We spend a great deal of time on this site discussing contracts and such – all of which are an important part of the business side of baseball. But lately we’ve been ignoring the Culone in the parlor – attendance. We’re dead last in average attendance so far this year and not by a little bit. The next-to-last team, Toronto, is drawing 4% more fans than we are. The team with currently has the best attendance in baseball, Philly, has an attendance average that is more than 300% of the Tribes gate.
Here’s the grim numbers:
TEAM |
GMS |
TOTAL |
AVG |
16 |
721,076 |
45,067 |
|
13 |
576,418 |
44,339 |
|
16 |
699,987 |
43,749 |
|
21 |
824,146 |
39,245 |
|
16 |
624,008 |
39,000 |
|
18 |
696,174 |
38,676 |
|
17 |
655,269 |
38,545 |
|
23 |
862,419 |
37,496 |
|
19 |
679,997 |
35,789 |
|
16 |
558,396 |
34,899 |
|
21 |
669,722 |
31,891 |
|
14 |
413,099 |
29,507 |
|
13 |
378,652 |
29,127 |
|
17 |
470,147 |
27,655 |
|
18 |
466,836 |
25,935 |
|
20 |
515,090 |
25,754 |
|
22 |
563,276 |
25,603 |
|
18 |
445,546 |
24,752 |
|
16 |
373,829 |
23,364 |
|
17 |
394,886 |
23,228 |
|
19 |
434,012 |
22,842 |
|
16 |
360,858 |
22,553 |
|
19 |
393,339 |
20,702 |
|
16 |
321,702 |
20,106 |
|
19 |
370,043 |
19,475 |
|
18 |
316,169 |
17,564 |
|
18 |
298,571 |
16,587 |
|
20 |
328,302 |
16,415 |
|
18 |
274,548 |
15,252 |
|
14 |
205,250 |
14,660 |
And here’s why it’s important – as if you didn’t all ready know – the Indians’ ability to compete is related to its income. Attendance is awful, income plummets, the quality of the product on the field declines and our record gets worse which leads to falling attendance etc. In other words a baseball death spiral.
I have no idea how to turn this around, all I know is that it's bad for Indians baseball.