Citizens Bank Park is a 43,651-seat baseball park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that opened April 12, 2004. It is the home stadium of the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball (MLB).
Located near the intersection of Pattison Avenue and Darien Street just southwest of the South Philadelphia Sports Complex, it was built to replace Veterans Stadium as the Phillies’ home ballpark. The ballpark was designed by EwingCole Architects, who designed Baltimore’s Camden Yards.
The park was financed largely with private money from TeamCo, a partnership led by Comcast Spectator chairman Ed Snider and former Phillies owner Bill Giles. The Phillies own the park outright and pay rent to the individual companies that bought the bonds. It has a distinctive “fence”-like right field wall in contrast with the left field wall of Veterans Stadium.
The ballpark was intended to be part of an entertainment and sports complex in South Philadelphia, which included the now-defunct Spectrum (which, when completed for 1968-69 NHL & NBA seasons, was the largest indoor sports complex in the world), the Wachovia Center, and Xfinity Live!.
Citizens Bank Park hosted its first game on April 12, 2004. The Phillies played to a 3-3 tie against the Atlanta Braves. The first home run in the park’s history was hit by Chase Utley. The Phillies lost their first game at the park on April 13, 2004 by a score of 10-9 after having led 9-3 at one point.
The ballpark hosted three playoff games in October 2010 as the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cincinnati Reds 3–0 and clinched a best of five series 3–2 to advance to the NLDS against the San Francisco Giants.
The park hosted its first regular season MLB All-Star Game on July 15, 2005 and its second on July 25, 2010. The park also hosted the 2008 World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Tampa Bay Rays. Citizens Bank Park hosted its third All-Star game in 2018 as announced by commissioner Rob Manfred on November 15, 2016.
The Phillies set a new attendance record at Citizens Bank Park on September 23, 2009, when they drew 46,657 fans for their game against the Florida Marlins. This surpassed the previous record of 45,636 fans set on July 10, 2004, in the park’s inaugural season. The Phillies also set a mark in 2012, when they drew their largest regular season crowd of the year with 3,543,650 fans in attendance at Citizens Bank Park.