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Baseball Saw a Million More Empty Seats. Does It Matter?
A 12-year slide in M.L.B. attendance has clubs turning to deals like standing room subscription passes. These days, filling the seats is less crucial to baseball’s bottom line.
Andrew Gaare, a 25-year-old “big time” Mets fan, spent this season watching games from a perch behind center field. He is an Amazin’ Mets ballpark pass subscriber, so he can go to as many home games as he wants for $40 a month. There’s just one catch: His ticket is for standing room only with no assigned seat.
“It’s not really that bad,” Gaare said.
Even though Gaare’s pass works out to roughly $3 per game, for the Mets and other Major League Baseball clubs, Gaare represents the latest hope in baseball’s attempt to reverse a 12-year slide in attendance. He’s young, lives near the stadium and wants to attend more games at a reasonable price, making him the perfect candidate for a ballpark pass at a time when baseball will try just about anything to sell tickets.
The 2019 season will be remembered as the year of the home run, when baseballs flew out of stadiums at a historic rate. But in front offices across the sport, it will also be remembered as yet another season when attendance continued to dwindle, spurring teams to think up evermore inventive ways to get hard-core and casual fans alike to attend games.
Average Ticket Sales Per Game
35,000
32,500
30,000
27,500
25,000
2000
2005
2010
2015
2019
35,000
32,500
30,000
27,500
25,000
2000
2005
2010
2015
2019
Total attendance across 2,429 major league games during the regular season dropped by about 1 million fans this season to about 68.5 million, about 14 percent lower than a high of 79.5 million tickets sold in 2007. The drop for 2019 followed a 2018 season in which total attendance dipped below 70 million for the first time since 2003.
[For a look at how each team’s average attendance has changed since 2000, scroll to the bottom of this story.]
Baseball officials understand their challenges. The games are long. Children — and their parents — can struggle to sit through nine innings. The fan base is aging. Many teams are terrible, with four losing more than 100 games this season. At the same time, league revenue, which topped $10 billion in 2018, is up more than 70 percent from a decade ago, thanks in large part to increasing media rights fees, which reached an all-time high this year.
Those diverging trend lines — fewer fans in the ballpark, but richer media fees and overall revenues — make up an uncomfortable truth about baseball in the 21st century. Ticket sales, long the bread and butter for the sport, are no longer the central driver of the business at a time when the sport’s digital business is ascendant.
“It’s never going to go away,” Noah Garden, M.L.B. executive vice president for business and sales, said of ticket sales. “It isn’t going to die. But it’s going to change. There are going to be a different number of people that want to purchase tickets a different way.”
There already are. Four teams introduced the ballpark pass in 2015, and now 18 of the 30 M.L.B. teams have some type of subscription option, which varies in price from $30 each month for standing room only to $125 for a guaranteed seat. While it has not been enough to reverse the downward trend in ticket sales, baseball executives believe it is attractive to younger fans, who are used to paying for subscription services like Netflix and Spotify.
“You’re not going to get rich off the ballpark pass,” said Brooks Boyer, the White Sox’ senior vice president for sales and marketing. “But you’re getting people in the park.”
That is important in part because the energy from full stadiums comes across on telecasts, and because with an aging fan base, baseball is trying to cultivate the next generation of fans. But it is also a delicate dance. If teams lower ticket prices too much, they could devalue their product and drive away those customers who still pay hundreds or thousands of dollars each season for a premium experience.
The Miami Marlins, who attract the smallest average crowd in baseball, are trying to woo fans with a host of new ticketing options. They include a “ticket bank” in which fans buy credits at a discount before the season that they can use to purchase tickets during it. But with dozens of ticket types, the Marlins risk angering fans who later notice they could have purchased their tickets for cheaper.
The hope is fans don’t “second-guess themselves on their next purchase as to whether this is the right place, right location, right time,” said Adam Jones, the Marlins’ chief revenue officer.
The most popular new ticketing trend, though, is the ballpark pass (and its variants). According to M.L.B., fans in their mid- to late-20s represent the largest group of ballpark pass buyers.
Like a Silicon Valley start-up, baseball realizes that its ticket challenges reflect broader competition for leisure spending, attention and time. “We don’t look at it as a revenue driver,” M.L.B.’s Garden said. “It is, to me, more of a customer activation tool.”
At the heart of baseball’s decreasing attendance is the diminishing appeal of the traditional season ticket and the luxury box. With such a robust secondary market, teams can no longer argue that fans need to buy season tickets so they can guarantee access to the most desirable games and the postseason. Also, getting any person or business to commit to do something 81 days a year has become increasingly difficult, especially when the risk that the team will be terrible, sometimes intentionally, is higher than ever.
Average Yearly Ticket Sales
METS
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
YANKEES
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
The Mets and Yankees both moved into new stadiums in 2009.
METS
YANKEES
The Mets and Yankees both moved into
new stadiums in 2009.
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
Coming off their worst season in more than a decade, the Kansas City Royals said they sold 1,000 fewer season tickets this year than last year. At the same time, the Houston Astros, who are having their third straight 100-win season, have drawn 1,500 fewer fans each game.
Average Yearly Ticket Sales
HOUSTON
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
KANSAS CITY
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
Houston won the World Series in 2017; Kansas City won in 2015.
HOUSTON
KANSAS CITY
Houston won the World Series in 2017; Kansas City won in 2015.
