Fan attendance at HS baseball games

Originally Posted by jp24:

If this has been covered can someone point me to it?

 

Has anyone been a part of or seen any in-game fan activities or promotions that work when it comes to increasing attendance at HS baseball games? 

 

I’ve seen this topic discussed many times over the last 15 years, and it always comes down to the same thing. HSBB games are normally played at the wrong time of the day to get much attendance. If you really are serious about improving attendance, figure out a way to play under the lights. L

Not sure that even lights will do it. There is a baseball game of the week on the Pac 12 channel and the other night I was watching Arizona playing at Stanford before a nearly  empty house. Unbelievable.

 

That said, I definitely see the most fans show up at the HS fields with the nicest facilities for spectators.  You put more fannies in the seats when those seats are comfortable and offer a good, unobstructed view of the field.

We thought winning might help boost attendance, but that proved to be too much trouble so we went with half-price hotdogs instead.

I think playing under the lights would help.  Having games at 3:30pm on weekdays (no nights or Saturday's) like my kids' school almost guarantees meager attendance.

Saw a HS Booster concession offer free  meal: pizza slice/hotdog, chips and drink  to students from either team. On weekends they had a smoker with some damn good BBQ. People stopped by for that BBQ that had no stake in game but enjoyed the food and a few innings. They had bleacher area for students only and students were the PA and DJ's before game and inbetween innings. They had winning program so the students were supportive
Back in my HS days, football coach made it so no girls sports were near practice. Same coach for baseball, he loved that girls practiced right next to baseball during games. Coincidence or not but actually had students come to warm weather baseball games. He also made us go as a team to support our schools other athletic teams, plays, etc.. We made it a good time and in return those teams, students did same for us.
Couldn't agree more with previous poster. The better parking, cleaner, more accommodating and comfortable fields always have best turnout

Get a couple of first rounders!!!  

We always did a 50/50 and gave out prizes donated by merchants. 

And served good food.

As far as the college attendance, now you know why football and basketball drive the NCAA. Also the bad weather doesn't help.

Some fans are better than others, one of the reasons son chose the school he went to, always a packed house.

We play on Tuesday and Friday nights. One home and one away. Our booster club runs our concession at baseball field, all volunteers. ALL ticket monies go to the school general fund and/or State fund. None of it goes to the baseball fund. If the boosters could get some of the gate $$$ then promotions could be run with the concession stand but as it is, any "concession" by the concession stand only hurts the booster club. 

 

Winning does help but still less than 50 average home attendance at home games.

Yes, all gate money goes to the collective fund for school athletics.It was nominal fee 2 or 3 dollars. But the booster ran their own concession, and we BBQd everything and people came from the neighborhood from the yummy smell of BBQ.. Our 50/50 could on some nights be 75-100 dollars. Everyone understood that every penny went back to the bb team.

As a disclaimer, the school was in a middle to upper middle class neighborhood.

As the fund raising chair for the team, it was a full time job.

 

Things that work...  fan-friendly game times, good team, rivalries, good competition, good food, good weather, meaningful games, playoff games.  I think the best promo has proven to be a youth baseball night.  This usually brings out a great crowd.  The night game thing is big.  We were growing our attendance significantly with the addition of later games.  Then, new admin shut it down for a variety of BS reasons.  Unfortunate.

 

Just had a big game against one of our key league rivals on the road 90 miles away.  They had won 35 of last 36 dating back to last year and defending champs of our state classification.  Proud of our large parent contingency that traveled.  Stands were packed and the right team won    When they come to us next month, it will surely be packed again.

 

I think there are opportunities for promoting games more at the school among students and for coaches to encourage past and future parents and families out to the games.  But, again, the game time has to allow for this to happen.

Our varsity plays most of its games at 7-7:30. Unless they are also playing an underclass game and there is a threat of weather. Then the varsity plays at 5 with the underclass getting whatever they can. I don't think we get huge crowds, but normally a decent amount of kids. One nice thing about our current set-up is that they built new dugouts a few years ago, but they kept the old ones. We have students who sit in the old dugout area...

I always thought sending the boys out to the neighborhood and letting the senior citizens know that we wanted them at our ball games would be a good idea. Sometimes these folks get overlooked and a invite might make their day. Heck let-em in free!

The only time our HS baseball team had better than decent attendance was when they had a run deep in the playoff's (son's senior year).  Went from 50-60 in attendance to well over 200.  In other words, put a decent "product" on the field and the fans will come out.  Otherwise, it's just family and close friends.    At the state quarterfinals we had probably 250 or more attend and that was an away game 90 miles away.  It also helped our ace pitcher was seriously being scouted by MLB scouts.  He did eventually get drafted in the 6th round.

 

Still pales in comparison to the Friday night football games.  Football team can be marginal and still draw 1,500 - 2,000 for home games.  But as my wife says, football games are a social event for teenagers.  Baseball games not so much.

 

Little League will sometimes promote a "Little League" night where any current LL'er can wear their jersey and get in free with a paying adult.  LL will cover the cost of the LL'er to get in. 

 

Games under the lights do draw more it seems.  Most people aside from family are still at work or just getting home if it's an early afternoon game.

 

At JuCo, they normally drew about 100 or so.  A little more at the D2 university he's at now.