Third baseman Manny Machado has helped The San Diego Padres garner nearly $3 million in additional revenue since he agreed to a 10-year, $300 million contract last month, ESPN reports.
Erik Greupner, the team’s president of business operations, told ESPN that although he could not provide the specifics on raw number of tickets sold, he said it was “at least double” what is normally projected. While Greupner had seen spikes of interest throughout the last nine years he was with the organization, he said that they had never seen a spike like this year “in terms of demand.”
He hopes that Machado could help the team land a winning season this year since 10 out of the past 11 seasons have ended in a losing record. The Padres have not made the playoffs since 2006, and Petco Park hasn’t ranked higher than 13th in attendance since then.
“There’s no doubt we have a tremendous opportunity with the Chargers having left San Diego for L.A., and also frankly a tremendous obligation as the sole remaining professional sports franchise in San Diego, to deliver a winner to the city of San Diego,” Greupner said. “It’s a tremendous opportunity. Our plan is certainly, through winning, to build an even deeper connection to the San Diego fan base and really give them an opportunity to celebrate a winner, which is something that the city hasn’t had for some time.”
The Padres will be in Spring Training through the end of March. Their first game of the season is set to take place at home where the team will take on the San Francisco Giants.
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