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
Mario Alioto, executive vice president for business operations with the San Francisco Giants, where average attendance dropped to 33,300 this season from 41,500 in 2016, said the team hasn’t seen a drop-off in the number of season tickets sold since last year. Regardless, they are already thinking about what the fan of the future might want. The Giants sold out their 2,500 ballpark passes on the first day they were available this season.
“In today’s world, it’s more about connecting with that brand,” he said.
The Oakland Athletics, who play in one of baseball’s most outdated stadiums, first implemented their subscription option A’s Access in 2017, and have gone further with it than any other major league team. It is now their only season ticket option.
Subscriptions cost $33 to $75 a month. The cheapest option grants fans standing room only access to all 81 games and a guaranteed seat for at least 10 games, with the option to purchase a seat for additional games. Buyers get discounts on concessions, merchandise and parking.
The Athletics averaged 20,521 fans a game this season compared with 19,427 a year ago. Dave Kaval, the Athletics’ president, said A’s Access membership has more than doubled this year, with 9,535 additional people purchasing the pass this season.
The A’s also added the Treehouse, a large area in left field that includes two bars, a patio deck, games and a D.J., with these new fans in mind.
“All of those experiences together will encompass a trip to the ballpark,” Kaval said. “That’s going to be very important as baseball continues to compete with other entertainment.”
Teams have also begun ripping out luxury suites, a decision they don’t make lightly because they account for 5 percent to 25 percent of attendance revenue, according to Todd Lindenbaum, chief executive of SuiteHop, an Airbnb-type service for luxury suites. Premium lounges have replaced them. Before this season, for instance, the Giants tore out six traditional suites and installed the Cloud Club, a semi-exclusive suitelike venue.
“Especially in this area where there are so many start-up tech companies, they want to come out, they want to hang, they want to have a meeting,” the Giants’ Alioto said. “They are having a great time. But it’s a product that we think a business consumer is looking for.”
Luxury suites have always been a tougher sell for baseball teams than their football and basketball counterparts, said Lindenbaum. It is much easier to entertain clients in a suite for eight or 10 N.F.L. games than for the 81 home dates baseball provides. But there is still interest in what he called “premium experiences.”
“They just look different than they did 25 years ago,” Lindenbaum said.
Rising prices, especially coming out of a recession, have likely contributed to baseball’s dropping attendance. Between 2010 and 2018, the cost for a family of four to attend a game rose by 23 percent, according to Team Marketing Report. The price of the average baseball ticket on the secondary market rose 10 percent, according to the ticket-selling platform SeatGeek.
Meanwhile, fees from baseball media rights are growing at a much faster rate. That explains how revenue can soar while attendance plummets. Baseball’s new television agreement with Fox included a 39 percent increase over the previous deal.
Also, numerous teams, including the Los Angeles Dodgers, Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Angels, Seattle Mariners and Philadelphia Phillies, have signed long-term, multibillion-dollar deals with regional sports networks in recent years. The Tampa Bay Rays recently signed a new television deal that reportedly quadrupled their average payment.
“You can’t raise the prices of tickets, whether they be suites or regular tickets, anywhere near the value that the media rights are increasing,” Lindenbaum said.
In other words, baseball will likely be fine in the short- and medium-term, but there have to be fans watching the games for the media rights to retain their value, and nearly everyone in baseball agrees that the surest way to create lifelong fans is to have people play the sport and attend games.
Fewer fans in the stands now may very well lead to even fewer there down the road.
Joe Ward and Jaymin Patel contributed reporting.
Average Ticket Sales, Team by Team
ARIZONA
ATLANTA
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
BALTIMORE
BOSTON
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
CHICAGO CUBS
CHICAGO WHITE SOX
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
CINCINNATI
CLEVELAND
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
COLORADO
DETROIT
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
HOUSTON
KANSAS CITY
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
L.A. ANGELS
L.A. DODGERS
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
MIAMI
MILWAUKEE
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
MINNESOTA
METS
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
YANKEES
OAKLAND
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
PHILADELPHIA
PITTSBURGH
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
SAN FRANCISCO
SAN DIEGO
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
SEATTLE
ST. LOUIS
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
TAMPA BAY
TEXAS
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
TORONTO
WASHINGTON*
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
*The Montreal Expos moved to Washington and became the Nationals in 2005.
ARIZONA
ATLANTA
BALTIMORE
BOSTON
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
CHICAGO CUBS
CHICAGO WHITE SOX
CINCINNATI
CLEVELAND
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
COLORADO
DETROIT
HOUSTON
KANSAS CITY
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
L.A. ANGELS
L.A. DODGERS
MIAMI
MILWAUKEE
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
MINNESOTA
METS
YANKEES
OAKLAND
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
SAN FRANCISCO
PHILADELPHIA
PITTSBURGH
SAN DIEGO
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
SEATTLE
ST. LOUIS
TAMPA BAY
TEXAS
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
TORONTO
WASHINGTON
The Montreal Expos moved to Washington and became the Nationals in 2005.
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
’00
’05
’10
’15
’00
’05
’10
’15
An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of a White Sox executive. He is Brooks Boyer, not Bayer. The article also misspelled the given name of a San Francisco Giants executive. He is Mario Alioto, not Marcio.
How we handle corrections
Danielle Allentuck is a reporting fellow on the sports desk. She is a graduate of Ithaca College and previously worked at USA Today, NBC Sports and the Buffalo News. More about Danielle Allentuck
Kevin Draper is a sports business reporter, covering the leagues, owners, unions, stadiums and media companies behind the games. Prior to joining The Times, he was an editor at Deadspin. More about Kevin Draper
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