2 new threads started this morning, neither one particularly necessary. It's very GARM like, which isn't a good thing. But it also means people are starting to care, this forum was a ghost town with the exception of a few die hards, so I will consider these threads progress, which is a very good thing.
I would expect a decent crowd tonight. Weather is awesome and a Friday night. What an awesome start to the season!
Can we be patient with the empty seats talk? This team has been awful for several years. If the team is still playing well once the Rockets are done and kids are out of school then I think we'll see more people.
They may not be mutually inclusive but just because we were rebuilding doesn't also mean we weren't awful, because we most definitely were. Not only were we the worst team in the league for three straight years, we were historically bad. Add to that the whole tv fiasco and it's not hard to see why attendance is still struggling. You can't expect the entire city to jump back on the bandwagon because of an 8-game win streak.
Brought the family to the first game of the year on Saturday. For the past 3 years, we would buy tickets in Section 406 (upper decks in left field), kids seats are $1, adults are $10. My two kids (ages 4 and 7) can only handle about 4-5 innings, so I don't like to pay anything more than that. Anyways, we always just meander down to open seats behind 1st or 3rd base. This game had quite a few more people than any of the dozen games I've taken the family to the last 3 years. We actually had to sit closer to the Crawford boxes in left field. So the fans are certainly coming back, but it will be a process. My eyeball estimate was probably about 20,000 fans on Saturday. Parking is going to be an issue down the road. There were two large lots southwest of Minute Maid that they started to build highrises on, so no more parking. Have a 4 year old, so we don't like to walk too far. But anyway, I used to pay $10 to park at one of those lots that was a 3 block walk. I had to pay $30 on Saturday. Maybe it's b/c there was a Dynamo game or other stuff going on, but there definitely less parking and more people.
21,000 on Friday, 24,000 on Saturday, and 25,000 on Sunday. Decent numbers, still not good though. We all knew fan support wasn't gonna return overnight. Overall attendance is actually up for the 4th consecutive year. 2008 34.7 2009 31.1 2010 28.8 2011 25.5 2012 19.8 2013 20.4 2014 21.6 2015 24.1 Never looked at these numbers before, but it supports my suspicion that it was the years of hopelessness that drove fans away. Not the multiple 100 loss seasons, not CSN, and not the AL. Had we been less terrible, and still in the NL, fans wouldn't have cared anymore.
I totally agree. Lose 100+ games over and over again, and it doesn't matter who your opponent is...people aren't coming out to watch you over the course of 81 home games.
What is the explanation for Wrigley Field being sold out year after year when they had a terrible product? Is the overall experience there more fun? They also have the White Sox they compete with for fans.
I'm no expert, but I did stay at a ....never mind, I think Wrigley Field is a different situation altogether. Fan base is more diverse and the experience is just that, an experience, not so much going to a ball game.
I was there Friday and Sunday. HUGE fan of open roof, especially yesterday for a day game. Unexpected but that felt like baseball!
Yep. For example, in 2005, the Cubs were under .500 and 21 games out of first, yet they outdrew the White Sox (don't want to mention what they accomplished that year), by around 10,000 fans per game.
The fan base is not diverse. Its all white people. I was there this weekend. Cubs fans are real nice and are very knowledgeable about baseball. Chicago sports fan is a much bigger sports fan than a houston sports fan. I was late and a couple fans took time to explain to me what happened in the 1st inning. However Wrigley itself is a dump. No escalators, they just put in a new screen, takes forever to get out etc. However the views are pretty good. For 30-40 buck you can get good tickets.
