Dayton Dragons


The Dayton Dragons are a Class A minor league baseball team playing in the Midwest League based in Dayton, Ohio. The Dragons are affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds. Their home stadium is Day Air Ballpark, formerly known as Fifth Third Field. In 2011, they broke the record for most consecutive sellouts by a professional sports team, selling out their 815th consecutive game, breaking the record formerly held by the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Dragons came to Dayton in 2000. They were previously the Rockford Expos, a franchise based in Rockford, Illinois.

Day Air Ballpark

The team's home park is Day Air Ballpark in Dayton, formerly known as Fifth Third Field. During its first season, the Dragons set a Minor League Baseball Class-A single-season attendance record of 581,853. The Dragons broke that record in 2003 and again in 2004. The Dragons broke the record again in 2010 with a season attendance total of 597,433, which still stands as the Class-A record.
The Dragons have averaged 8,360 fans per game over their 19-year history. They have led the Class-A level in attendance in every year of their existence and have finished first among all teams below the Triple-A level for 13 straight years from 2006–2018.
On July 9, 2011, the Dragons officially set a new record of 815 consecutive sellout games. The sellout streak is the longest across all professional sports in the US, passing the previous record set by the Portland Trail Blazers from 1977–1995. On May 10, 2014, the streak of consecutive sellouts reached 1,000 games. According to the official team website, every game in the team's 19-year existence has been a sellout. The Dragons consecutive game sell-out streak has continued through the 2018 season. The streak now stands at 1,316 consecutive sold-out games, an all-time record for sports in North America.
In 2020, the team's stadium was renamed from Fifth Third Field to Day Air Ballpark.

Ownership

In 2014 founding ownership group Mandalay Baseball Properties sold the team to Palisades Arcadia Baseball LLC.

Achievements

Major league alumni

Through the 2018 season, 97 Dragons players have gone on to play in Major League Baseball since the team's move to Dayton in 2000. The following are notable players whose minor league career included playing for the Dayton Dragons, including the years they played in Dayton.
The Dragons have had ten managers in their history:
Additionally, past Dragons coaching staffs have included three inductees into the Cincinnati Reds Hall-of-Fame as players:

Media

Radio: All Dragons home and road games are broadcast on radio on 980 WONE, with Tom Nichols as the lead broadcaster. The broadcasts are also available via the internet at daytondragons.com and wone.com and on mobile devices via the Dragons mobile app. Dragons radio broadcasts moved to WONE starting with the 2011 season after Dragons games aired on WING 1410 AM from 2003-2010 and on WHIO 1290 AM from 2000–2002. Nichols has served as the Dragons Director of Broadcasting and lead play-by-play announcer since the 2008 season. Mike Vander Woude was the team's primary broadcaster from 2000–2007. All home and road games have been broadcast throughout the Dragons history.
Television: The Dragons have televised 25 games per season since the 2011 season with Dragons Director of Broadcasting Tom Nichols serving as the lead announcer. In 2016, telecasts moved to WBDT as games appeared on an over-the-air network station for the first time in Dragons history. Over the 2016–2018 seasons, WDTN sports director Jack Pohl and WDTN weekend sports anchor Hutch Konerman have teamed with Nichols on Dragons television broadcasts. From 2001–2010, the Dragons television schedule included 15 games per season before the number of broadcasts was increased to 25 in 2011. The Dragons televised five games in their inaugural season of 2000. Dragons games were televised on WHIO-TV digital channel 7.2 from 2009–2015. Games were televised on Time Warner Cable from 2000–2008. Over the years, Dragons color commentators on television broadcasts have included Joe Nuxhall, Ken Griffey Sr., Tom Browning, Ron Oester, Bill Doran, Tommy Helms, Todd Benzinger, Doug Bair, Jeff Reboulet, and Hal McCoy, among others.

Roster

Player milestones in Dayton Dragons history