Citizens Bank Park Liberty Bell gets a facelift in time for opening day

Happy opening day to those who celebrate! Cue the snacks, the OG Phanatic, and a revamped light-up Liberty Bell to welcome the new season. That’s right, the future is now. Expect the bell to beam multiple colors at a time with some light animation to boot.

The bell has become a staple since Citizens Bank Park opened in 2004. Whenever the Phillies scored a home run or ended the game with a W, the bell would light up (one color at a time) and sway back and forth (albeit very slowly) thanks to a hydraulic system.

“It became our signature,” said Phillies executive vice president David Buck.

But as early as 2020, fans might have noticed the old faithful wasn’t quite firing on all cylinders.

Don’t call the bell broken, though.

“It just wasn’t performing as well as it should,” explained Buck. “Some light bulbs were out and hydraulics were really bad. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.”

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Because pandemic precautions limited the number of fans who could visit Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies didn’t tackle repairs until this offseason.

The revamp translated to 26,000 new LED lights and a new hydraulic system, meaning the bell should slowly sway when needed and it can display different color schemes at one time. The bell can even take on an American flag color scheme, said Buck.

Buck declined to say how much the bell upgrades cost, choosing instead to focus on the season ahead, which fans hope will be the one that ends the playoff drought.

“We made great improvements to the team and I think the bell is gonna get a workout this year,” he said.

We can only take Kyle Schwarber’s leadoff home run in his first at-bat with the team as a good omen.