The recent surge in the standings helped boost the A's turnstile performance during the first week of the 12-game August homestand. As expected, attendance cooled somewhat with the weather and the arrival of the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals, but the average attendance for the homestand was still excellent, at 32,555 per game.
To date, that puts the A's 4% down from last year. This season's total attendance through 65 dates is 1,697,637. In 2004, it was 1,769,184. The good news is that the A's should surpass last season's pace (not total attendance) in the next series versus the Yankees. The following three opponents (Texas, Seattle, Minnesota) probably won't make much of a dent. At least there are a Mark Kotsay bobblehead night (rare to have bobblehead giveaways on weeknights) on September 6, and a Fireworks Night on September 23 versus the Rangers. The last series of the year is a four-game mid-week set against The O.C., and while the last two games should be well-attended by default, attendance at the first two games may depend on the A's relative playoff status. To beat last season's total attendance mark, the A's will have to draw around 31,500 a game for the rest of the season - not impossible, but a challenge because of the way the schedule is drawn up. If the A's are in wild card or division championship contention during the final week of the season, they should be able to beat it. They'll need 1,000 more than that per game to beat 2003's total.
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2 comments:
One of the A's problems is that so many casual fans make their summer ticket buying plans in the spring, which doesn't bode well because we always have a slow start.
Should the 2006 team have little turnover from '05, that will make a big difference in how the A's start out, and in getting the crowds early.
Of course, teams with a big season ticket base don't have that worry, another reason why we need a new stadium(and why Wolff wants to keep it small)
One of the attendance issues that always hampers the Bay Area teams is school (Universities, colleges and CC/JC's) and the fact that, hey, it's the Bay Area, there is always something to do.
The economy hasn't helped the last few years with less discretionary income to throw around. Even with the crap Hollywood and the music industry is churning out.
With the Yankees being scheduled over a holiday weekend it further pushes the notion that the OOC wants to surpress the A's attendance figures.
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