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If the Dodgers had some recent titles it would certainly help their cause. That's their biggest downfall.
Winning creates exposure at a national level. Especially now with social media.
Exposure at a national level doesn't make a city "big" on baseball though. It matters within the city itself how people feel about baseball an their team.
I'm not talking about that. I am talking about perception of LA from outsiders, because lets face it, that plays a bigger role with these answers.
Everyone will have their perceptions even if they have never actually been there before.
There are places people haven't been that the media creates the perception for them.
True. I mean I guess I've never had a true outsider's perspective on it. What is the national perception on LA as a sports city? Because I was born and raised there, then went to college in SF. SF has a negative view on everything LA related, so that is an inaccurate portrayal of anything regarding LA. Now I'm in Louisville and without an MLB team, I can't say this is a fair portrayal.
Milwaukee is the biggest on baseball at 1.79 fan visits per capita. No other city is even close to that number. St Louis is a very distant 2nd at 1.35 fan visits per capita and the rest are not even worth talking about.
CORE-BASED STATISTICAL AREA TICKETS SOLD PER CAPITA
1. Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI 1.79
2. St. Louis, MO-IL 1.35
3. Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN 1.21
4. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA 1.21
5. Kansas City, MO-KS 1.08
Why is Milwaukee so high? Milwaukee perfected the model for maximizing attendance in a small market city.
1. Built away from downtown where there is lots of surface parking for the ultra popular pre-game tailgating parties.
2. Build a Retractable dome for the cold/rainy games (this brings in an extra 1,000,000 fans per year)
3. Build on the Interstate
Everyone criticizes Milwaukee for #1 and #2 but they are ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL for getting fans out of their homes to the ballpark and without them they would be like everyone else.
Miwaukee's so high per capita because they're a small market, and draw in big crowds from rival cities with legit claims to this title every time the Cubs or Cards come through. They draw 28k per game in a stadium that seats 42k. If you filter out Cubs and Cards games, this drops dramatically. Milwaukee fans aren't paying to go see the team, and they don't care about it.
They built on an interstate because they rely on incoming fans from other markets to remain sustainable.
It's not only not in the discussion for best baseball town: it's a junk baseball town. Legitimately bottom five.
Miwaukee's so high per capita because they're a small market, and draw in big crowds from rival cities with legit claims to this title every time the Cubs or Cards come through. They draw 28k per game in a stadium that seats 42k. If you filter out Cubs and Cards games, this drops dramatically. Milwaukee fans aren't paying to go see the team, and they don't care about it.
They built on an interstate because they rely on incoming fans from other markets to remain sustainable.
It's not only not in the discussion for best baseball town: it's a junk baseball town. Legitimately bottom five.
I'd have to agree with this. Not to mention the Brewers have been almost consistently bad throughout their existence really diminishes it as a top baseball city. Chicago is hurt by that same thing but the Cubs and Sox are off and on teams unlike the Brewers. The Brewers haven't even made it to a World Series since 1982, the only time they appeared, and they lost that one.
Milwaukee is the biggest on baseball at 1.79 fan visits per capita. No other city is even close to that number. St Louis is a very distant 2nd at 1.35 fan visits per capita and the rest are not even worth talking about.
CORE-BASED STATISTICAL AREA TICKETS SOLD PER CAPITA
1. Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI 1.79
2. St. Louis, MO-IL 1.35
3. Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN 1.21
4. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA 1.21
5. Kansas City, MO-KS 1.08
Why is Milwaukee so high? Milwaukee perfected the model for maximizing attendance in a small market city.
1. Built away from downtown where there is lots of surface parking for the ultra popular pre-game tailgating parties.
2. Build a Retractable dome for the cold/rainy games (this brings in an extra 1,000,000 fans per year)
3. Build on the Interstate
Everyone criticizes Milwaukee for #1 and #2 but they are ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL for getting fans out of their homes to the ballpark and without them they would be like everyone else.
You can't really fault cities like Phoenix or Boston which cannot possibly sell 7.9-8,000,000 million Tickets or so, without breaking just about the entire fire code, and probably collapsing the upper decks.
That would be about 95,000 per game, or about 2.75 Fenway's (36,000 capacity)
LA MSA has 13,340,000 people. That would require 23,878,600 tickets sold at a rate of 1.79 per capita. With 81 home games per season, that would require 294,798 people to attend per game. With the CSA, LA would need to sell 33,436,775 tickets per season and 412,800 per game. I suck at match, so correct me if I'm wrong.
And what reason do the other stadiums that come after Milwaukee have for being in the top 5? They all play downtown.
LA MSA has 13,340,000 people. That would require 23,878,600 tickets sold at a rate of 1.79 per capita. With 81 home games per season, that would require 294,798 people to attend per game. With the CSA, LA would need to sell 33,436,775 tickets per season and 412,800 per game. I suck at match, so correct me if I'm wrong.
And what reason do the other stadiums that come after Milwaukee have for being in the top 5? They all play downtown.
KC does not. It has one of the absolute best stadiums in baseball (and one of the oldest), but it is in quite possible the crappiest location of any MLB park.
Your larger point, I think, is that that metric favors small markets. Milwaukee, Cincy and KC are 3 of the 5 small market teams, and St Louis, while closer to the normal market size for the MLB, is still pretty small.
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