Major League Baseball has been suffering from a bit of an attendance decline this year, partially due to the weather, partially due to a wildcat strike by fans against the Dodgers and partially due to unknown causes, be they economic or what have you. This past weekend, however, was a humdinger at the box office.
In fact, it was the biggest attendance weekend for Major League Baseball -- at least for a weekend with 45 scheduled games, meaning no double headers -- since September 2008, with 1,646,000 folks buying tickets. How nice of them to round themselves off to the nearest thousand like that!
Here’s Bud Selig’s quote, which came attached to the press releases:
Well, there were some rivalry series and series of interest: Orioles-Nats, which drew well, A’s-Giants (ditto), Royals-Cardinals and of course the non-traditional, but quite historical Cubs-Yankees tilts at Wrigley. But his point does stand, given that stuff like Pirates-Indians drew very well, which is not necessarily expected (the Cleveland-Pittsburgh football thing does not translate to baseball). Whether that’s because of “the popularity of interleague play” or merely because, hey, it was a nice weekend for baseball, is an open question.
But hey, good to see you looking healthier, baseball.
