MLB STRIKING OUT WITH FANS
Attendance is on the decline, so how is revenue going up?
Nobody goes to baseball games anymore, at least nobody I know, and even though I know only Toni, Isaiah, Mia, Daisy, the FedEx guy and my barber — who, incidentally, I see only once every two months these days because my hair now grows slower than Bermuda grass in the Mojave Desert — MLB attendance figures seem to support my claim.
Why are people no longer going to MLB games?
That’s why I am here, ladies and gentlemen.
My short answer: I don’t know.
I’ll give you a longer answer momentarily, but first let’s look briefly at the decline of MLB attendance.
We’ll start with an existential question, first posed by Jean-Paul Sartre in 1955:
Why would anyone go to a Baltimore Orioles game?
Anyway, in 2018, after 14 straight seasons averaging over 30,000 fans a game, MLB attendance fell to 28,830 a game, a 4 percent drop from 2017. In 2019, it’s even worse, with 18 of 30 teams down from a year ago.
The poorest numbers are in the Sunshine State, where the Tampa Bay Rays average 14,540 and the Miami Marlins average an MLB-low 9,545. Best I can tell, Floridians get their fill of baseball during spring training, then by April shift their sights to liquor stores, gun shops, Sam’s Clubs and Red Lobster.
All across America, people are not going to baseball games, even when they want to.
Take the case of my neighbor Arnie Weiss, a diehard New York Yankees fan with Yankees underwear, a Yankees license plate, a Yankees doormat and a Yankees shower head.
He went to the advanced-ticket window at Dodger Stadium to get YankeesDodgers tickets for August. But he was informed he could not buy individual game tickets, he had to purchase a 20-game
package. That’s like going to the supermarket to buy filet mignon and being told you couldn’t get the steak unless you also purchased four cases of Hamburger Helper.
He then checked out the ticket-broker sites online but decided it was best not to take out a second mortgage just to see a baseball game.
And, trust me, Arnie wasn’t looking for box seats. Box seats? Who can afford box seats? It would be cheaper to fly in the cast of “The Natural” to perform the Roy Hobbs walk-off homer light tower-shattering scene in your backyard.
I’m still not sure why teams don’t lower ticket prices to get more bodies in, maybe even consider free admission with a twodrink minimum.
Indeed, they should take a page out of the old Las Vegas playbook — get ’em into town for cheap, then bleed ’em dry once they’re in the house.
Speaking of which, don’t get Couch Slouch started on concession prices. Concession-wise, all I will say is this: Given the choice between an overballyhooed Dodger Dog for $6.50 and a Costco hot dog for $1.50 — which includes a soft drink, with refills — who’s driving to Dodger Stadium?* And Costco parking is free!
*Actually, a lot of people are driving to Dodger Stadium; for starters, there is no other way to get there, plus the Dodgers lead MLB in attendance at 47,118 a game.
OK, so why exactly are people staying away?
♦ Extreme weather — more rain, more cold, more heat. This might be attributed to atmospheric transmogrification, caused by climate change or the new ESPN+ app.
♦ Games are, uh, a bit boring, unless chicks dig the called third strike.
♦ Attention spans are at an all-time low; for instance, if “60 Minutes” were “60 Seconds,” millennials might watch.
Is all of this fixable? I mean, would bringing back the stolen base save baseball? I doubt it.
In fact, here is the strange thing: As attendance and TV ratings decline, baseball’s bottom line somehow keeps improving. Mike Trout just signed for $430 million, Bryce Harper for $330 million and Manny Machado for $300 million; team valuations and revenue, in many cases, are at an all-time high. How can this be?
My short answer: I don’t know.