2019Dad posted:Interesting take on the topic on ESPN: http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/...m-mlb-next-big-thing
Excerpt:
For me, the minor league attendance trends are as important as those of the big leagues. That's because they speak to a more fundamental issue when we ask about the future patronage of MLB: Does baseball still occupy a central place in the cultural landscape of 21st century America? Because if it doesn't, the sport has bigger problems than the length of games. However, the trends in minor league ball are highly encouraging. Baseball, as an industry, must continue to strive for growth, but the base is still there, arguably as strong as ever.
As for the big league attendance issues, those have become less pronounced as the season has progressed:
MLB Per-Game Attendance
MONTH 2017 2018 DIFF March/April 29,673 26,913 2,760 May 29,175 27,247 1,928 June 30,754 30,162 592 Source: Baseball-Reference.com The gap has closed with each full month that has gone into the books. That doesn't make up for the fans missing from the first two months. And the numbers, even in June, were still down. But the problem looks less urgent as the season progresses.
I would be interested to see it broken down by teams...or at least northern vs southern. March and April in Ohio were brutal as was most of the northern half of the country. Nobody, even the biggest fan is going to go to a game in Cleveland when it's 32 degrees. I've got to think that the Reds, Indians, Tigers & both Chicago teams contributed heavily to that drop in attendance for March-April.