Nobody Goes There Anymore, It’s Too Crowded
Tracy Ringolsby the other day wrote about the recent failures around the Cleveland Indians -
And to think, for a seven-year stretch from 1995-2001, the Indians were what other teams wanted to be. They were a homegrown champion. Six times, they advanced to the postseason. They surpassed three million fans in a season six times. In 1995, they won their first AL pennant in 41 years.
The fans responded. The Indians set what was then a major league record with 455 consecutive sellouts from June 12, 1995, to April 4, 2001. The ticket demand was so strong that in three of those seasons, the Indians sold every available ticket before Opening Day.
Now look at them.
Related, Andy at B-R.com also mentioned the issue the Tribe has now getting fans to come out to the ballpark.
Could we ever see a day in Yankeeland where the team doesn’t draw like it’s been doing lately? Well, of course, it’s a different market and a different revenue situation in New York. But, look at the lowest crowds, to date, in the “new” Yankee Stadium:
Rk Gm# Date Opp Attendance 2011 3 Sunday Apr 3 DET 40574 2011 2 Saturday Apr 2 DET 41462 2010 25 Monday May 3 BAL 41571 2009 14 Tuesday Apr 21 OAK 42065 2010 10 Friday Apr 16 TEX 42145 2010 8 Wednsday Apr 14 LAA 42372 2009 27 Wednsday May 6 TBR 42585 2009 39 Tuesday May 19 BAL 42838 2010 52 Tuesday Jun 1 BAL 43059 2009 13 Sunday Apr 19 CLE 43068 2009 38 Monday May 18 MIN 43244 2010 26 Tuesday May 4 BAL 43260 2010 40 Wednsday May 19 TBR 43283 2009 15 Wednsday Apr 22 OAK 43342 2009 41 Thursday May 21 BAL 43342 2009 22 Thursday Apr 30 LAA 43388 2010 27 Wednsday May 5 BAL 43425 2009 28 Thursday May 7 TBR 43769 2009 35 Friday May 15 MIN 43856 2009 40 Wednsday May 20 BAL 43903 2009 52 Tuesday Jun 2 TEX 43948 2009 23 Friday May 1 LAA 44058 2010 12 Sunday Apr 18 TEX 44121 2010 140 Wednsday Sep 8 BAL 44163 2009 95 Thursday Jul 23 OAK 44206 2009 53 Wednsday Jun 3 TEX 44452 2010 53 Wednsday Jun 2 BAL 44465 2010 132 Tuesday Aug 31 OAK 44575 2010 48 Friday May 28 CLE 44634 2010 134 Thursday Sep 2 OAK 44644 2009 145 Monday Sep 14 LAA 44701 2009 57 Monday Jun 8 TBR 44706 2010 9 Thursday Apr 15 LAA 44722 2010 135 Friday Sep 3 TOR 44739 2010 22 Friday Apr 30 CHW 44783 2009 158 Tuesday Sep 29 KCR 44794 2009 37 Sunday May 17 MIN 44804 2009 64 Tuesday Jun 16 WSN 44873 2010 54 Thursday Jun 3 BAL 44927 2010 11 Saturday Apr 17 TEX 44963 2009 24 Saturday May 2 LAA 44970 2010 51 Monday May 31 CLE 44976 2009 11 Friday Apr 17 CLE 45101 2009 66 Thursday Jun 18 WSN 45143 2009 12 Saturday Apr 18 CLE 45167 2010 35 Friday May 14 MIN 45195 2010 133 Wednsday Sep 1 OAK 45222 2010 23 Saturday May 1 CHW 45265 2009 77 Wednsday Jul 1 SEA 45285
The top of the list is two of the first three games the Yankees have played this season. Is this the start of a trend?
This asks the man who spent $10 for a hot chocolate yesterday, for his son, at Yankee Stadium…
Steve, has anyone ever called you alarmist?
If the Yankees are drawing over 3.5M (and as many as 4M) fans per season, it means that for every 40,000 record-low game, they’re also packing the place in from mid-June to September when students are out of school, families take vacation days, tourists come to town, etc.
There seems to be not one single thing in the Yankee-related world in which you don’t see some sort of dark cloud or ominous sign.
@ MJ Recanati:
Don’t get me wrong – I know the Yankees already sold 3 million tickets for 2011. They’re not hurting, by far.
But, then again, in the late 90′s, you could not get an Indians ticket easily too.
Times change.
Maybe, someday, around 2016, the Yankees won’t draw like they do now…MAYBE. That’s the question. Just a question. Not a prediction.
@ Steve Lombardi:
Steinbrenner was a meddling bully but he cared about his team and plowed all the money his team made right back into the product. Larry Dolan, Cleveland’s owner as of 2000, has spit on fans in Cleveland enough times that they’re right not to come out to the ballpark anymore.
Yankee fans will continue to come out to the park as long as the team continues to give fans a world-class experience.
@ MJ Recanati:
Of course, having to pay $10 for a hot chocolate doesn’t endear a fan. George may’ve spent money on the team but he (and his family) sure charge the fans for the pleasure of seeing them.
