Orioles 4th highest local TV rating.

[eddie83]

I know some people care and don't care but I find it interesting. Obviously a quick start out if the gate mattters. 

http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ssf/2017/05/cleveland_indians_have_highest.html

[ArtVanDelay]

I believe we were 4th last year also. 

[TradeAngelos]

And have the 4th largest combined TV market. 

All the markings of a small market team just struggling to get by, having to make tough financial decisions year after year.

[Frobby]

It's interesting how gate attendance and TV ratings don't necessarily correlate.   The Indians are 12th in the AL in attendance but 1st in ratings, O's are 10th in attendance but 4th in ratings.    Size of market obviously matters, since ratings are based on market share rather than total eyeballs.     Plus, some teams have played more home games than others, which affects attendance rankings.    But I think both Cleveland and Baltimore are places where fan interest is high, but budget constraints limit in person attendance.   

[sportsfan8703]

2 minutes ago, Frobby said:

It's interesting how gate attendance and TV ratings don't necessarily correlate.   The Indians are 12th in the AL in attendance but 1st in ratings, O's are 10th in attendance but 4th in ratings.    Size of market obviously matters, since ratings are based on market share rather than total eyeballs.     Plus, some teams have played more home games than others, which affects attendance rankings.    But I think both Cleveland and Baltimore are places where fan interest is high, but budget constraints limit in person attendance.   

Cleveland and Baltimore are also two cities not in the best of situations at the moment.  

[MDtransplant757]

30 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Cleveland and Baltimore are also two cities not in the best of situations at the moment.  

Weather wise, baseball wise or the city in general wise? 

[ChuckS]

36 minutes ago, Frobby said:

It's interesting how gate attendance and TV ratings don't necessarily correlate.   The Indians are 12th in the AL in attendance but 1st in ratings, O's are 10th in attendance but 4th in ratings.    Size of market obviously matters, since ratings are based on market share rather than total eyeballs.     Plus, some teams have played more home games than others, which affects attendance rankings.    But I think both Cleveland and Baltimore are places where fan interest is high, but budget constraints limit in person attendance.   

Traffic/distance is an issue too.  

You gotta remember before the Nationals got here you had Orioles fans all throughout Virginia and into NC. They are still out there.  I live in Washington, DC (only 40 miles from the Stadium) and refuse to go to games during the week because of rush hour traffic.  So imagine how it is for someone out in Loudoun County, VA. 

The O's/Nats games are very telling.  The games played in Baltimore have a what? 80/20 O's to Nats divide.  

The games played in DC are 50/50 or close to it.  Peter should have moved the team to DC, errr just kidding.....kind of. 

[TINSTAAPP]

56 minutes ago, Frobby said:

It's interesting how gate attendance and TV ratings don't necessarily correlate.   The Indians are 12th in the AL in attendance but 1st in ratings, O's are 10th in attendance but 4th in ratings.    Size of market obviously matters, since ratings are based on market share rather than total eyeballs.     Plus, some teams have played more home games than others, which affects attendance rankings.    But I think both Cleveland and Baltimore are places where fan interest is high, but budget constraints limit in person attendance.   

Places like DC, NYC and Boston have great attendance because they have many young professionals with enough disposable income to pay for season tickets. Cities like Baltimore and Cleveland do not. That's why it's completely ignorant to judge the quality of a team's fan base using attendance figures. Weekday attendance is almost entirely based on season ticket sales because people aren't going to go out of their way to stay out until 11 PM or midnight on weekdays. People have families, work obligations and other commitments throughout the week. Anybody who criticizes attendance for a baseball team just doesn't understand the reality of the world. 

[spiritof66]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

It's interesting how gate attendance and TV ratings don't necessarily correlate.   The Indians are 12th in the AL in attendance but 1st in ratings, O's are 10th in attendance but 4th in ratings.    Size of market obviously matters, since ratings are based on market share rather than total eyeballs.     Plus, some teams have played more home games than others, which affects attendance rankings.    But I think both Cleveland and Baltimore are places where fan interest is high, but budget constraints limit in person attendance.   

TV ratings measure how many people in the available audience are watching/tuned in to a game or games. That seems like a fair proxy for fan interest at the moment ratings are measured -- though of course the NYYs' cable rights revenues from their audience share should be much larger than the revenues the Indians get from their higher-rated games, since the New York audience is so much larger.

On the other hand, attendance doesn't measure how many people go to the games or want to go the games. It reflects the total of the number of tickets sold for each game. One component of that number is how many fans want to go to the game: fan interest. Another, as you point out, is how many fans can and are willing to spring for the cost of tickets, and that brings in factors other than fan interest. Still another component of attendance is the number of season tickets bought by corporations, service firms, etc., which are bought before the season (and in many cases the purchase effectively was made years earlier and rolled over each season). That has very little to do with fan interest at the moment of a game. And while the number of seats each team sells that way can't be determined (and I've tried), I'm sure it differs widely from team to team.