Billy Penn
New menu items and merch debut at Citizens Bank Park for Phillies opening day
Highlights include new sandwiches, sweets, and swag like a Phanatic foam mask and custom Victus baseball bats.
2 weeks ago
Phanatics across all ages made their way to Citizens Bank Park on Monday for the Phillies home opener. (Cory Sharber/WHYY)
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Citizens Bank Park welcomed fans back to the ballpark Monday for the Philadelphia Phillies home opener.
After kicking off the season in Washington, the Phillies are looking to build upon last year’s National League East Division title and have the fourth-best betting odds to win the World Series, according to FanDuel.
Longtime fan Trenton Hewitt believes the Phils will make a solid playoff run.
“We’re going to crush it to the top. They watched what the Eagles did. They know what the formula is. The formula lives in Philadelphia,” Hewitt said. “Iron always sharpens iron.”
For many fans, Monday wasn’t their first Opening Day, including Chester County native Mark Moore, who has been a Phillies fan since 1964.
“I’m still in therapy about that,” he joked. “But I have a long-standing family tradition of my son and I going to the ball game. This is probably about my 40th opening day.”
Monday’s game made it about a dozen Opening Days for Nick Ventrola, who said he’s seen the highs and lows the team has experienced over the years. But the Phillies fan base tends to stick with the team through it all.
“We’re a blue-collar city. We get into it and we are just as passionate as the players on the field,” Ventrola said. “We feed off of that.”
For other fans, that passion comes with a price, including Darell Gause who bought a Phillies jersey for the special occasion.
“I spent a lot of money on this jersey and I would like to keep wearing it, so let’s go to the World Series,” Gause said.
Citizens Bank Park was named the best MLB stadium in the 2025 USA Today Readers’ Choice Awards, in addition to having the second-best stadium food on the list.
At least 21,000 season tickets were already sold by December 2024, according to Major League Baseball. The Phillies had 60 home games with over 40,000 fans in attendance during the 2024 season, including 47 sellouts.
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