2014 Attendance Thread

[OFFNY]

o

4 GAME-SET vs. D-Rays O (JUNE 27th, 27th, 28th, 29th)

15,614 *

34,895 *

36,387

32,655

______

119,551

* Split Doubleheader

4-GAME AVERAGE: 29,888

[OFFNY]

o

4 GAME-SET vs. Rangers O (JUNE 30th, JULY 1st, 2nd, 3rd)

15,252

19,150

13,478

24,535

_____

72,415

4-GAME AVERAGE: 18,104

[OFFNY]

o

3 GAME-SET vs. White Sox O (JUNE 23rd, 24th, 25th)

o

4 GAME-SET vs. D-Rays O (JUNE 27th, 27th, 28th, 29th)

o

4 GAME-SET vs. Rangers O (JUNE 30th, JULY 1st, 2nd, 3rd)

10-GAME HOME-STAND TOTALS: o

250,196

10-GAME AVERAGE: 25,020

[OFFNY]

o

2 GAME-SET vs. Nationals O (JULY 9th, 10th)

35,575

30,417

_____

65,992

2-GAME AVERAGE: 32,996

[TonySoprano]

Attendance is only 13,854 ahead of 2013, but there will be one less gate due to the June 27 DH. But Soprano, the Yankees will be in town so that will give us a big jump. Not so fast. The next three games in 2013 drew 110,667. A three game weekend series in July 2013 vs. NY brought in 126,292. That projects to maybe a 30,000 increase (2%) over 2013 by the All Star break. The O's need to have a big boost in September, like they had in 2012, for a really noticeable attendance increase.

[BohBalmer]

Yankees series will be packed

[OFFNY]

The Yankees series will be packed.

Before the 2012 season, we used to barely outnumber the Yankee and Red Sox fans at O.P.A.C.Y.

Every time that I went to see the Orioles play against the Yankees and/or the Red Sox at O.P.A.C.Y. from 2005-2011, it was about 55% Oriole fans, and about 45% Yankee and/or Red Sox fans.

That changed in a big way with the 4-game series against the Yankees back in early September of 2012.

I'll be surprised if the split isn't AT LEAST 75% to 25% in our favor in these next 3 games against the Yanks.

[OFFNY]

o

3 GAME-SET vs. Yankees O (JULY 11th, 12th, 13th)

44,031

46,667 *

34,483

______

125,181

* Sellout (101.5% Full)

3-GAME AVERAGE: 41,727

[wildcard]

The O's rank 15th in MLB in attendance at 30,006 per game. That's right smack in the middle. Not a large market or small market team.

The O's are on pace for 2.4M fans in 80 dates. They had one doubleheader due to a rainout that will cost them one game at the gate. That would about a 43,000 ticket increase over 2013.

I wonder if the O's have found their level on years when they have a good team in the post Nationals era. Do we really expect attendance to continue any significant increase in years to come?

And if attendance is near peak does that mean revenue is also and therefore so is payroll?

Just a few questions to chew on.

[Frobby]

If this is the peak of Orioles attendance, I think the franchise is probably close to maxed out on payroll. If they make the playoffs, that will throw a few million extra into the till, and maybe inspire another decent bump in attendance for next year, maybe + 100-200,000 or so.

I used to think that if the O's put a consistently solid team on the field, they'd be able to crack 3 million in attendance, even with the Nats 40 miles away. Unfortunately, I no longer think that's true. Maybe if we got to the World Series.

I find it kind of surprising that the O's-Nats combined don't seem able to match 2005 (O's drew 2.62 mm, Nats drew 2.73 mm). Both teams are much better now than they were then, and have been for a while.

[Phantom]

I've always been a believer that attendance tracks with performance, but has a delay (hence the uptick last season despite the lower win total).

[birrman54]

In my opinion most people like winning more than they like baseball.

I think we are seeing attendance numbers for a team that fans perceive has chance to win on any given day. For the big crowds they need to be perceived as expected to win, not just to have a chance.

O's have plenty of strong fans who are coming to games regardless, but to get from 30,000 to 38,000+ you need a certain amount of bandwagoners to fill the seats. If we can win a playoff series this year I expect we will see another good bump in attendance for 2015.

Plenty of the 'big market' teams are really only selling out while their teams are perceived to be daily winners, as soon as they start to slip so does the attendance. Watch the next 30 games in NY / BOS as an example.

[spiritof66]

I've always been a believer that attendance tracks with performance, but has a delay (hence the uptick last season despite the lower win total).

There's definitely a delay in the response of attendance to on-field success. (The conventional wisdom is, or used to be anyway, that attendance peaks in the year after a World Series victory.) I think that's due in large part to the important role of season tickets and ticket plans sold in the of-season, which generate revenues even when the weather is bad or the game is otherwise unappealing, and whether or not the seats are filled.

My guess is that attendance can bump up a little more, to maybe 2.6 or 2.8 mm, if the Orioles can string together a few more years of post-season contention (for all the enthusiasm that's been generated, there's been a grand total of one such season, plus this one so far), or in the unlikely event (in the near term) that the Nats falter.

[schittenden]

I would expect that if the economy ever were to get humming again, the Orioles could seem some attendance gains. I think that's probably less true for the Nats as the DC economy is relatively stable with the constant inflow and outflow of tax dollars from the Federal government.

[Frobby]

I would expect that if the economy ever were to get humming again, the Orioles could seem some attendance gains. I think that's probably less true for the Nats as the DC economy is relatively stable with the constant inflow and outflow of tax dollars from the Federal government.

Here is the unemployment rate in the Baltimore MSA:

2010: 8.3

2011: 7.6

2012: 7.2

2013: 6.8

2014: 6.0

http://www.dllr.state.md.us/lmi/laus/baltotowson.shtml

Six percent isn't fantastic, but it's not like the economy in Baltimore is terrible.