Two Questions

by Freneau on Apr 28, 2008 11:59 PM EDT in Kansas City Royals News

Here are your questions:

Is it early?
Do the Royals have an attendance problem?

Let's start, obviously, with the first question. So, is it early? I ask in reference to the refrain of "it's early" that we've all heard, read, said and written these first four weeks. The answer depends, of course, on how you define terms. The facts are simple: the Royals have played 25 games, or 15.4% of the schedule. Then again, the Royals are prepared to play 180 games, or whatever Hillman's line is. So, let's rephrase, have the Royals played enough baseball that we can say much of anything about them?

The second question is similarly hard to answer. I ask because, as I drove back to Iowa on Sunday, I heard on the radio that the attendance for Sunday's game was 13,998, which jumps out as a fairly low total for a Sunday afternoon game with nice weather. Right now, the Royals rank 27th in pure attendance and 25th in percentage of seats occupied. Yes, it's early -- or is it -- and I've been around long enough to know that supposedly the attendance picks up when school ends and it gets warm and all that. That being said, the Royals have only played eleven home games, one of which was the guaranteed Opening Day sellout, two more of which were against the Yankees. And all of them were after the 3-0/4-2 start.

Let's take a look at how everyone fared on Sunday:

Games on 4/27	Attendance
ATL@NYM	53,598
COL@LAD	50,670
HOU@STL	44,222
FLA@MIL	41,656
AZ@SD	40,074
CIN@SF	39,050
LAA@DET	36,347
CHC@WAS	33,795
OAK@SEA	32,612
BOS@TBD	32,363
NYY@CLE	31,598
BAL@CWS	29,756
MIN@TEX	19,911
PHI@PIT	17,588
TOR@KC	13,998

Thoughts?

I don't know what the Royals should be drawing on a typical Sunday afternoon game. Not in a financial sense (from the club's end) not in an actuarial or sociological sense (looking at the region's size and economics) or in a civic pride or in a team spirit sense. Nevertheless, being dead last in something isn't a good thing, nor is finishing nearly 16,000 fans short of a pretty blah White Sox-Orioles game at the Cell, or six thousand short of Twins-Rangers in Arlington.

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Comments

Yes, it is still early

We’ve yet to complete even one month of baseball. The performance that we’ve seen so far, both good and bad, has some meaning, but it must be viewed with the proper perspective. One month’s play does not determine an entire season. Greinke might not win the Cy Young Award. Guillen might not be an awful hitter. It’s still early. Things will change—some for the better, some for the worse. Certainly no one can say at this point that they know how good this team will be this season based on almost one month of baseball.

With regard to attendance, hasn’t there been awful weather for many of the home games? Maybe there is and will be an attendance problem. I don’t know. For the most part, I think attendance will follow the fortunes of the team. Season ticket sales are up and if the team wins, the attendance will be up.

I probably disagree with you.

by Scott McKinney on Apr 29, 2008 12:33 AM EDT reply actions

To be fair

the Chicago-Baltimore series is a first place showdown.

by mazoboom on Apr 29, 2008 1:05 AM EDT reply actions

A few possible reasons...

1. Race at Kansas Speedway
2. Chiefs had 12 picks in the draft
3. Nice day meant we could finally do some freakin’ yard work
4. Wake me up when the renovations are done

I have many leather bound books...

by juano on Apr 29, 2008 8:52 AM EDT reply actions

Just a note

Sundays have always been bad from the Royals. My dad and I discussed this while eating before the game, and he told me that back in the glory days we’d only pull 25k on Sundays, even when Friday and Saturday sold out. It wouldn’t matter, also, when they put giveaways on Sundays, because people wouldn’t show up.

My theory is that we as a city are not heathens like our neighbors to the east and west. We’re God loving (or is it fearing?) Christians and we can’t be at a baseball game when we could be sitting in mass instead!

Boyfriend of the Year 2008: It's gonna be big!

by loyal2theroyals on Apr 29, 2008 9:07 AM EDT reply actions

interesting...

Makes sense as to why my minister let’s everyone out early on Sundays in the fall when the Chiefs play at noon. :)

by nkkc on Apr 30, 2008 2:29 PM EDT up reply actions

obviously because the city loves football more than baseball

and the fact that you’re missing around 26 days of church during the baseball season and maybe 2 or 3 sundays during football season in comparison.

Boyfriend of the Year 2008: It's gonna be big!

by loyal2theroyals on May 1, 2008 12:00 AM EDT up reply actions

Attendance

Has been awful the last few years on Sunday afternoon for the Royals. I think its largely because their season ticket base is just so low. Perhaps our churchy ways have something to do with it as loyal suggests, or maybe we hate running the basepaths after the game.

