Fan Fest: Attendance in Major League Baseball Games - MLB Feature
Baseball is one of the most loved sports in the USA. It has an emotional bond with the common man. It’s no easy business though. The ball clubs in order to please their fans spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the players, the management and their ballparks.
It takes years to build the aura that surrounds the team and attracts the supporters to it. They just don’t build a ball club, they build legacies. Loyalty of the fans has to be won and it’s a long process. Once all is said and done, the loyalty of the team’s
fans is unbelievable.
The game is taken very seriously by its supporters once the season starts. They divert their attention and energies completely to the game. Scores flock to the ball parks to see their favourite teams in action. The level of enthusiasm goes further up if
the opposition is arch-rivals. The teams are cheered by their fans all the way. Even if the team is not performing to the liking of the fans, they still root for their team.
Fan attendance is an impregnable part of the game. Every year millions show up to support their teams of choice. Without people showing up, there would not be much of a meaning to playing the game. The excitement and anticipation of experiencing a game at
the ballpark is a unique one.
The supporters dawn their favourite team jerseys, join scores of other fans in cheering their team. They get a chance to see their stars up close and personal, playing on the field. It some luck a foul ball may be caught or even better, a home-run. To put
icing on the cake, those hot dogs are the ball park are just amazing, so are the other treats. The whole atmosphere is electrifying and the experience is a memorable one.
The attendance during the Major League season in 2012 was a staggering 76 million plus. Although none of the teams could breach the four million attendance barrier this year, nine teams hosted over three million audiences in 2012.
Philadelphia Phillies took the top spot with an attendance of 3.57 million, averaging over 44000 per game in 2012. They held the top spot in 2011 as well. The New York Yankees were in second spot with 3.54 million coming to see their home games and nearly
44000 showing up on average per game, a second year running in the second spot for them. The Phillies on both occasions housed more than a 100 percent of their capacity.
The record for the highest average attendance was made by the Colorado Rockies in 1993, the year of the team’s formation. They averaged over 55000 attendees per home game at Mile High Stadium. The next four spots in the list are taken by the New York Yankees,
quite clearly the most loved baseball team in America. The Rockies also created the record for the highest aggregate attendance in home games for a single season as well, crossing the 4.4 million mark in 1993.
So far only four teams have managed to cross the four million attendance mark in a single season, the first being the Toronto Blue Jays in 1991, who have achieved the feat three times, in three years. The Yankees achieved the milestone in four consecutive
seasons, taking a step further from the Blue Jays from 2005 to 2008. The New York Mets and the Colorado Rockies each have hit the magical number once.
Fan loyalty is a big factor in the attendance but the performance also matters. Houston Astros, for example, have seen the attendance at home games declined from 2.3 million in 2010 to 1.6 million in 2012, the numbers going down with the team’s performance.
On the other hand, Detroit Tigers have been improving their performances in the last few years. They have seen their aggregate fans in home games go up from 2.46 million in 2010 to 3.02 million 2012.
These numbers are a clear indication of the love for baseball that the fans have. A visit to the ballpark is always a good recreation and some time away from the stresses we face in our everyday life. The millions that show up to support their teams prove
just that every year.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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