What happened to the fanbase? Only 8,000 last night

[Greenpastures23]

A big game against the Blue Jays in the supposed best ballpark in baseball.

Pretty wild

[Snutchy]

It was the first day of grade school in most areas. 

[emmett16]

There was a 14 year losing streak.  The Expos moved from Montreal and became the Nationals.  The Nationals won a World Series in the middle of the 5 year losing streak that came shortly after the 14 year losing streak.  There was also a global pandemic.  It’s gonna take a lot more than 3.5 out in the WC race to put butts in seats on a Wednesday with school in session.  

[Bemorewins]

Most schools in the area went back last Monday, August 26.

With that said, I think it would be unreasonable to expect after the last 5 years of extreme sucktitude and the damage that did to fan interest; that a few weeks of good competitive baseball would wipe all of that away.

The best way to build on this year's momentum and increase fan interest and ticket sales is the moves the O's make in the offseason. That will be the opportunity to start earning back fan trust and interest, not just over-performing expectations to competitive for a 3rd wildcard.

This is the first year since like 2018 that I have even seen people in the community wearing their O's shirts and hats with pride.

[2001OriolesFan]

Well I went the night before.   One of the best games of the year.  One thing I haven't heard about but saw. Santander hit a foul ball out of Orioles Park.  I was in section 45 to the left and behind home plate.   The ball went out of the stadium to the left of the lights above the 3rd deck in right field.  Looking at a diagram of the ball field ((see https://duckduckgo.com/?t=lm&q=orioles+park+dimensions&iax=images&iai=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewclem.com%2FBaseball%2FDiag%2FCamdenYards.gif&ia=images   )  It disappeared at 318 feet.  Not landed- that was at the top of it's arc.   If he were fair, it would have hit the wharehouse.

[DrungoHazewood]

The only time in Baltimore history where they drew very well when the team was poor was the Camden Yards honeymoon. That was a confluence of an amazing new stadium, good teams most of the time, the internet was new and streaming wasn't possible, HDTV was still years off, and the Nats were called the Montreal Expos.

In the 1960s and 1970s it was common for a 90+ win Orioles team to draw 6,000 fans for a weekday game.  From 1954-78 their highest season attendance was 1.2M. In 1971 there was a Jim Palmer Thursday start for a team that would eventually win over 100 games that drew 5,600.  That game in '87 where Juan Nieves no-hit the Orioles drew 11k. 

But I think COVID and the last five years of losing has had an impact beyond any of that.  I haven't gone to a game this years and I usually go to a couple a season.  But with teenage kids and school and sports and a two hour drive each way I just haven't gone.

Season tickets and other pre-purchased tickets typically make up a large percentage of most games attendance.  @Sports Guy used to work in ticket sales, he could probably throw out some numbers. Next year I expect attendance to be up a fair amount. Obviously not like 1997, but I'd expect the highest numbers since 2014 or 2015.

[sportsfan8703]

Rainy school night. 

[DrungoHazewood]

Be forewarned, I'm going to go on a little tangent. Ignore if you like.

Looking at the Orioles' historic attendance numbers, bb-ref lumps them in with the St. Louis Browns.  The Browns existed from 1902 through 1953.  Their highest season attendance was 718k in 1922.  Their median attendance was 276k, or about 3500 a game.  In 2019, before the pandemic, the independent Atlantic League, full of anonymous players who washed out of AA at 27, had four teams that drew more than 276k in just a 140-game schedule.  During the Depression the Browns had three seasons where they drew under 100k fans for the the entire year, or a little over 1000 a game.

On Thursday, May 9th, 1935 the Browns played the A's in front of an announced crowd of 200.  That year they'd play 11 home games and four road games with announced attendances under 1000.

