Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Just a thread about attendance, when comparing attendance it's important to look at percentage full because you can only sell out what you have. That being said I just looked at current attendance standings and why is Cleveland only filling 37% of their stadium at an average of 16,166 while Miami is in last place and with a record of 13-37 and 20 games back of the best record in MLB. Miami is drawing 17,730 and filling 47% of their small stadium. True that wins and losses will not exactly follow attendance but Cleveland should be drawing a lot better even Baseball's smallest market Milwaukee is filing up 74% of their stadium and averaging 30,907 vs Cleveland's 16,166. I know it's spring and kids are still in school and they have an open air stadium but at some point you have to stop making excuses. Let's look at total attendance so far to get the owners perspective on what he looks at.
Yeah even Cincy didn't draw well when they were in first place for almost the whole season a year or two ago, I remember watch a Nat TV game and the color guys said it's amazing it's july and the Reds are in first place and there's about 15,000 people here.
Nobody has the slightest clue what baseball attendance is. It is a carefully guarded secret, and routinely lied about and the media refuses to say anything about it. Ticket sales are announced, and millions of corporate season tickets go unused.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,576 posts, read 81,167,557 times
Reputation: 57808
Here in Seattle there are so many options for the entertainment dollars, the sports ticket sales depend greatly on winning. The Mariners suck again this year, and even Felix Hernandez Bobblehead night only drew 35,000 Friday,
in s field that holds 46,000. This season they have set several records for low attendance, at less than 10,000. Average attendance is about 40% of seats available and most of that is fans coming to see their favorite team from where they lived before moving here. As jtur88 said, that's the announced ticket sales, not the real number of butts in the seats.
Prices. They are too high especially if the product on the field is awful. They also fudge attendance so much it's difficult to tell. Corporate ticket sells are the season ticket bread and butter, those seats are often empty and the corps have the good sense not to give them away to charity - cause that would look bad. haha But really, prices say it all. 10 bucks for a beer, 10 bucks for a crappy semi-warm hot dog, on top of 30-100 for a ticket? (yes every stadium has the ~15 tickets but everyone is not going to get those - and the seats suck. I'd figure the 30 dollar ticket is about average) Who going to do that a lot? As Hemlock says, there are too many other - cheaper - options in most big league cities to be ripped off by baseball games.
Prices. They are too high especially if the product on the field is awful. They also fudge attendance so much it's difficult to tell. Corporate ticket sells are the season ticket bread and butter, those seats are often empty and the corps have the good sense not to give them away to charity - cause that would look bad. haha But really, prices say it all. 10 bucks for a beer, 10 bucks for a crappy semi-warm hot dog, on top of 30-100 for a ticket? (yes every stadium has the ~15 tickets but everyone is not going to get those - and the seats suck. I'd figure the 30 dollar ticket is about average) Who going to do that a lot? As Hemlock says, there are too many other - cheaper - options in most big league cities to be ripped off by baseball games.
Giving the seats to charity would also bring the "wrong kind of people" to the ball park, and even worse, the kinds of people who cannot afford concession prices, the real bread and butter.
$12 seats are behind the plate and dugout, just further back in the upper deck. You can see the ball and action on the field fine, you just can't see the players' fashionable tattoos.
Still available from stadium boxoffice (not Stubhub) for tonight, holiday weekend,
LA Angels at LA Dodgers 2,014 available from $10. Los Angeles, city rivalry game
Texas at Arizona 476 available from $11, two division leaders, Darvish is pitching.
Jump ahead to, say, June 19:
Baltimore at Detroit 5,189 available from $9
Miami at Arizona 792 available from $8
NY Mets at Atlanta 2,417 available from $7
Pittsburgh at Cincinnati 2,429 available from $6
Oakland at Texas 5,176 available from $6
Seattle at LA Angels 4,215 available from $5
Movie tickets are $10 here in BFE. Twelve bucks for an adult to see "Iron Man" tonight at Loews in Washington DC.
I think the whole tickets are just too expensive is a sad excuse for not attending a game. I go to 12-20 games a year and I only pay for usually only 1 of them, opening day which we got tickets in the nose bleed section for $50. I am very thrifty, I enter in all the free ticket contest on tv, radio and online for brewers tickets, and I use BP free brewers tickets for gas promotion which is a punch card system. You fill up 7 times and you get a free brewers ticket in the upper deck or you can use it as a $18 coupon and upgrade to a better section, you can get as many tickets for free as you want I admit this is a very good promo here in Southeastern WI but I am willing to bet other cities offer deals or free ticket options. The BP Gas promo allows me to go to 9 games for free and I usually just get 2 tickets for the wifey and I so that's 18 tickets which normally cost $24, so $24 times 18 tickets = $432.00 worth of free brewers tickets and all I have to do is fill up at a BP gas station. I'm not one of these guys who has to sit in the lower level behind or home plate other wise it's no use going to a game. I turn in my promo tickets always early (first come first serve) and I usually get the 1st row in the 4th level aka the upper deck.
I haven't bought a brewers ticket directly from the brewers in over 5 years. I use stubhub, craigslist, or a local ticket broker and if you wait until game day you can get cheap deals. I also go to the ticket resale zone outside of Miller Park and there is always someone looking to dump tickets for cheap and always below face value. If you just want 1 ticket there are even better deals out there, I have gotten on the day of the game 20min before first pitch 5 rows behind home plate for $20 bucks!
When I attend a game I rarely eat at the stadium or drink the beers which at Miller Park are $7.75, if I get free tickets through BP I will eat at the stadium sometimes but I haven't spent over $20 bucks on buying food for the wife and I. I bring a water bottle that I can refill-up at the water fountain so that's covered and the brewers let you bring in some food items such as peanuts or sunflower seeds.
So I get sick and tired of people complaining that tickets are way to expensive, only if you buy them directly from your team they are. The brewers are always running deals, bring in two cans of food and receive a buy one get free deal or give blood and you can get up to 4 free tickets.
There is really no excuse that anyone cannot afford to attend a game, how about if you're poor start putting 5-10 dollars a week away that way you have $260-$520 to use on going to a ball game.
You also have to remember that, when school is in session, many families can't take time to bring their kids to the ballparks on weekdays, what with school-related stuff and other things. Since I live near Arlington (some 45 minutes away), I'd like to get there more often and see games if prices were a little lower than they are now. Weekend attendance figures tend to be higher, anyway, and that's when you're likely to have more sellouts. Attendance always tends to be down overall during the spring months. And I don't have to tell you why some teams' figures are down in September, as you already know the reason for that.
I think the whole tickets are just too expensive is a sad excuse for not attending a game.
Well, hardcore baseball fans like yourself are going to go to the park regardless. When attracting the casual fan (which is basically the premise of your thread), you need a draw besides the game, which they may or may not win. $25-30 a ticket for ~2.5 hours of entertainment for a game many find boring outside of scoring runs is a tough sell, especially if the team sucks, the "new shine" is gone off the ballpark, and there are many more entertainment options in the given city.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
