Attendance

[JTrue]

Not sure this goes on the main board, but everyone loves ******** about attendance for USF and the Rays. Watch the clip of Trout's HR today and tell me attendance isn't a problem everywhere right now. Yes, this is a mid-week day game, but there can't be 5,000 people in attendance in a metro area of 7+ million people, the 4th largest in the country. And for comparison, one that is more than double the Tampa Bay metro area.

https://www.mlb.com/news/mike-trout-sets-career-high-in-home-runs

Edited August 21, 2019 by JTrue

[Rex Havoc]

Attendance is down pretty much everywhere. The high price of most games as well as being able to watch all of the games at home plays a huge factor in this. Parking, food, drinks, etc are too expensive  

The box score for that game said 17k, which seems to be high compared to what the crowd looked like. We know how most teams lie about attendance. 

[JTrue]

16 minutes ago, Rex Havoc said:

Attendance is down pretty much everywhere. The high price of most games as well as being able to watch all of the games at home plays a huge factor in this. Parking, food, drinks, etc are too expensive  

The box score for that game said 17k, which seems to be high compared to what the crowd looked like. We know how most teams lie about attendance. 

I taught an economics class years ago and would use movie theaters as my example. Let's say you have one screen for the example and you charge $5 a ticket. As you incrementally raise the price, you're looking for the sweet spot that doesn't actually mean the most people.

$5 x 300 people = $1500

$7 x 250 people = $1750

$10 x 200 people = $2000

$15 x 100 people = $1500

$20 x 50 people = $1000

200 people is less seats filled, but more money. It's not always about asses in seats when you're running a business. If your goal is filling the stands for a game, yes, $10 tickets for the whole stadium gets you a sell-out, but it likely won't make your bottom line look better. Yes, I know concession is a factor, just an example. Like the Rays probably found out this year, closing the upper deck didn't help attendance, but when you're selling those $5 tickets in the upper deck and you force everyone down to the lower level at a higher price point, you only need a few of the $5 people to buy a $30 ticket to make the money work in your favor, but you drive off a lot of actual people.

[Triple B]

40 minutes ago, JTrue said:

Not sure this goes on the main board, but everyone loves ******** about attendance for USF and the Rays. Watch the clip of Trout's HR today and tell me attendance isn't a problem everywhere right now. Yes, this is a mid-week day game, but there can't be 5,000 people in attendance in a metro area of 7+ million people, the 4th largest in the country. And for comparison, one that is more than double the Tampa Bay metro area.

https://www.mlb.com/news/mike-trout-sets-career-high-in-home-runs

Saw this while at an establishment for lunch today. I don't think I've ever seen a reg season Tuesday day game, Wrigley excluded. Was this a make-up?

[JTrue]

2 minutes ago, Triple B said:

Saw this while at an establishment for lunch today. I don't think I've ever seen a reg season Tuesday day game, Wrigley excluded. Was this a make-up?

Assume so. They're playing a double header. Which is also a good example. If you just want people, don't play a day/night where you get to empty the stadium and sell another round of tickets. Sort of like how Disney does their Halloween and Disney nights. You have to buy a ticket for one or the other, you don't get to buy the day ticket and stay for the evening fun. It's regular price, but the park closes early and then they get you for the night celebration for another ticket.

[NewEnglandBull]

All games should just be on tv with no fans involved. 

[puc86]

9 hours ago, NewEnglandBull said:

All games should just be on tv with no fans involved. 

That is easy for someone over a thousand miles away to say. 

[Bullrush33]

Yankees and Red Sox do not have this issue. Baseball is a tradition for those teams. We have little tradition for the rays or Bulls and many people that live here are not from here and have allegiance to other teams. I mean the watch parties here for other colleges are ridiculous.

[CousinRicky]

24 minutes ago, Bullrush33 said:

Yankees and Red Sox do not have this issue. Baseball is a tradition for those teams. We have little tradition for the rays or Bulls and many people that live here are not from here and have allegiance to other teams. I mean the watch parties here for other colleges are ridiculous.

I've seen the Yankees and Sox in lean years and they didn't fill that place all the time.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/9158007/boston-red-sox-820-game-sellout-streak-ends

Let's get Joey Knight on this.

[Mike Stuben]

I don't have a study to point to, but just years of experience going to games. 

The cost of attending live sporting events over the last 30 years has increased at a rate that far exceeds the rate of inflation during that same time period. 

This is significant. The financial commitment needed to attend games in person has changed. 

I also want to point out that professional sports stadiums are getting smaller (less seats). 

Lets look at professional teams in Florida:

NFL

Dolphins moved from the Orange Bowl to Joe Robbie Stadium, then that stadium had a massive renovation - each step along the way the size of the stadium got smaller.

Bucs move from Tampa Stadium to Raymond James Stadium, that was a move to a smaller stadium.

Jaguars renovated the Gator Bowl, and the renovation took out seats. 

MLB

Rays have closed the upper deck (and had done previous smaller renovations that removed seats).

Marlins moved from Joe Robbie Stadium to their new smaller stadium. 

NHL

Lightning renovated Amalie Arena and took out a couple thousand seats. 

MLS

Tampa and Miami franchises folded in big stadiums and have been replaced by Orlando and Miami franchises in smaller stadiums. (Miami TBD)

Exceptions: The old Orlando Arena and Miami arena were small and got replaced by larger venues.