Royals Attendance Analysis
by AxDxMx on Oct 29, 2009 10:44 PM EDT
28 comments
This analysis of the attendance patterns of the 2009 Kansas City Royals looks mainly at 2 things: Zack Greinke and promotions. I break down promotional giveaways and non-promo days, and the ZG starts are broken down as well into separate categories for promotional giveaways and non-promo starts. Attendance is also broken down by day, and then separated into promo and non-promo days. The averages for the days can be found at the bottom of the columns along with how many games there were in each category. Some interesting facts that can be gleaned from the chart follow the Google Spreadsheet that is embedded into the page.
Thanks to averagegatsby for inspiring me to look at this in a little more detail.
I honestly did not realize how many promos KC does. There were 41 promotional giveaways that I counted. Things like Buck Night, Fireworks Friday, T-shirt Tuesday, School Day at the K, Family Night w/ Postgame concert (though it was borderline), and anything being given away counted. What didn't count? Things like Royal Nite, College Night, the Fun Run, and Cinco de Mayo celebration as there was nothing being given away. So here comes the spreadsheet, notice that the main spreadsheet is not editable, but I have included a 2nd sheet that you may edit if you would like to do your own investigation. That being said, I wish I had more time to actually perform a multivariable regression analysis on this as the results would be more meaningful than just eyeballing the data.
If the Spreadsheet doesn't embed in the page (and it looks like it won't), you may view page 1 and edit page 2 at this address:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AiAOyJUntlZWdDFOa3FtWFRtdUUxd1BJRGJyT3dDdnc&hl=en
Promotional giveaway games = 41, Non-promotional giveaways = 39
When a Greinke start intersected a promotion there were 28,968 present, and without a promotion there were just 18,619. A difference of 10,349.
Feel free to draw your own conclusions and comparisons, and use the editable second page of the spreadsheet!
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Excellent :D
“Most successful strategy for attendance? Schedule the Cardinals for 162 games a year.”
by sterlingice on Oct 29, 2009 11:02 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
You can't rely
on Cardinals fans travelling across the state for every Cards game in KC, if there are that many.
Chaim Mattis Keller New York City's # 1 Royals fan!
by cmkeller on Oct 30, 2009 9:50 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
We'd only have to schedule them for the 81 home games.
by Gross(est) on Oct 30, 2009 3:00 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
but 162 home games
would certainly raise attendance!
apology accepted
Blank
by benfunke on Oct 30, 2009 5:37 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
and by "apology accepted" i mean
apology accepted
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by benfunke on Oct 30, 2009 5:38 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Well you successfully...
took my “but you can’t honestly believe that the Royals attendance would do well without Greinke and their giveaways” argument to a ridiculous level.
What I take from this info was that I was wrong, that the Royals still draw well despite being a terrible team in a fairly small market, but then again this probably has a little to do with “the New K”
Desperately hoping for Desperate Measures
by averagegatsby on Oct 30, 2009 3:48 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Yeah, and actually I don't think your argument was that wrong.
The promotions clearly bring out a lot of extra people. As well as the new stadium. In 2008, 11 games were under 13,000 in attendance at Kauffman, with just 1 April game being counted. In 2009, the new stadium made that number 8, with 5 of the 8 coming in April when it was cold and rainy, despite higher expectations for this team right out of the gate and the new stadium. Without checking actual temperature and weather, it’s just off memory, but weather had to effect that. The Royals clearly draw 10,000 more per game with promotions, but the always on Friday and Saturday promos do skew the results. The worst team for attendance in 2009 was Oakland with an average 17,392 per game. It’s hard to see the Royals going lower than that, but Tampa did outdraw the Royals this year (KC was 25th, Tampa was 23rd, roughly 700 fans per game), while Pittsburgh was 28th, but the Royals outdrew them by 3,000 per game.
by AxDxMx on Oct 30, 2009 11:50 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
The weekend games skew results that they have to be taken into account
MLB says that interleague play brings out more fans, than normal games. If you adjust for weekend and weekday games, there is no increase.
