Why Is Mets Attendance Down?
Yesterday, I examined why Braves attendance is up. Today, I examine why Mets attendance is down. Michael Schmidt reports in the NY Times:
A year after moving into a sparkling new $800 million stadium, the Mets have the most home victories in the major leagues, but neither their stadium nor their record is translating into box-office success.
After 22 home games, attendance at Citi Field is down 6,852 fans a game, the largest decline by number in Major League Baseball. That translates to an average of 31,892 fans at games this season compared with 38,744 last season.
Here is a list of attendance by home games through May 13 of 2009 and 2010 (there appears to be a small disparity between the Baseball-Reference numbers and the numbers used in the story).
2009 2010 Gm# Date Opp Attendance Gm# Date Opp Attendance 7 Monday Apr 13 SDP 41,007 1 Monday Apr 5 FLA 41,245 8 Wednesday Apr 15SDP 35,581 2 Wednesday Apr 7 FLA 38,863 9 Thursday Apr 16 SDP 35,985 3 Thursday Apr 8 FLA 25,982 10 Friday Apr 17 MIL 36,436 4 Friday Apr 9 WSN 28,055 11 Saturday Apr 18 MIL 36,312 5 Saturday Apr 10 WSN 33,044 12 Sunday Apr 19 MIL 36,124 6 Sunday Apr 11 WSN 33,672 16 Friday Apr 24 WSN 40,522 13 Monday Apr 19 CHC 27,940 17 Saturday Apr 25 WSN 39,960 14 Tuesday Apr 20 CHC 27,502 18 Sunday Apr 26 WSN 40,023 15 Wednesday Apr 21CHC 25,684 19 Monday Apr 27 FLA 38,573 16 Thursday Apr 22 CHC 28,535 20 Tuesday Apr 28 FLA 38,546 17 Friday Apr 23 ATL 32,265 21 Wednesday Apr 29FLA 39,339 18 Saturday Apr 24 ATL 36,547 26 Wednesday May 6 PHI 37,600 19 Sunday Apr 25 ATL 27,623 27 Thursday May 7 PHI 37,295 20 Tuesday Apr 27 LAD 32,012 28 Friday May 8 PIT 38,496 21 Tuesday Apr 27 LAD 32,012 29 Saturday May 9 PIT 39,769 22 Wednesday Apr 28LAD 29,724 30 Sunday May 10 PIT 39,871 29 Friday May 7 SFG 34,681 31 Monday May 11 ATL 40,497 30 Saturday May 8 SFG 36,764 32 Tuesday May 12 ATL 39,408 31 Sunday May 9 SFG 35,641 33 Wednesday May 13ATL 40,555 32 Monday May 10 WSN 29,313 33 Tuesday May 11 WSN 31,606 34 Wednesday May 12WSN 33,024 Difference 2009 2010 Absolute % Overall Mean 38,595 31,897 -6,698 -17.35% Weekday Games 11 13 Total 424,386 403,442 Mean 38,581 31,034 -7,547 -19.56% Weekend Games 9 9 Total 347,513 298,292 Mean 38,613 33,144 -5,469 -14.16% Wash Total 120,505 94,771 Mean 40,168 31,590 -8,578 -21.36%
There are few things to look at. First, the Mets have played two more weekday games than weekend games this year, compared to an equal number in 2009. However, when comparing the average of games weekday to weekday and weekend to weekend, attendance is down 20% and 14%, respectively. When comparing the 2009 and 2010 series with the Washington Nationals, which were both over a weekend, attendance was down 21% over last season. The bias in the 2010 sample doesn’t seem to explain much of the difference.
Some of this difference is to be expected, as the luster of a new stadium has diminished. In the 2000s, attendance declined by approximately 7% in the year following the introduction of a new stadium. Attendance seems to be down beyond what would be expected; but, I think it’s too early to read much into these numbers. The first month of last season saw very big crowds when the stadium was its youngest, and the crowds dwindled over the course of the season. The season is still early, so it will be interesting to see how the numbers stack up at the end of the year.
5 Responses “Why Is Mets Attendance Down?”
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It’s a poor place to watch a baseball game and the tickets are way too expensive. They took a cookie cutter HOK design, added a few fake character items like overhangs and what not (which ended up creating too many obstructed view seats and poor viewing angles) and tried to pass it off as a big city park with big city prices. And it plays like Yellowstone. You can’t get away with that stuff in NY.
I agree with Jay. It’s a cookie cutter stadium that they put some weird angles in to make it less cookie cutter, but it only made things worse.
the team f-ing sucks right now. if you throw out what seems to be a fluke of a ten day span they would be fighting for last place again. They arent hitting and their big free agency fix for that has been pretty close to a bust right now. Maybe the new manager can help!
fans that go there deserve to be robbed at least you can bye your hub caps back when you leave after paying 20 to park. the stadium should be called Gimmick field.After 50 years a fan I have seen enough and won’t return I have had enough of the Flushing los mets. The wilpons have pimped there old fan base, the old die hearts. may they never get out of the cellar