10 Degrees: MLB's enormous attendance drop due to bad weather or something far worse for baseball?

Yahoo ^ | April 16, 2018 | Jeff Passan

[C19fan]

It’s just April. Because this is baseball, that is an entirely reasonable explanation for the problem. And so, too, is the weather, the nasty, Mother Nature-must-be-pissed-at-someone sort of frigid that canceled half a dozen more games Sunday afternoon and is threatening to set records for postponements.

And yet one look at the numbers across Major League Baseball shows a grim landscape. Not in home runs (which are down) or strikeouts (which are up) but attendance. Which isn’t just down – it is down precipitously, enough that one league official expressed concern that this isn’t simply a manifestation of the weather but something deeper and more troublesome for the game.

“I’m worried,” he said. “The tanking scares me.”

[Pelham]

good points

Never see kids playing pickup baseball. Only the organized stuff

[oh8eleven]

The Yankees @ Detroit double header that was rained out yesterday has been rescheduled for June 4th.
I assume the games (1pm, 7 pm) will require separate admissions.

[Vaquero]

In my humble opinion Get rid of the NL’s antiquated pitcher at the bat. Just when you get a couple in scoring position up steps the primadona hurler. Then you need to keep a phalanx of pitchers on board along with extra guys to pinch hit.

The so called ‘strategy ‘ of dealing with a crappy hitting cy young window is
Just frustrating and unnecessary.

Without this antiquity you have a number of relief pitchers and a couple of DHs who can double as position players.

[jerod]

This global warming appears to be putting the kibosh on April outdoor activity... Don’t worry, Al Gore and his minions have the answer... More global cooling.

[jerod]

This global warming appears to be putting the kibosh on April outdoor activity... Don’t worry, Al Gore and his minions have the answer... More global cooling.

[pgkdan]

It’s weather. It’s been awful for baseball all over the country. Cold, rainy, snowy. Just miserable.

[Grampa Dave]

Lower quality of players across the board.

Last year, the SF Giants went from sellouts for each game for years to a lot of vacant seats at every game, and you can’t blame the weather.

Poor playing, pitching and managing resulted in a lot of vacant seats in the last few months of last year.

A generous neighbor could not find people to give his 4 season tickets to last year for the G’s. No one wanted them.

The G’s just finished a 4 game series in San Diego, and it looked like there were as many vacant seats as filled ones. They had great weather there for those 4 games.

The West coast teams play more games at night. A night game starts at 7 pm and doesn’t end until 3-4 hours later. Even with minimal commutes, you don’t get get home until midnight or later. Also, who wants to be in a parking lot at midnight anywhere in America.

Besides lower caliber players, the cost per ticket, for any food, parking and ??? is out of sight and has to be contributing to lower attendance.

Get back to day games, reduce the ticket prices and the food prices at the games.

[stanne]

The weather was very bad. Rare for april. Thats all

[yesthatjallen]

People don't have the patience and attention span for baseball anymore.

Just think how many tweets and facebook updates you can do during one inning.

[gubamyster]

Having the pitcher bat adds to the strategy of the game. Do you let your pitcher continue even though he is given up hits, because his spot to hit is coming up in ext inning, or do you take him out & burn a pitcher...? Same with batting - do you bat him in a potential run producing situation, even if he is pitching well, knowing your bullpen was used yesterday.....

having the pitcher bat, only adds to the game, IMO

[Brian Griffin]

My Democratic neighbor paid $75 for a ticket to see Tampa Bay lose again.

[colorado tanker]

I know Marlins fans still remember the Huizinga sell off. It was a pretty cynical financial move after the city had just won a World Series.

That said, I think what Jeter is doing now is a good faith rebuild that if done properly will give the city a good, young team that could be together a while.

[righttackle44]

Until the Dodgers return to Brooklyn, things will never be right.

Go from the land of twinkies, anal entry, and Kardashians back to the land of kisch, doily shops, rents up 77 per cent, an unstable fan base of gentrified (25 of the fastest gentrifying zip codes in America) and poor people to the estimated tune of more impoverished citizens than Detroit and where 40 per cent of its citizens can't afford to live there, where non-working hours are taken up with commute time not sports or recreation time, where 21,000 homeless children reside, and and where NYPD law enforcement draws more complaints than in Manhattan (meaning people aren't likely to attend games in a borough where they can't get a cop soon if they need assistance because the cops are careful what they do there), and apparently only one place in the whole dang borough to get a real egg cream.

Yeah. That would be a great place for the Dodgers to base. No it wouldn't. I'm mortified to give the Kardashians as a positive reason for the Dodgers to remain in LA, but there it is.

[stevem]

This seems like a non-story. You could't get fans to go to the Twins stadium in February. Our weather since the home opener hasn't been that much better.

It's April 16, and Minneapolis has regressed into pure winter. I'm pretty sure Baseball is a summer game.

[LakeEffectLad]

Too many teams have diluted the talent pool.
DH is atrocious and potentially burning out AL pitchers.
Emphasis on launch angle eliminates manufacturing of runs.
Inter-league unbalanced the schedule.
Games too long and start too late. Not easily accessible to impatient youngsters - aka the next generation of fans
Baseball is a thinking man’s game while modern culture doesn’t exactly promote “thinking”.
Schedule too long - playoffs should never occur in weather that resembles April.

[Vaquero]

NL is the ONLY professional baseball organization that uses it. College baseball doesn’t have pitchers hit. Japanese teams don’t let the pitcher hit. There is a reason for all that. The strategy is more of an annoyance than anything else. Frustrating for a close game when YOUR teams in a tied game in the 7th inning with two men on and 2 out and up steps your .076 pitcher and he’s the best pitcher available to get you out of the next inning. Don’t tell me that doesn’t frustrate the crap out of a fan.

The strategy argument doesn’t fly IMHO.

[LibertarianLiz]

I don't know who does the scheduling for MLB; but, really -- who is scheduling games in early April in the Northern parts of the U.S.?

We went to see the Mariners play the Oakland A's in Seattle yesterday afternoon. I was freezing up in the stands. Safeco Field does have a roof; but, it is open on the sides and the wind was very cold coming in off the Sound. We left in the 7th.

No games should be scheduled in the upper portion of the U.S. until the third week of April, unless there is a closed stadium. Go to Southern California, Arizona, Texas, Atlanta, Florida.

[LibertarianLiz]

1. Call balls and strikes electronically. The technology exists, use it.
2. End the abomination known as inter-league play.

I agree with both. Yesterday, Felix Hernandez was called for a balk. A runner came home who should have been out. The difference in the game? A one-run win for Oakland. As my husband said, "I hate it when a game is decided by the officials". I agree with electronic balls and strikes as well. The worse I ever saw was when an ump called a ball, and a strike, and the meter showed that the two pitches were in the exact same spot.

I, too, despise "inter-league play". Fie, away with you!

[LibertarianLiz]

Miami is the worst sports town in the country.

I watch the Seattle Mariners; and, when they go to Tampa Bay to play the Rays the stadium is usually quite empty.

I'm always a little surprised by that since there are more Hispanic players than any other group (at least it seems like that to me) and Hispanics seem to like baseball; so, what's the problem?

[LibertarianLiz]

But then again, I would also get rid of the DH. That's why I rarely watch AL games.

I used to think that; but, then I watched the Mariners play when Edgar Martinez was the DH, and I was converted to the wisdom of the position. LOL. Now, they have Nelson Cruz as the DH, and it is great.