A sad truth needs to be stated: Baltimore is not a good baseball town. Attendance, for lack of a better word, sucks. Now get out your pitchforks, and rant and rave about school nights, prices, weather, or whatever excuse you drew from a hat this morning, but that doesn’t change the fact that only 16,083 people attended the August 30th game against the Blue Jays, in the middle of a tight divisional race. The Orioles are 20th in average attendance this season. The winningest team in baseball since 2012 (427-353) has only finished better than 18th in average attendance once in that span (2014). There is an issue fundamentally wrong with the culture of baseball around Baltimore.
Excuse number one for attendance: Peter Angelos is cheap and people are boycotting. The Orioles have been in the top half of the league in terms of payroll since the magical 2012 season. Not to mention in top five from 1998 to 2000, which were all losing seasons. Angelos is willing to spend money to compliment a team with potential, but has realized trying to outspend the Yankees by buying a team from the ground up does not win you championships.
Excuse number two: It’s a school night. Legitimate issue to those who schooling effects, to a point. Babysitters do exist, kids are allowed to go to school tired the next morning, and college students know the definition of a late night by heart. Even factoring in school nights, a majority of the season is played in the summer and average attendance shouldn’t be taking a hit.
Excuse number three: Bad weather (hot or cold). See excuse number two.
Excuse number four: The Ravens take fans away during football season. An NFL team plays 16 games a season, 8 home games. This creates scarcity in tickets and when you tell someone they can’t go to something; it only makes them want to go even more. So yes, I would agree with you…on Sundays. There are six other days in the weeks with normally 2-3 opportunities to catch an O’s game in late August/September.
Excuse number five: Ticket prices are too high. The Orioles have only raised ticket prices three times in the past 12 years. Before the raise at the beginning of the 2016 season, they had the 11th most affordable tickets in baseball. And they even got rid of the walkup ticket fee when they added dynamic pricing.
Congratulations kids, you have yourself a bad baseball town. Now, is this purposeful neglect? Not at all. The NFL has concocted a perfect formula to get sports media talking about them 24/7 and 365 days a year. Local sports radio with talk football on Opening Day. And nothing will stop that short of burning the money-mache cow that is the NFL.
Also, look at it like this. The poverty rate in Baltimore is about 24 percent. There is a number of people that just cannot afford to regularly go to a baseball game. What about the surrounding areas? The people who can afford to go to games live about 15 to 30 minutes outside of Baltimore. Baltimore, a place where poor parking creates scheduling conflicts between two multi-million dollar sports franchises. Pair that with a subpar public transit system and the shiny allure of MASN, and it suddenly becomes a lot easier to stay home and watch baseball while getting as intoxicated as you want. It’s also a lot easier to check the standings in late August/early September and decide whether or not you actually want to invest time into the team this season.
People are lazy, who would have thought?
Id love to argue the point….but i can’t; 16k for a key division match up speaks for itself
I would argue that it’s not just a bad baseball town, it’s an extremely fair weather town. All of the excuses people cite were all happening in 2014 where they were 11th in the league for attendance.
The perception was that the team didn’t do anything in the offseason so they would be in last place. As a result, nobody goes to support the team and instead just wait on the sidelines for them to slump so they can tell, “I told you this team was terrible!” about a team that is 11 games over .500.
I would even posit that if the Ravens had a long stretch where they were losing, that stadium wouldn’t fill up either. It would probably take a bit longer because of the price structure–you have to buy the PSL so you probably don’t want to lose that–but if they went on a 10 or so year losing streak, it might look a lot more like a FedEx field “sellout” than a Lambeau sellout.
Sad but true. It’s going to take more than a few good seasons to sway fans back. A decade of losing has sullied most fans from coming out on a week night. Hopefully we continue on the upward trend and see increased numbers over the next few years.
But the attendance numbers are decreasing, not increasing.
Is this a post bitching because people have lives that dont revolve around baseball?
Maybe it isn’t the game or the team but the city. Who feels safe downtown anymore?!?
The team is in a city where most of the fans attending don’t live in the city but the surrounding counties. Youth sports has exploded on every level. All year baseball , softball , basketball etc. all that takes up time and when you have a day off from that maybe you just wanna sit back at home and watch.
#excuses
The truth. I don’t go because of that.
Madison Levin-Epstein how often do u take your children to practice ?
There’s many excuses out there. Did people not have to take their kids to practices two decades ago when they were selling out every game?
Btw I live in Arlington, work many nights, and go to about a dozen games a year. Not claiming to be the best fan by any measure. I just think the team as a whole is very poorly supported. Doesn’t make you a bad person if your schedule doesn’t allow you to go, just tired of hearing excuses. We just got lousy fan support.
Great piece, Cody. I think the ppl bitching about the attendance wouldn’t be going to games anyway. They are just giving their hot takes and waiting for football to start. The real O’s fans post, watch and talk about their baseball side whether they are in the playoff mix or just playing out the string. I will say, it’s taking it toll within the clubhouse. The players/manager are talking about it. Wanna re sign Manny, Schoop, Tilly, Brit, ect? Show up.
Sorry…. I’m not shelling out my hard earned cash….for tickets , food, parking and gas for a weekday game against the Blue Jays who I thought would sweep them. Especially given those 3 starters they sent out there. Rather have seen an unproven minor leaguer start. Still love them but I have my reasons and I could careless what others think. Been an Os fan and supported them for 46 years. Let me know when you been a fan that long Cody.
The length of your fandom doesn’t — and frankly, shouldn’t — count for anything when the team, RIGHT NOW, is in the thick of a playoff hunt and drawing 16,000 (announced) against a division rival. Maybe you had your reasons for skipping out. Or maybe… just maybe… you’re simply making empty excuses.
