Declining Attendance Draws Concern From MLB

April 26, 2011 6:24 AM

Empty seats are seen as the Chicago Cubs take on the Arizona Diamondbacks at Wrigley Field on April 6, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo Credit: Getty Images, by Jonathan Daniel)

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CHICAGO (CBS) – Declining attendance at games is drawing concern from Major League Baseball, according to a new report.

Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan reported that MLB is poised to see declining attendance for the fourth year in a row. In 320 games league-wide so far this season, attendance has already dropped 506 tickets per game, Passan reported.

Over the 2,430 games to be played throughout the season, the drop would add up to more than 1.2 million fewer tickets – the worst since the early 2000s, Passan reported.

The steepest drop has been at Dodger Stadium, which saw a year-over-year drop of 7,144 tickets per game, Passan reported. But Wrigley Field also made the story, with a drop of 4,300 attendees per game year over year.

Last week, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said he had “no concerns” over the drop in attendance – at least when it comes to the Cubs.

“You guys know how bad the weather is,” Selig said this past Thursday at a meeting with Associated Press sports editors in New York. “I left Phoenix Sunday and it was 96. I flew to Milwaukee and I opened the blinds at home the next morning and it was snowing.

“We’re only 1.2, 1.3 percent off (average attendance figures). But we’ve had horrendous weather, especially in the Midwest. I really don’t have any concerns.”

Declining Attendance Draws Concern From MLB

Fast Ed

Surely it has nothing to do with the economy or the price of tickets and snacks.
Fast Ed

……or the cost of parking.

big time sucker

or the piece of dung weather we are having

Dan Rakow

Major League Baseball should put FANS FIRST and MONEY LAST.
NotBuyingTicketsEither

Weather aside,continuing to raise ticket prices while the economy remains relatively stagnant will obviously lead to less seats being filled. Maybe time for some pay cuts across the board. Everybody needs to step up and sacrifice no?
Ken W.

Maybe the players should sacrifice for the good of the game. If they want to continue to earn a paycheck, they should think of think of creative ways to get fans into the ballparks. Cutting back ticket prices and player’s salaries might be a good start. Just saying.
Dean

Cubs’ fans aren’t going to Wrigley this season because they are finally tired of being taken advantage of by ownership. Put a good product on the field and the fans will show up. Put garbage out there and the seagulls will be more numerous than fans.

big time sucker

if it is this way in july i will stand with you my friend

GigFCP

Taking the family to a baseball game used to be a relatively minor dent in a man’s budget. Now, it’s a small fortune! Thank the player’s union for their incessant greed in not allowing a bona fide salary cap. Thank the owner’s for making a cup of Coke cost more than a lunch at a nice restaurant. Baseball players deserve to make money as they are the best at what they do and people do want to watch them do it. However, there is a ceiling to how much we want to watch you. I almost wouldn’t mind at this point (I used to hate it) a full-scale strike/lockout that would culminate in a salary cap that keeps going to watch a friggin’ baseball game (i.e. one of 162 in a season) what it once was: a relative “drop in the bucket.”
Soxbills

Spring training games in Florida were over 20 bucks,How do they expect families to pay these prices
SPAULDING!

They live in a world where it’s fun to watch the AL east bludgeon, just about, everyone and force salaries to the moon.
Yes, the weather has to be a factor. People that have jobs are not going to take time off (probably, because they don’t have a lot of vacation time.)
When the weather is nice, Wrigley will still have a tourist attraction feature.
mike in davenport

ESPN has a site where you can look up attendance figures by year. The Cubs are currently averaging 34,534 at Wrigley. All of last year, they averaged 37,814. So about 3300 difference.

The White Sox are currently averaging 22,800. Last year they averaged 27,091. Almost 4300 fewer per game.

Rhetorical question: why is it that when 670 reports this story, it is only mentioning the Cubs, who aren’t seeing as big a drop as the Sox?
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