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The 2017 MLB Attendance Numbers *

* From the Post-Publication Comment Section: “Those are not attendance figures. MLB doesn’t reveal attendance figures. Those are ticket sales. Attendance would likely be somewhat less.” – Cliff Blau.

After being called into question in the comment section by one of baseball’s staunchest seekers and defenders of the truth, Cliff Blau, we have no problem with the logical conclusion he reaches. Indeed, if these were – or are – seats based on ticket sales alone, they would not be attendance figures, and we should expect actual attendance to be variably less than the actual number of tickets sold.

However, these figures were not described as “ticket sales” by ESPN in their report. ESPN columns them as “attendance” figures – not ticket sales.

If that is what they are, simply purchased seats, then quoting sources like ESPN need to make that point clear to those of us who grew up understanding attendance as the total number of people who actually attended a game on a purchased ticket.

We have no argument with the logical conclusion of Mr. Blau. If they are tickets sales, the actual  attendance figures should be lower.

Here’s the link to our source article. Pay attention to the language of the report. It seems pretty clear to us that they intended their efforts to be read as an attendance report – and not as a ticket sales memo to the marketing and business staffs of each club.

Forgive us too. We inadvertently neglected to include this important referential link at publication time:

http://www.espn.com/mlb/attendance

TABLE 1

MLB TEAM HOME ATTENDANCE DURING THE 2017 SEASON

RANKING BASED UPON AVERAGE HOME GAME ATTENDANCE

TABLE 1 COMMENTARY

So how do we explain the presence of St. Louis and San Francisco in the #’s 2 and 3 spots behind mighty Los Angeles in the race for biggest MLB gate in 2017? St. Louis had an estimated 2016 population of 311,404 for the 2 spot and San Francisco had a 2016 “e-p0p” of 870,887 for the 3 hole. And, of course, the 2016 “e-p0p” for the most attended ball games in LA was 3,792,322 and the Dodger fans were turning out to watch a club that took the Houston Astros down to Game 7 in The World Series before finally yielding – while this was pretty much of an off-year for the Cardinals and Giants.

Go figure. And most of you know the drill.

St. Louis is, without serious challenge, the best fan supported MLB club out there. The Cardinals have a huge commuter fan base beyond the city limits that supports them and a dedicated southern and midwestern fan base that travels often and apparently well to the place we used to call The Mound City – and just to see the Cardinal games.

Support for the Giants in San Francisco has been buoyed in recent years by the three World Series the team won in 2010, 2012, and 2014. Perhaps, the fans were hoping that even-year “miss” in 2016 would be made up for them in 2017. All we know for sure in the Bay area example is that the “go-see-em” glanditis is not contagious to the fans across the bay in Oakland.

TABLE 2

RANK ORDER FINISH OF THE 7 TEAMS FROM THE 4 LARGEST CITIES

TABLE 2 COMMENTARY

The Yankees from big old New York fought hard in 2017, also taking the Astros to 7 games before losing the AL pennant to Houston. The Astros fulfilled the spot of mathematical medicocrity in attendance finishing 1th in a total field of 30 and spared only by the “never-do-well” White Sox from having the worst attendance for any of the 7 clubs from the Big Four most populated cities.

Enjoy viewing all the data with your own eyes and seeing what the rest of us are missing.

And Keep Those Happy Holidays Going on the Way to Our Latest Happy New Year!

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Tags: The 2017 MLB Attendance Numbers

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