MLB Attendance Remains Constant after First Week

After the first week of the 2017 MLB season, the Cardinals find themselves atop the attendance chart.

The Cardinals had the most fans on opening week. Photo via mlblogsbloggingboutbaseball.wordpress.com

After the first week of the 2017 MLB season (4/2–4/9), the Cardinals find themselves atop the attendance chart pulling in a whopping 274,776 fans according to data provided by Sportradar. They took in around 45,800 people per game, which is nearly 2,000 more than Busch Stadium’s capacity.

Sportradar provided the stats for this piece.

The attendance sheet for the first week of the MLB season came out, and it is consistent with the past two years.

This year, there were 92 games played in the first week with an average attendance of 31,505.

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In 2016, 86 games had 31,283 people per game purchase tickets.

In 2015, there was an average of 32,695 for 90 games during the first week.

With all of the buzz surrounding shortening games, the consistent numbers pose well for baseball.

Numbers are in thousands. For example, 274.78 equals 274,780.

21 of the 30 teams in the league had home games, and five teams had an average attendance of above 40,000 during this time span (Angels, Cardinals, Dodgers, Padres and Rockies). Another five had less than 25,000 (Athletics, Rays, Reds, Twins and White Sox) and two of those had less than 20,000 show up to each game (Athletics and Rays).

Although the Rays saw attendance of under 20k, their average of 17,000 people per game is up from the 15,000 they averaged in 2016.

Numbers are in thousands. For example, 45.8 equals 45,800.

Teams with a Bump

• The Phillies who saw 23,644 people per game walk through the gates in 2016 saw nearly 40,000 per game for their three opening games.
• The Rockies who saw an average of 32,130 come to the games in 2016, welcomed and average of 43,570, for their three opening games.

Teams had anywhere from 2 games to 7 games over the first week.

Total attendance will fluctuate throughout the season and come out to a final average number in the low 30 thousands and a total number in the 70 million range.

At the end of the day, consistent with numbers early in the season are a positive start for the MLB and hopefully an indicator of things to come.

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