Steve Lombardi wrote:
Which is why we probably won’t see things as bad as they are/were in Cleveland. In 1990, finishing in last place, the Yanks drew 2M people. A year later, they drew 1.9.
Well, the same thing has happened with the former Sky Dome and Camden Yards, though not have contending teams has a lot to do with that too.
77yankees wrote:
That’s the common theme among the Blue Jays, Orioles and Indians. No one wants to go to the ballpark to see a loser for 10-15 straight years (as has been the case in Toronto and Baltimore).
The Indians were in the ALCS in 2007 but their fans have checked out because they traded CC Sabathia, Victor Martinez and Cliff Lee in the span of a calendar year and got back turd sandwiches in each deal. They’re tired of being told they have to rebuild every few years when the team could’ve clearly done better. Spending all that money on a DH (Travis Hafner) cost the team the ability to extend at least one of their All-Stars at a valuable position.
redbug wrote:
No one has to pay $10 for a hot chocolate if they don’t want to. Prices aren’t arbitrarily set to gouge all patrons, they’re set according to the price elasticity that Yankee fans have for concessions. At some Price X, Yankee fans will no longer consume hot chocolate and the price will be reduced accordingly. Clearly we’ve not yet reached that price.
MJ Recanati wrote:
When you’re at Yankee Stadium in April, and the RealFeel temp is around 45 degrees, and you’ve been sitting in the shade for 3 hours, with the wind whipping in your face, and your 7-year old son says to you, as the hot chocolate vendor walks by, “Dad, can I have a hot chocolate?,” trust me, you HAVE to spend $10 on a hot chocolate at that moment. You have no choice.
Granted, in my case, the vendor had a sense of humor. I didn’t see his button. So, when he handed me the hot chocolate, he said “That will be $98.” I laughed and then he said “It’s really just ten.” Even he knew it was obscene to charge that price and that it needed an icebreaker.
And, FWIW, according to my son, it was a really good hot chocolate. (I wouldn’t know, never touch the stuff – even when I was a kid.)
Steve Lombardi wrote:
You still have a choice. I appreciate the spirit in which this comment was made and I understand — even without children of my own — that when your kid asks you for something, you feel compelled to do it (especially if it’ll enhance his Stadium experience on a cold day) but you still have a choice to go to the food court and ask someone for a cup of hot water instead.
It doesn’t matter if we think $10 is a lot for a cup of hot chocolate or that you can get the same product from the bodega across the street for $1.25. The Yankees set their concessions at a price that they know patrons will agree to pay because historical data and spending patters tell them so. They didn’t say “let’s pick a number that’ll really fuck people over.” If they had done that, we’d be talking about $100 cups of hot chocolate. And then no one would buy at that price and they’d have to readjust…
MJ Recanati wrote:
Key words here being “without children of my own.” Dude, no disrespect, but the only thing colder than the weather would be you, saying to your 7 year old, freezing his little keester off, “C’mon son, let’s go get a Hot Water. That’ll warm you right up.”
BYO Swiss Miss – that’s the only choice. It makes the Hot Water go down a little easier.
@ Greg H.:
Of course you’d buy your 7-year-old a cup of hot chocolate on a cold day (or on a hot day if he was pissing and moaning about it and that’s what it would take for a bit of peace and quiet). I’m not saying you wouldn’t.
All I’m saying — and I can’t believe I have to repeat myself a half-dozen times here — is that prices are set because customers are willing to pay those prices. For the people that say the Yankees are gouging their customers, they’re not. If you don’t want to buy something, don’t buy it. If enough people don’t want to buy something, prices will either come down or that item will no longer be sold because it’s not profitable.
And once it gets into the summer, it’s the exact inverse. In July 1998 I got a free ticket from my boss a half hour before game time – loge about 10 feet from Steinbrenner’s box.
Problem was I was extremely low on cash on one of those 90 degree muggy July evenings – not exactly conducive to sitting in a dress shirt and slacks with no A/C. I was able to “splurge” for a 20 ounce Coke and get through for 5 innings before I just had to split.
Steve Lombardi wrote:
I wouldn’t know, never touch the stuff – even when I was a kid.
You don’t like hot chocolate?
Greg H. wrote:
Suffering builds character. Give him a rant about how things used to be during the good ol days :p
A new low…
For the third-straight game, the Yankees set the new Yankee Stadium’s low-attendance mark last night, with an announced crowd of 40,331. (Last night’s game and Sunday’s game were the first at the new ballpark with an attendance below 41,000.)
http://nymag.com/daily/sports/2011/04/a_record-low_crowd_watched_the.html
Maybe that explains the moves Girardi made tonight?
New low, tonight, Tuesday: Att: 40,267.
http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/news/boxscore.jsp?gid=2011_04_05_minmlb_nyamlb_1
How soon until we see 39,000 for the first time?
The article you linked mentions that attendance is down around the league, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see 39K.
Steve Lombardi wrote:
Does it really matter?