The South Bend Cubs have drawn nearly 250,000 fans so far this season, already a club record. (Photo by Melqui Rodriguez)

SOUTH BEND – With 18 games still left in the regular season, nearly a quarter million fans have walked through the gates at Four Winds Field in downtown South Bend to watch Single-A baseball.

According to Joe Hart, President of the South Bend Cubs, 249,537 tickets were sold in the first 52 home games, 28 of those games were sellouts. The record for the highest attendance in the history of the South Bend stadium for a single game happened on July 3rd when 8,143 fans packed the stadium.

“This is the most exciting summer of my career in professional baseball,” Hart said. “I’ve never witnessed the kind of enthusiasm and excitement that we’re seeing here at Four Winds Field in South Bend. And the amazing thing is that it just continues to build. This region loves the Cubs—loves the South Bend Cubs.”

Compare these numbers to last year’s record-setting season, when in the same time period, 194,432 people came to watch the South Bend Silver Hawks. The entire 2014 season had 25 sellout games.

This record-setting season is just the latest in what has been year-to-year growth in the number of people returning to the city for entertainment at Four Winds Field.  That impact is not lost on leaders in the downtown corridor.

“Downtown South Bend is more vibrant and active than it has been in decades,” commented Aaron Perri, Executive Director of DTSB. “The South Bend Cubs are a big contributor to the level of excitement that we all feel surrounding downtown. When you have thousands of people throughout the region planning trips every day all summer long to our city, it tells you we’ve got a great thing going here.”

“In a League which is not easily impressed with big attendance numbers, the success Andrew Berlin, Joe Hart and their team have had, is the story of the year,” said Dick Nussbaum, President of the Midwest League. “The Midwest League (MWL) has for many years been one of the strongest minor leagues in attendance—10 percent of all fans who attend Minor League games attend MWL games. But, in traveling around the League this season, I’ve been hearing people say ‘How about South Bend!’ It’s a great story.”

The Midwest league consists of 16 professional Class A minor league teams throughout Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. “The attendance numbers at Four Winds Field are important,” added Nussbaum. “But the excitement of being at Four Winds Field is what the fans are really feeling. It’s what will keep this success going for many years to come.”