MLB attendacne is down slightly AP Photo/John Amis
Through the first 93 games of the 2009 MLB season MLB teams are averaging 31,111 fans per game. That number is down 4.5% over the final 2008 average of 32,539 fans per game.
The MLB and its teams were prepared for a number like this as most projections were showing a single digit decline for 2009. Based on those numbers it seems likely that MLB will draw around 75 million fans to its ballparks this year.
That might sound like a good number but 75 million fans will be the lowest total over the past three seasons and some 6% under the MLB high water market of 79.5 million fans it drew in 2007.
MLB clubs are in a daily fight to keep those numbers from falling any further by offering deals at the concession stands, discounted tickets, and any other promotional idea they can think off to keep fans traveling to the ball parks.
MLB has not yet released a comparison of opening week 2008 and opening week 2009, since attendance is generally weakest in April and September when weather is a big factor in many MLB cities. This year it seemed that the weather was particularly nasty especially in Cincinnati where fans might have had a better time doing a stretch in prison over suffering through the wind and cold of opening weekend.
These numbers seem to suggest that MLB could help itself by trimming some of the 163 games each club plays each year. Since weather is such a factor for a majority of MLB cities in April maybe the season should start a week later in April. Maybe a tie in with National Tax day, April the 15th, would be a good place to start the season.
There is also the issue of how late the season stretched now, with the 162 game schedule and wild card round of the playoffs the World Series isn’t over until November. For many East coast cities it is unpleasant at best to be at an open air ball park that late into the year. Cutting a week from the schedule in September would help to alleviate those concerns.
In the end I think an elimination of ten games per team would be a way to not only make those 152 games more meaningful, but avoid the rough weather on the East coast in April and September.
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