So just imagine that.  Major League teams who were being run like an indy league team today.  This was before outside revenues for media, by the 40s they may have been getting a little money from radio.  But a large percentage of revenues were game day.  Tickets, concessions, ads on the wall. You probably didn't pay for parking, just found a spot in the city. Most tickets probably were like $1. There had to have been years where the Browns' total gross revenues were like $300-500k.  The front office was probably two guys.  They'd have a couple coaches. Who knows how they did scouting, probably barely.  It's no wonder many teams didn't have many formal minor league affiliates until the 40s.  How do you pay for minor league teams on that budget? You can barely afford 25 major leaguers.  Remember, in 1930-31 Babe Ruth was making $80k a year.  I'd bet the Browns didn't make $80k that year, so the O's making less than Scherzer this year isn't unprecedented.

I'm sure there are books about this, but there had to have been discussions with the league about what they'd do if a team went bankrupt.  In the 1930s several teams had to have been really close.  It wouldn't surprise me if the league or other owners fronted some cash to the tail-end teams help make payroll. Even if that violated some rules.

 

[Sports Guy]

People have to remember that almost all the tickets are sold before the season starts.

Between season tickets and group sales, most of that is done in the offseason.  The Os weren’t supposed to be good, so not a lot of season tickets were sold. Also, they have several Different plans and some plans sell better than others.  The Sunday plan, for example, is usually the most popular.   So, a game like last night, may not have been on a popular plan.

The Orioles still average about 3k walk up a night.  That number will obviously be less on a school night, particularly one where the weather isn’t great.

The Orioles basically know what the attendance will be before OD ever starts.  Take whatever number you are already at, add 250k or so, add in whatever you get for advanced ticket sales during the season (which isn’t nothing but it’s not a lot) and it’s pretty easy to come up with the number.

Next year I would think You see a huge boost in attendance if the Os capitalize on this season and give the fans something to be excited about in the offseason.  
 

 

[crowmst3k!]

I'd go to more games if they started earlier.  

7:05 is a rough start time for me, because I'm up at 5:30 every morning, and work a 10-12 hour shift. 

[Dale]

1 hour ago, crowmst3k! said:

I'd go to more games if they started earlier.  

7:05 is a rough start time for me, because I'm up at 5:30 every morning, and work a 10-12 hour shift. 

Whatever happened to the plan to start weekday games during a portion of the season at 6:35.  Wasn't that supposed to be in effect for 2020? 

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, crowmst3k! said:

I'd go to more games if they started earlier.  

7:05 is a rough start time for me, because I'm up at 5:30 every morning, and work a 10-12 hour shift. 

Being two hours away I probably wouldn't.  But I turn into a pumpkin at 1000-1030, so I often go to bed before the game is over even when watching on TV.  I'd love to see a game with a strictly enforced pitch clock and a 6:30 start time that ends at 8:45.  100 years ago there were no lights, but typical games would start in late afternoon and never really risk being called due to darkness because baseball was a two-hour sport. Like all the other sports except football.

[Orioles0615]

11 hours ago, emmett16 said:

There was a 14 year losing streak.  The Expos moved from Montreal and became the Nationals.  The Nationals won a World Series in the middle of the 5 year losing streak that came shortly after the 14 year losing streak.  There was also a global pandemic.  It’s gonna take a lot more than 3.5 out in the WC race to put butts in seats on a Wednesday with school in session.  

Not to mention the general public doesn't like going in to Baltimore

[Roll Tide]

1 hour ago, crowmst3k! said:

I'd go to more games if they started earlier.  

7:05 is a rough start time for me, because I'm up at 5:30 every morning, and work a 10-12 hour shift. 

That’s were I am ….been to 4 or 5 mostly Saturday and I still wake up at 5AM even on my off days. Most nights I struggle to get through the games that start at 7 on the TV.

[mojmann]

1 hour ago, Orioles0615 said:

Not to mention the general public doesn't like going in to Baltimore

Just one man's opinion, but I think that's overblown .... magically, I guess, the perception of horrible stadium-area crime stops on those days when those huge crowds come in for Paul McCartney and the Ravens.