MLB stadiums are getting hot because all the fans are leaving
Kasie Thomas, Staff Writer
Photo courtesy of Unsplash.com
The crack of the bat, smell of peanuts and hotdogs, and the cheering of the fans has always been the way of America’s favorite pastime, until now. Major League Baseball attendance has taken a drop as baseball fans stay home, causing some of the cheering to fade.
As MLB teams continue their seasons with half-empty stands, people wonder what’s happening. In 2018 the MLB attendance took a 4% drop compared to the prior 2017 attendance. With the League’s average of 26,854, it becomes the lowest average below 30,000 since 2003.
Out of the 30 Major League Baseball teams, 19 have seen a decline in their average attendance, some of those in double digits. Witnessing all of this first-hand as an avid MLB fan, Haley Gambrell has personally seen the lack of attendance.
The Atlanta Braves have always been Gambrell’s favorite team. She went from being a young girl watching Braves players like Chipper Jones hit home runs on TV to an adult seeing the Braves play live in the seats of the stadium. Attending countless games over the years and driving 2 and a half hours for each game, she has truly seen the fans of the MLB stadium come and go.
She believes the reason for the drop in attendance comes from multiple aspects, one reason being that “when Major League teams win, people show up.” As she attended Braves games in the past when their record was not at its best, she saw the empty stadium, but as the Braves began to win, seats started to fill with fans.
She also believes that sometimes there is a “really great team and a really terrible stadium” and the “disputes between teams and the cities that host the teams won’t get upgrades” causing “fans not to go because of the quality of the place.”
Also, families become a factor when “buying one ticket versus buying four or five ticket can get very expensive.” Gambrell hopes the commissioner’s office for the MLB will continue to find ways to bring ordinary fans back to games with ideas like “Let the Kids Play”, where young players are shown being excited about the season.
Gambrell knows that no matter what the stadium looks like she can always look forward to a “great community to be a part of”, a “crazy adrenaline rush”, and the hope that comes with every game.
The love for the game of baseball and the MLB is something North Greenville University’s baseball player Grayson Hickert can also relate to. Hickert’s love for the game began outside with neighborhood friends, a ball, and a bat. It then grew from tee-ball all the way to collegiate baseball.
Growing up in a household of baseball and having a mother from Massachusetts, he had no other choice but to love the MLB and the Red Sox right along with it.
With fewer fans showing up to Major League games, Hickert believes he has a pretty good idea of why. He states that “we’re starting to see the same teams have poor records for extended periods of time and with that, you have some of the same teams be really good for a while creating a “noticeable gap in the League in terms of talent.”
The gap between teams foreshadows the outcomes of the games making it “obvious fairly early in the season what teams are going to make the postseason.” Hickert exclaims how it also becomes evident when teams “aren’t going to be in the playoffs” they won’t “draw as many fans.”
He believes the MLB “should adapt the playoff system to incorporate two teams from each division” which would hopefully make the league more exciting for fans and bring them back into the stands.
As a ballplayer, Hickert understands the feeling of playing in front of a crowd and the effect fans can have on a player and team. “There’s nothing better than playing in front of a packed crowd. It heightens the game and your own focus and definitely gets the adrenaline pumping.” Hickert said. “That feeling when you get a strikeout, hit, or whatever it may be and the crowd goes wild is unbeaten.” The attempt to transfer that atmosphere back into the stadiums is the true goal.
With the postseason soon coming to an end and teams going into their final games of the season, the MLB has many questions left to answer. Fans are leaving and no one knows the true reason why. The question remains, what is it going to take to bring people back out to the ball game?