Considering the past few seasons and the number of losses, and the fact the ballpark looks like a mess right now, I don’t think attendance is all that awful. Our average attendance is not much lower than Cleveland, a team with exciting young players and hopes of contending this year. On the other hand, some of our attendance is skewed by a Yankee series and a game that drew 35,000 people for a free jersey in which many of those people left before the game even started.

As for your other question, yes its very early. Its not too early that we can’t say anything, but its pretty early to arrive at any conclusions.

Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com

by RoyalsRetro on Apr 29, 2008 9:51 AM EDT reply actions

Another reason

for low attendance could be the alarming lack of power. As evidenced by the increased fan interest in baseball during the steriod era, fans love to come out and watch a power hitter smash home runs. It’s much more exciting to the masses than watching a 240 lb. man slap out infield singles. When you’ve got home run power on your team, you’re never out of the game (unless the score is 15-1)

by kennybud8 on Apr 29, 2008 10:24 AM EDT reply actions

Poor Attendance

I echo the previous comments in that: church, the Indy race and the weather all have something to do with it.

You have to remember that this team is one season removed from losing 100 games 3 years in a row and still finished last, last year. Moreover, they recently came off of a 7 game losing streak that killed most, if not all, the buzz from the good start. (Keep in mind they drew 36,000 the first home Saturday for the Twins before the bloom was off the rose.) I would imagine less folks would have showed up at the Cell if they were not off to a hot start.

It is going to take some sustained winning and/or a real superstar to get fans to consistently come to the K. Right now, we have neither.

Also, it’s still early, but I think you can draw the conclusion that this team is going to struggle for runs.

by Tarnished Crown on Apr 29, 2008 11:27 AM EDT reply actions

Yes it is early

but I have a question. Why doesn’t RoyalsReview sponsor George Brett’s Baseball-Reference page? It is $75 per year and I am sure that people would chip in. I personally would give $5 to help out. It seems like a cool way to get the site more notice and Brett deserves a worthy sponsor.

Proud father of a budding Royals fan.

by Skirra on Apr 29, 2008 2:46 PM EDT reply actions

Interesting idea

I love royalsreview.com and I promote whenever and wherever I can. However, Will is the only person who makes any money off of this site (although I know he isn’t exactly raking it in), so I wouldn’t really be motivated to actually pay money to help promote the site.

And if this site sponsor’s a player’s page, it should be Jason Smith or Ross Gload.

I probably disagree with you.

by Scott McKinney on Apr 29, 2008 4:43 PM EDT up reply actions

FWIW

One can sponsor Alex Gordon’s page for only $25 per year.

I probably disagree with you.

by Scott McKinney on Apr 29, 2008 4:45 PM EDT up reply actions

I sponsored D. May for a year

it was fun

by Freneau on Apr 29, 2008 6:58 PM EDT up reply actions

Gload is taken, Smith is availible

Brazell is also availble

by Freneau on Apr 29, 2008 6:59 PM EDT up reply actions

I vote Smith

we all love his pop off of the bench.

Proud father of a budding Royals fan.

by Skirra on Apr 29, 2008 11:38 PM EDT up reply actions

I sponsored Rico Rossy

Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com

by RoyalsRetro on Apr 30, 2008 9:34 AM EDT up reply actions

I don't understand???

How can the Royals not be having more people in the stands? Even when they were 9-6 people weren’t coming out to the game. I was so excited to finally have a winning baseball team in KC, I didn’t care that it was so early.

by Royalsnation12 on Apr 29, 2008 5:50 PM EDT reply actions

13,000 is pretty bad...

by Freneau on Apr 29, 2008 7:00 PM EDT reply actions

Agreed

That’s terrible. No real excuse for that low of a number considering the nice weather.

by cookierojas73 on Apr 29, 2008 8:27 PM EDT up reply actions

My guess

If the Royals stay within sniffing distance of .500 and the weather finally warms up, attendance will come up too. I’d bet a significant amount of money that attendance increases this year by at least 10%. Average per game attendance increased last year by 16%.

I probably disagree with you.

by Scott McKinney on Apr 30, 2008 12:22 AM EDT up reply actions

early, crappy weather.

I agree with NY Royal that the attendance will go up quite a bit as the season goes on. The weather while the Royals have had home games has not been good at all. And isn’t 40 games the point in a season where you start to get an idea of how the players/team are/is going to shake out? Give it a couple more weeks and we’ll see where we are (still may be last, but probably better).

by nkkc on Apr 30, 2008 2:35 PM EDT reply actions