The Regular Season Problem Damaging MLB's Attendance Numbers
Major League Baseball’s overall attendance is slipping for the fourth year in a row.
Even more damaging are the double-digit dips being seen in Toronto and San Francisco---two cities normally heavily invested in their baseball.
Rob Manfred will point out to the baseball games themselves and claim that the product is why the people aren’t showing up. This is the lazy blame game, as we are seeing younger players, more talent, and more competitive baseball from the teams that do decide to actually compete and not tank (looking at you, Miami and Baltimore).
And then of course, we can counter that with the TV ratings, which remain extremely strong. Even the notoriously empty Tropicana Field houses a baseball team that according to its network has average viewership is up 9% through 28 games, while live streaming is up 145%. Even the disgustingly-run Miami Marlins have improved TV ratings, even though bringing up the attendance numbers at taxpayer-funded Marlins Park remains awful and deservingly so. So baseball isn’t slipping on the overall national attention spectrum, but the continued interest just isn’t translating to people on the seats.
Two reasons why: the experience itself and the value of each game.
Let’s just toss this out there: it is expensive going to a sporting event nowadays. Even though the prices to experience an MLB game doesn’t come close to the asinine numbers of attending an NFL game, they are still considerably sky high and hard to justify. You pay too much for tickets, which have increased a bit this season on average. You pay too much for food; there are probably only a small handful of stadiums that offers beer less than $9. Don’t get me started on prices for pretzels, popcorn, hot dogs, and those infamous crazy ballpark meals like the 2-pound chicken tender found in Arlington.
Then there’s having to pay for parking, which runs past $30 on some baseball parks. Then there’s the amenities, which are seemingly built only for the higher class. Then there’s the lockers, as baseball parks are even starting to ban backpacks from the stadium in hopes of draining everyone’s pockets some more. The ballpark experience has become a headache, a hassle, and an expensive investment. No way are people going to visit Citi Field or AT&T Park more than once per season with numbers that high. There’s even a trend that’s discouraging cash transactions in the ballpark, forcing people to use credit cards or even worse…gift cards.
I’ll even give you a recent personal experience. I took my friend to her first baseball game, and we tried finding a cheap(er) place to park. We found an abandoned lot being run by angry old people, and after I tried to park with some space between me and the other car, the gentleman got visibly upset and loudly yelled “You don’t have to park here!!” His attitude prompted me to leave and have to find another spot to park. Eventually I found one of the lots in front of Tropicana Field. $20 just to park the car. For anyone screaming about theme park prices, baseball parks aren’t much better. We ate beforehand at a beachside restaurant so we didn’t have to spend in the Trop. $40 got us an appetizer and two full meals. $40 at Tropicana Field means two hots dogs and two drinks. Seriously.
And with there being 81 home games, why are you going to waste your one or two experiences in the beginning of the year when the games don’t matter? With the NFL, you only get 8 homes games, and if the ownership supporting your team has secret European aspirations, might even be less than that. This is why they try to drain your financial soul, because that year-round building is used only 8 times for football, and who knows if it gets used for anything else whenever football season is on its short break. But MLB doesn't have this same level of desperate cash-grabbing opportunity, they have at least 80 chances throughout the 6-7 month season. After Opening Week, baseball season honestly doesn’t pick up for a valuable ballpark experience involving an important ballgame until August when the playoff push begins for the select teams still choosing to participate.
And that’s the other issue: the value of the games. If I’m going through all the financial nonsense and pregame headaches, it better be a damn good game I’m seeing. The World Baseball Classic had similar pricing issues in terms of astronomical rates in merchandise and parking, but in a crowded playoff atmosphere it’s worth every single penny and then some to experience the euphoria of watching a team representing your country battling for every out. That noise is completely indescribable, and the party after the victory adds to the value of each ticket you buy. But a May 4th afternoon matchup in an empty stadium? Hardly worth that same price.
The sports media loves spelling gloom and doom, and yes baseball is in dire need of some changes in order to continue competing with the NFL which is king, the NBA which has the most popular athletes and storylines, and even the MLS as the United States is embracing soccer more and more and the youth of a diversifying USA is choosing said sport. But the league is hardly on death row, the TV ratings are extremely good, the World Series still outdraws the NBA Finals (despite MLB’s best efforts to somehow screw with that via awful start times), and once summertime is in full swing and Playoff Chase Baseball reaches its pinnacle the stadiums will become louder and louder.
But it is undeniable that there’s a lot of dead weight in the beginning of the year, and the only proper solutions are the drastic ones. In the NFL, every single game is important. The appeal of baseball is that within the nine innings, ANYTHING can happen. But having to spend about $200-$250 when all is said and done per family trip, that's rolling the dice on an experience that you're not fully sure how its going to play out outside of the usual win or loss result. The uncertainty makes for excellent television, which is free, easy to access, and doesn't cost you $20 to park.
Major League Baseball could (should) initiate a Ballpark Experience Team that ensures that each stadium is doing their best to bring people in, to not try to rip them off, and not create shady rules like banning backpacks and/or laptops or creating secret packages within each ticket sold contributing to the increased prices (Citi Field). The league needs to be a bit harsher on the greedy owners punishing fans for being baseball fans and wanting to see the teams live. We need to see better packages, better deals, cheaper season ticket holder rates, more emphasis on bringing children and teenagers to the parks. A full stadium is the best experience, especially with geographical rivals competing on the field and in the stands.
At the same time, Major League Baseball needs to explore the concept of shortening the season and adding value to each individual game. My dream idea is 100 games, regardless of how impossible this dream is because of the money risk that the owners would never ever be willing to make. Maybe start the season in May instead of April, cut 20-30 games, cut down on rivalry games and eliminate interleague entirely. The Rays play the Red Sox 18 times, overstuffing an already-established rivalry between two teams constantly competing throughout this decade. Starting the season in May allows for baseball to separate itself from the opening rounds of the NBA and NHL Playoffs as well as the NFL Draft.
Baseball is a summer and daytime sport, so you need to maximize the amount of available people in order to attract consistent crowds during a lengthy season. Starting the season in May will guarantee that at the very least college kids will be finishing out the semester and going out on vacation, with the middle/high schoolers following closely.
Cutting down on the season allows for more breathable room to schedule games at proper times to maximize crowds. There should NEVER be an afternoon weekday game when school is still happening. The daytime games should mainly occur on weekends, to give it the college/professional football feel of spending the day chilling and watching the games with no worries about work or errands. The NFL perfected this by always having a massive majority of their games being on Sundays, especially the London games which would allow for early morning starts on the American East Coast. Even if the games can be expensive and this should be explored further, the accessibility to the baseball games would also benefit the attendance numbers greatly.
But we know 162 will remain the magic number, because ownership and unions would never allow a cut of the regular season unless some major salary cap and luxury tax changes are made, or unless the playoffs expand to NHL/NBA lengths (which…please don’t). And if we aren’t going to at the very least play around with the way the regular season plays out (maybe a point system? Maybe change the way to clinch a playoff spot? Maybe even more tournaments like in European Soccer?), then MLB absolutely has to fix the ballpark experience from price to amenities within ballparks nationwide. Otherwise, those numbers will continue to dwindle.
We love sports. But in an era where wages are stagnant and prices continue to rise, it’s stupid to expect attendance to improve if we aren’t getting our money’s worth. Fix the price, fix the experience, and fix the season, and you’ll see better numbers from April (…or..May) to October (or….September).