Day Air Ballpark

• Name: Day Air Ballpark
• GPS-able Address: 220 N Patterson Blvd., Dayton, OH 45402
• Ballpark Owner: City of Dayton
• Architects: HNTB
• Groundbreaking: 4/26/1999
• Minor League Baseball/Professional Development League Teams: Dayton Dragons (A+) 2021-present; Dayton Dragons (A) 2000-2020
• Pro Baseball Class/League History: A+/Midwest League 2022-present; A+/High-A Central 2021; A/Midwest League 2000-2020
• First Pro Baseball Game: 4/27/2000; stadium debut of Class A Dragons
• Others Playing or Operating Here: None
• Previous Ballpark Names: Fifth Third Field 2000-2019
• LF: 320 CF: 400 RF: 320
• Seats: 6,831
• Stated Capacity: 8,200
• House Baseball/Softball Record Attendance: 9,796, 7/22/2015

Day Air Ballpark in Dayton, OH, is the home of the Dayton Dragons, the Cincinnati Reds' High-A Midwest League farm team. Whether it's the ballpark or the setting or the team, it draws like a sketch artist.

With every regular-season seat sold before even one pitch was thrown in its first season, it hosted a Class A-record 581,853. From then until the Coronavirus pandemic canceled the 2020 season followed by MLB's 2021 Minor League Reorganization, the Dragons led not only their level but also that era's High-A in attendance - plus, since 2006, Double-A. Incredibly, every game sold out as the playpen averaged nearly 1,000 more than it seats. The sold-out string became the longest in U.S. professional sports history on July 9, 2011, and closed 2019 at 1,385 games. That season would prove to be the last played in the Affiliated Era and the last before the Coronavirus pandemic wrought nearly two years of havoc on spectator events.

The Dragons define "sellout" as selling every seat. When the ballpark opened, that threshold was 7,230, but it was later reduced to 6,831 to create an additional standing area off the outfield.

The streak dominates Dayton baseball coverage, of course, but many other attendance successes have come with it. The club broke the single-season attendance record within their class in 2003, 2004 and 2010. The last of those, 597,433, is still the classification's record.

The lost 2020 season was followed by one with locally set crowd limits that not only varied by locality but also changed over time, so the Dragons announced before the 2021 campaign that they would "pause" counting the sellout streak. They did count fans, though, and they again led both their level - now High-A - and Double-A. They resumed counting the streak with their 2022 home opener and at season's end announced a new total of 1,441. Astonishingly, that campaign's 7,935 per-game average was the highest among all 120 affiliated teams - even surpassing all Triple-A teams' game averages.

The Dragons passed the 10 million benchmark in their 18th opener - faster than any Low-A team and fourth fastest ever. The ballpark's two MwL All-Star Games averaged 8,824 - impressive against that event's average, but only about 800 more than its own regular-games norm. They have never failed to lead their class in attendance and going into 2023 had also racked up 16 straight seasons of leading all teams in and below Double-A.

This phenomenon is clearly not grounded in the team's success on the field. In 20 pre-reorg seasons, the Dragons had 13 losing campaigns, twice losing 90 games in a single year, and making the playoffs only seven times in a league that, during that period, put half of its clubs into post-season play.

However, Dragons ownership announced just over three weeks before their first 2023 home game that a drop in corporate ticket renewals had put the streak in danger. Amid the resulting publicity, they sold out that game and, so far, all of their home games. A milestone is looming, as - barring a non-sellout or rainouts - the Saturday, August 26th, game will be the 1,500th straight.

The one-game record in this amazing baseball house is 9,796, set on July 22, 2015. The Dragons came into that game having won nine straight home games, but the West Michigan Whitecaps came from a run down with three in the top of the ninth and held Dayton to one in the bottom of the frame to end that streak, 5-4.

Despite being open for more than two decades, the stadium has never undergone an extensive renovation. That, combined with new facility standards MLB included in its reorg, led the city, Montgomery County, team ownership and the state each to pool resources to fund a facelift.[1] Once expected to cost $20 million, the project is now expected to come in under $17 million.

After 20 years as Fifth Third Field, its naming rights went to Day Air Credit Union in a 10-year deal that began in 2020.