MLB, like all entertainment businesses, is trying to grow revenues and add new fans. One big problem: its paying customer base is shrinking unlike other sports.
MLB’s on pace for its worst attendance season in a year not dramatically affected by COVID since 1995 and 1996, when the sport was coming out of a damaging strike.
MLB attendance peaked in 2007 and has been gradually declining since, and that drop has accelerated in recent years.
From 2007-19, attendance declined by about 1% per year on average, and 14% total. But compared to 2019, the last full season without COVID restrictions, attendance is down 7.5% this year.
At the moment, attendance per game is down 13.6% since Manfred’s first full year in 2015.
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1. Walt Davis Posted: July 21, 2022 at 04:29 PM (#6087660)What's it like in the US? While things are certainly more normal down this end of the world, there are still plenty of events and gatherings that are not drawing the crowds they used to. I play bridge and tournaments that used to draw 60-100 pairs are still being cancelled because only 12 pairs signed up. But then virtually all of the bridge crowd are in a vulnerable group -- the All Blacks still draw. And there's inflation to worry about -- not a good time to be spending money on discretionary items like baseball (unless you already have the tix of course).
Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if attendance at everything is down 5-10% but I wouldn't be surprised if it's not and this is a baseball-centric problem.
I wasn't wrong.
I think everything's a little less crowded than it used to be, even if it's not quite past the threshold where people really notice. I'm at a film festival in Montreal right now, and while attendance doesn't exactly feel low, things that would normally be sellouts aren't and there aren't a lot of people settling for bad seats. Back home, the bleachers at Fenway have a few more empty seats, but it still feels like a good crowd.
Perhaps we should start talking about the damaging lockout.
Certainly I'm effectively boycotting baseball now because of it, although it's a bit more complicated than that.
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