That’s the kind of attitude we’re talking about. Tell Boston, who sucked for almost 100 years, that. Tell the Cubs that. They’ve still not had a WS and it’s 108 years later. We haven’t even existed 100 years.
talk all you like….doesn’t change a thing for me. How many games you go to a year ?
People go for the party now adays
They’ve been playing like shit since the ASB. I bled with this team through the 90s and 00s until we finally turned it around a few years back, and I hardly have motivation to tune in, with how they’ve become lifeless of late, let alone drive down and drop a few hundred for a seat for the wife and I, plus beer/water/food.
What do you expect? It’s a weeknight and the Nats chopped our potential attendees in half years ago… Not to mention that the area that is now converted Nats country is, on average, wealthier and thus more able to afford the games more often. Start playing like garbage, and watch the FO not making any moves to secure a decent pitcher that can keep us in contention, and of course you’re going to see people lacking the motivation to give up their dollars.
Not worth it to go all the time… Once in a blue moon activity.
Camden may be empty but this city loves O’s baseball. Ask what happened in the game, most know. They watch/listen nightly
Where do the Giants rank in wins since 2010? Oh that’s right who cares they won 3 WS since then, O’s 33 yrs and counting
I don’t think fans need “excuses” for not buying a product. The team should figure out how to get people in the stands.
the
chicago white sox, cleveland indians, tampa bay rays and oakland a’s are much worse! in 1971, the last yeat the senators were in washington, the lowest priced ticket anyone could get at memorial stadium was 55 cents for a kid and 85 cents for an adult. in dc, the lowest priced ticket was 2:50! the 7th game of the 71 series my dad and i walked up to the gate and easily bought a ticket. the next two years, with out competition from the nats, the orioles attendance actually went down by almost 200,000, and…the o’s won the al east both those years. the orioles have been a model franchise in many ways for much of the time they’ve been in baltimore. the situation today makes me sad, even though i’m a nats fan
demographics also play big role. 60ish % are African American & 40ish % are < 40 years old, both crowds MLB struggles with
@EmptySeatsPics …never judge based attendance, because sometimes the measure is best reflected by the lack of attendance!
A lot of factors are in play. FirSt of all, most populations that spend money at ballparks live in the suburbs, doesn’t matter what city. Yes, the O’s have the most powerful line-up ever but they haven’t had a consistent ace since Mussina. How is it that the National make much less on the MSN deal but can pick up pitchers like Scherzer but the O’s don’t? Thats why they will never win. Stop buying garbage and start buting real talent. Everyone is tired of scrap-heap players. Then maybe folks will really believe and start coming in droves.
Not the winningest team in baseball since 2012. They haven’t had a better record in ANY season since the 2010 season, so its impossible for them to have the best record in baseball in that time.
…better record than the Washington Nationals in…
I really don’t understand the point of this article other than to get the rise out simpletons who rely on emotions? So what, call Baltimore what you want. I’d love to go to more games, I live in DC and can’t. It’s almost impossible, without taking a half day, to drive the 30 miles to the ballpark. If there was a major improvement to public transportation or the trains ran other than just rush hour, I would be there all the time. The turnout for the beltway series in DC was tremendous. We embarrassed the nats fans with our turnout. So much so their ace complained to the media. There are other ways go support the team, I watch the games, I buy merchandise, I participate in these forums. I’m really tired of the debate of who is the true fan base and whether or not we fully support the team. It’s old and I’m bored with it.
The days of selling out the Yard night after night are over, sadly. It’s going to take many, many years of winning baseball to get back to that and even then, we may never see those days again.
if Angelos hadn’t ruined the team for a decade DC may have never wanted the Nats and the O’s would still have that fanbase.
Bad owner, school nights, weather, competing teams (TV markets more like it), and ticket prices. All of these reasons could happen at a different city, though, it’s not unique to Baltimore.
I think what really makes Baltimore a “bad” baseball town has more to do with history, economics, location, and baseball’s role in mainstream popularity.
What Baltimore has going for it, for all intents and purposes, should at least have grabbed them a few world series since the 90s. Given that assumption, you have a team that is woefully under-performing, maybe not in the past 5 years, but who went under 0.500 for a good 15 years or so, and that produces fan apathy. You have bright spots here and there, but then we play in the AL East, so we’re up against the best fans, the best teams with the biggest payrolls, and an area of the country that follows baseball more than any other. We’re right in between the Phillies and the Nats, and compete especially with the Nats for TV market share.
That’s a bit of history and location, OK. But then you have the modest popularity of baseball among other sports, and just the overall pain it is to get to Baltimore if you don’t live in the city. Baltimore’s mass transit is WELL BELOW subpar, it’s bordering on invisible.
Once the Nats came along, you had a shifting of the fan base. Partly due to the fact that the Orioles used to be the closest East Coast MLB team to the Atlanta Braves, the team that basically represents the South in baseball. Baltimore could have claimed fan base all the way to Richmond if they had wanted, but now we’re just so insular. There’s no reason to be an Os fan if you were in NoVA, now.
But I think the biggest reason is just the economics. You have an area that has been squeezed of disposable income. The area is also in need of major infrastructure improvements; fixing 95 is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s nowhere near the wealth and affluence of DC and its suburbs, also the population. Baltimore is the smallest city of the AL East teams. On top of that, the abject poverty is a deterrent; that can really put a damper on things too, like a lot.
it used to be but it definitely is not any longer. When Buck retires they should hire Cal for Mgr and Brady as Gm.
As of mid-July, Orioles TV ratings were up 27%… that has to factor somewhere in this overall discussion.