How to increase attendance at Major League Baseball games

The topic of “how to fix baseball” is a contentious one, and one that I’m not going to get into. I’m only here to suggest some ideas about how to get people to the ballpark in general and boost Major League Baseball attendance.

In a recent article from Yahoo! Sports written by Jeff Passan, it’s highlighted that Major League Baseball will “fail to reach the 70 million-fan threshold for the first time since 2003.” Not good.

Now, of course, there are still teams that have no problem drawing fans to the ballpark, i.e. the Red Sox, Yankees, and Giants, but one team that you wouldn’t expect has consistently found itself in the top 15 in total and per game attendance over the last 10 years. That team is the Colorado Rockies.

According to ESPN.com, in 2018, the Rockies currently sit at seventh in total attendance at approximately 2.4 million fans, and sixth in average attendance at approximately 37,500 per game. It’s awesome! The Rockies sit at the big kids table when it comes to drawing fans, and it makes perfect sense that, after a year in 2017 that saw massive improvements and a Wild Card Game appearance, that the team should have excellent attendance.

But how do you explain the attendance numbers being what they have been over the last 10 years? And what can teams with poor attendance numbers do to replicate what the Rockies have been able to do in drawing fans, even when the team is struggling? Let’s take a look…