,” team President and CEO Derrick Hall said. “It allows people to have a lot more freedom and flexibility. They can come and go when they want. Just as they did last year.”

The subscription-ticket model is like the Netflix of sports attendance. Subscribers pay a fee and use the service at their leisure. Whether a viewer watches one movie or 100, it’s still $11 a month.

Last season, the Diamondbacks were among 22 teams with some form of subscription-based ticket program.

The Diamondbacks’ 2017 Summer Pass offered 25 games for $50.

“We tried it out last year. It was really a trial period for us," Hall said. "And, of course, we sold out almost immediately. It only took a matter of about three to four days for us to sell out (the roughly 4,000 tickets available).

“We saw that there was high demand for this because of the success of the program. We wanted to figure out a way, not only to bring it back, but to improve it and increase the number of games that we offered. And that was really the thought here. We heard such good feedback from the fans that purchased the Summer Pass last year.”

The average attendance at Chase Field was about 23,000 before the program was announced in late May 2017. In June and July, when the Summer Pass was in effect, that jumped to 29,000.

A huge contrast shows up in games against San Diego. On Wednesday, April 26, the Diamondbacks drew only 12,000 against the Padres, an all-time low. The next time the clubs faced at Chase Field, Tuesday, June 6, attendance jumped to 26,000.

The bump also increased over time. The June average was 27,000 fans per game. In July, it climbed to 32,000.

Similar programs rolled out around MLB in 2015, with the Braves, White Sox, Rangers and A’s testing the technology and fan experience.

Last season, most clubs used some type of subscription-pass ticketing program, resulting in about 900,000 tickets sold, primarily to fans younger than 37. The service was most popular among 28- and 29-year-olds, according to MLB data.

“The beauty of this program is it really introduces baseball to people that ordinarily may not make it a priority to come out,” Hall said.

More broadly, it can be tied to MLB efforts to connect with younger fans in big cities.

MLB outreach programs include the Play Ball Initiative, which also launched in 2015 and engages kids in schools and fixes up tattered playground fields. MLB also has programs to develop talent in minority neighborhoods.

In Phoenix, the attendance spike came with winning. The Diamondbacks were 16-9 at home in June and July last season, a .640 winning percentage.

Manager Torey Lovullo remembered the program: “I loved it,” he said.

“It brought a lot of fans, and it brought a lot of support to the team,” he said. “We want to connect with this community. And we know that there’s some special fans out there that want to come out and support us. And when they do, it just brings a different vibe and a different environment to Chase. The fans that come out and support us the way they do, the players feel it. We feel it in the dugout. It helps.”

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Reach Moore at gmoore@azcentral.com or 602-444-2236. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @WritingMoore.