The attendance thread 2022

[fansince1988]

7,371 last night, tonight doesn't look much better. 

[Getz]

The attendance is still terrible. It's really sad to see this exciting team play in such an empty ballpark.

[interloper]

Just now, Getz said:

The attendance is still terrible. It's really sad to see this exciting team play in such an empty ballpark.

It's actually been WORSE since Adley was brought up. 

[deward]

1 hour ago, Getz said:

The attendance is still terrible. It's really sad to see this exciting team play in such an empty ballpark.

To be fair, they're mostly exciting relative to the utterly unwatchable teams of the past few years. They're not GOOD, per se. Just much better than what we've been seeing lately.

That being said, I've harbored concerns over the past couple of years that the strategy of completely neglecting the big league product during the course of this extended rebuild period came with the risk of alienating the fan base long term. Hopefully an eventual contending team will stir up renewed interest in the city, but I suspect it will be a long road to get back to selling the place out regularly (assuming that's still even possible).

[Moshagge3]

3 hours ago, interloper said:

It's actually been WORSE since Adley was brought up. 

Since Adley was brought up the team has been on the road 4 out of 7 weekends and haven't played Boston or New York. That's why he's not been a factor.

[SteveA]

15 minutes ago, Moshagge3 said:

Since Adley was brought up the team has been on the road 4 out of 7 weekends and haven't played Boston or New York. That's why he's not been a factor.

And as always, a good chunk of attendance is always driven by season ticket sales, as well as non-season ticket holders who choose a bunch of games to go to before the season and buy those tickets.    In season sales are always a smaller driver in attendance.

So there is a one year lag between improvement and attendance going up significantly.   It takes an incredible 1989 type season for the jump to be immediate... where it sort of catches fire and becomes a phenomena and suddenly lots of people who hadn't planned to go to games or bought tickets in advance suddenly start coming in droves.   That is very rare -- and even then, it is still just built on top of the foundation of season ticket sales which is very low this  year.

[fansince1988]

19 minutes ago, SteveA said:

And as always, a good chunk of attendance is always driven by season ticket sales, as well as non-season ticket holders who choose a bunch of games to go to before the season and buy those tickets.    In season sales are always a smaller driver in attendance.

So there is a one year lag between improvement and attendance going up significantly.   It takes an incredible 1989 type season for the jump to be immediate... where it sort of catches fire and becomes a phenomena and suddenly lots of people who hadn't planned to go to games or bought tickets in advance suddenly start coming in droves.   That is very rare -- and even then, it is still just built on top of the foundation of season ticket sales which is very low this  year.

1989 was a long time ago, not relevant today. Consider Cleveland. They climbed all the way to the World Series in 2016, and that didn't make a dent on their attendance. We need a Ruth type player, or several consecutive WS appearances to sniff regular sellouts.

[MChance]

Hawaiian shirt giveaway this weekend! Bring ‘em out, bring ‘em out, bring ‘em out! 

[Frobby]

15 hours ago, deward said:

To be fair, they're mostly exciting relative to the utterly unwatchable teams of the past few years. They're not GOOD, per se. Just much better than what we've been seeing lately.

That being said, I've harbored concerns over the past couple of years that the strategy of completely neglecting the big league product during the course of this extended rebuild period came with the risk of alienating the fan base long term. Hopefully an eventual contending team will stir up renewed interest in the city, but I suspect it will be a long road to get back to selling the place out regularly (assuming that's still even possible).

It’s not really possible.  Our high water mark of the last 17 years was in 2014 when we won the division and drew 2.46 mm fans.  We had 14 games with crowds of 40,000+ that year.   In 2016, when we made the wild card on the final day, we drew 2.17 mm fans and had 8 crowds of 40,000+.  In between those two seasons were the Freddie Gray riots and I think people’s perception of public safety in Baltimore has never really recovered.   So until proven otherwise, I think 2016 attendance is about the best the O’a will see even once they’re a playoff team.  Now, if at some point they make the World Series and are seen as a strong contender going into the following season, there might be a chance to exceed that.   The 2012-16 teams didn’t have a lot of hype and high expectations going into those seasons, even though they were consistently pretty good.  

[Sports Guy]

8 minutes ago, Frobby said:

It’s not really possible.  Our high water mark of the last 17 years was in 2014 when we won the division and drew 2.46 mm fans.  We had 14 games with crowds of 40,000+ that year.   In 2016, when we made the wild card on the final day, we drew 2.17 mm fans and had 8 crowds of 40,000+.  In between those two seasons were the Freddie Gray riots and I think people’s perception of public safety in Baltimore has never really recovered.   So until proven otherwise, I think 2016 attendance is about the best the O’a will see even once they’re a playoff team.  Now, if at some point they make the World Series and are seen as a strong contender going into the following season, there might be a chance to exceed that.   The 2012-16 teams didn’t have a lot of hype and high expectations going into those seasons, even though they were consistently pretty good.  

Honestly, this is part of the reason why you bring up the kids soon.  Let the fans see these kids play and get excited for them.

At that point, you may see season ticket sales, which is where a large majority of the ticket sales come from really jump up.  

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:

Honestly, this is part of the reason why you bring up the kids soon.  Let the fans see these kids play and get excited for them.

At that point, you may see season ticket sales, which is where a large majority of the ticket sales come from really jump up.  

I think season tickets are likely to get a solid though unspectacular boost next year.   The team is better and forward-looking fans can anticipate further improvement.   I think it will take a legit playoff race before any really large jump occurs though.   

[interloper]

17 hours ago, Moshagge3 said:

Since Adley was brought up the team has been on the road 4 out of 7 weekends and haven't played Boston or New York. That's why he's not been a factor.

That is a good and fair point! 

[Kaven5]

I was almost buying the scam until the Orioles passed on Jordan Lawlar last year. That was just inexcusable. To have that talent fall to 5 and the ORIOLES PASSED. I cant accept any excuse from Elias. Moves like that will continue to keep fans away.

189 AB    .349 AVG   8HR   32RBI  25SB   1.031OPS     2022 SO FAR

[Frobby]

27,814 at the game tonight seeing an awesome game.   Think they’ll come back for another game or two this year after an experience like that?  Yeah, I think so!   

Hawaiian shirt night tomorrow.   I think that was the biggest crowd of the year last year (Opening Day was during Covid crowd restrictions).   Probably a good crowd again this year, if rain doesn’t interfere.  
 

 

[Frobby]

Total attendance through 40 games is 626,828.  That compares to 659,618 in 2019, the last full season with unrestricted attendance.   So it’s close, and with the team surging right now, I wouldn’t be too surprised if the second half was a bit stronger than the first.