What’s Driving MLB Attendance This Year? Part 1

You see the title, but do you have an answer?  Sure there are a multitude of different factors driving attendance, but certain factors are more influential than others.  On the one hand you have your basic promotions – Fireworks night, T-shirt night, Bobble head day, Bark in the Park, etc. On the other hand, the game itself seems to draw certain fans – take for instance, rivalries, or perhaps a new team coming into town (The Blue Jays hadn’t ever hosted the Mets prior to this season….did you really think I would talk about baseball without plugging my Mets?). What about star power? Is a big time player coming to a town near you?  All of these aspects and more factor into sales and attendance.

I bring this up because Major League Baseball (MLB) has reported an increase in game day attendance from last year – 6% to be exact. This is surprising to MLB execs because in recent years (probably the last 3-4 years) the League was actually witnessing a decline in attendance.  The current spike in attendance is great news, and again, leads us to the main question – what has driven this recent surge in attendance?

If we compare this year’s attendance to its recent regression, we can try to isolate some of the aspects that may have been absent last year, which are present this year. While there are a number of different dynamics, lets see if we can pinpoint some…

SOCIAL MEDIA – Though its not something that was absent last year, the majority of teams have made it a point to increase their social media efforts. The Cubs recently had a social media night, The Giants and other teams have added wireless dimensions to their ballparks, and teams are consistently using facebook and tiwtter as a means to attract fans (FB contests, in-game tweets, etc.). This is being done both individually by teams, and together as a league so MLB can get in touch with its younger fan base.

WEATHER – You wouldn’t have thought about this one, huh? Well, for sport managers and sport marketers weather is a big deal. Would you want to come to a game in April if you were freezing your behind off? Me neither. Sport marketers are very concerned with the weather and know that if the weather is good, fans will want to come out to enjoy a game.  But how has this year’s weather compared to last year’s weather? Is there any way to know? Well of course there is – its 2012…get with it. The Government has issued a ‘State of the Climate‘ address, and has said the following:

January-April 2012 was the warmest such period on record for the contiguous United States…Twenty-six states, all east of the Rockies, were record warm for the four-month period, and an additional 17 states had temperatures for the period among their ten warmest.

If you’re Al Gore you hate that…but  if you’re an MLB exec you love that…. What else?

TEAMS IN BIG MARKETS ARE DOING WELL – In another attempt to plug the Mets, here’s my chance. The Mets aren’t doing half bad…don’t believe me? Check the standings.  While you’re there, check out the Orioles’ record, and go ahead see how the White Sox and Dodgers are doing. These are big markets, and in concern to these big markets, we all know one thing –  winning brings in fans. What’s that saying, again?…”if you win it, they will come” (…that’s it, right?). Big markets simply bring more fans, and if their teams are doing well, MLB is sure to be happy. Success in places like Chicago and L.A. is great for MLB; so too is success in Washington…something else we will talk about in Part 2…

While there’s probably plenty more to talk about, these are some themes present this season that were not present last season. Lets face it, Baltimore and the Dodgers weren’t all too great last year, and this year is a different story. Tomorrow I’ll try to have my buddy come in and talk about some of the other main contrasts…until then, send me some ideas if you have anything else to add…