From the Lone Red Seat: Attendance Abomination: What’s Wrong with the MLB?

April 1st is a great day for jokes. Unfortunately, one of the funniest moments of the day for the MLB wasn’t done on purpose. On the first Monday of the regular season for the Cincinnati Reds, Great American Ballpark had a pathetic announced attendance of 7,799. Yes, it was an early April game on a Monday night. Yes, the weather was not ideal. But an announced attendance of 7,799? That number wouldn’t even crack the top ten Minor League Baseball teams’ average attendances for 2018. The attendance problem in Major League Baseball is no laughing matter. So, what’s wrong with MLB attendance?

Before going any further, it must be noted that the Reds abysmal showing on April 1st is by no means an outlier. A week later, the Baltimore Orioles set the lowest recorded attendance at Camden Yards (for a game where they sold tickets) with an announced attendance of 6,585. With a capacity of 45,971, that means only seven out of every fifty seats at Camden Yards had a fan in it. Other teams aren’t faring much better. As of April 28th, the Miami Marlins have an average attendance of 9,951. If you take out Opening Day, the Marlins’ average attendance dips below 9,000. Overall, one-third of MLB teams aren’t even averaging above 20,000 fans per game in 2019.

To make it even worse, all these numbers are far too generous. In the thrilling world of attendance record keeping, the announced attendance is actually the number of tickets sold for a particular game. That means every season ticket holder, mini-plan holder, company with tickets, and everyone in between who is holding a ticket is counted in that number even if they never show up to the ballpark. The actual number of fans at that Baltimore Orioles game, was, to say the least, probably much, much lower.

Last year, the MLB blamed their attendance issues on the weather. And, sure, they had some ground to stand on with that argument in 2018 because of an unusual amount of rainouts. But this year? Nope. Can’t make that excuse anymore. Where does the MLB go from here?

There needs to be some sort of acknowledgment that the current strategy to attract fans to ballparks just isn’t working. Particularly in markets that are losing fans, something new and innovative needs to be done.

Luckily, there’s a quick fix for this problem: promotions. This is where the MLB needs to take a piece of advice from their pipeline, Minor League Baseball. Promotions in Minor League Baseball are now a hallmark that draws in fans because of the wacky and innovative concepts that teams come up with. This year, for example, the Madison Mallards (who are technically a summer collegiate team) will be putting on a Dad Bod Contest (sadly, it’s too late for me to enter). It’s no coincidence that the Mallards fill nearly 95% of seats in their stadium on any given night.

Look Major League Baseball, each team has 81 home games that they need to try to fill the stands for. Give the Yankees a mascot, add some promotions, and let the “kids”, and the fans, play!