Jeff Zimmerman - Protecting the world from RBI's and Wins from my mom's guest house.
by Jeff Zimmerman (TucsonRoyal) on Oct 30, 2009 11:56 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I know there is at least some increase for giveaways
as I see people going back to their cars with multiple items to sell on eBay, that may be even more damning however because those people aren’t sitting in seats and bringing in more revenue through concessions and souvenir sales. People line up for the jerseys, and certain t-shirts. The Zack shirt went fairly quickly. That translates to more revenue from fans buying crap before the game. If there wasn’t a bump at all, even the Royals aren’t dumb enough to use the promotions are they?
by AxDxMx on Oct 30, 2009 12:52 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
It'd be interesting (to me anyway) to combine this with a survey on people's motivations.
For instance, we went to a lot of promo games this year, but we would have gone to the same number of games anyway. When picking out our games, we knew we wanted to do about 2-3 a month, then looked at the Royals schedule versus our work schedules and then, when we could, picked the promo game out of the bunch. So while I’m sure the promos are bringing out extra people, the higher attendance on those days possibly also takes away from attendance on other days, at least with a certain population (die-hard, pathetic losers like me, for instance).
Also – I can vouch for the frigidness of the April series against Cleveland. We went to one of those games; I wore at least 4 layers, including long underwear, and then a blanket on top (and my husband huddled up beside me sharing his body heat) and was still shivering most of the game.
Also also – every Wednesday night is College Night at the K. Those with a high school or college id got $$ of their tickets. We learned that the hard way. The drunk college kids definitely came out for that. For the first time ever, when walking back to our car after one of these that also coincided with a Buck Night, I understood why parking is $9. The mountains and mountains of trash (a significant part of it broken glass) all over the parking lot were unreal. Now that I’ve proven how crotchety I can be, I’ll sign off.
by Gross(est) on Oct 30, 2009 12:35 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
That's exactly what we do, I have a closet full of Royals t-shirts
For instance, we went to a lot of promo games this year, but we would have gone to the same number of games anyway. When picking out our games, we knew we wanted to do about 2-3 a month, then looked at the Royals schedule versus our work schedules and then, when we could, picked the promo game out of the bunch.
My parents bought a 9 game pack with Opening Day with some friends of theirs and all they did was pick out T-shirt Tuesdays and Fireworks Fridays.
by AxDxMx on Oct 30, 2009 12:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
When looking over our recent vacation pictures, I realized we’d never be able to dress ourselves if not for Royals giveaways. Every day at least one of us – and often both of us – is wearing Royals gear. And the only one that was paid for was the Bannister shirt I ordered off the website with the gift card I got for Christmas.
by Gross(est) on Oct 30, 2009 12:53 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I'll show you crotchety
My dream is to have a big league team one day that doesn’t have to run promotions on half their nights just to finish in the bottom 10 of attendance.
Such a dream, of course, involves an owner and GM who know what they are doing, and are committed to spending money to making money, and to spending it wisely.
In such a universe, the only games that we would bother running promotions/giveaways for would be Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday – and then only for crappy opponents.
Alas, I lived in such a universe before – it was called the Kaufmann-era Royals.
Mr Glass, this is a pro sports team, not a retail store - run it like one!
by loyal2sdad on Oct 30, 2009 1:21 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
it'd be nice to not rely on promotion attendance...
but i think eliminating promos is a bad move even if you’re selling out. If you’re selling out and people really want the t-shirt, they’ll show up an hour early with their kids, meaning that Budweiser or Sprint is paying for you to sell a shit ton more nacho, pepsi and beer.
Fire Everyone
by billybeingbilly on Oct 30, 2009 1:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
They'd probably sell even more stuff if they didn't constantly run out of "food" by the 5th inning.
It was ridiculous this year – several games I went to they ran out of food early. I think the concessions were horribly mismanaged. I mean, I don’t know how they were managed, but from a customer stand-point they were really unsatisfactory. My husband actually complained to guest services about it, and he never officially complains about anything (he unofficially complains to me all the time). They gave him some coupons as an apology which he didn’t want to use “on principal.” I have no principals, so I used them.
You do make a good point about the moolah to be made from those hanging out before the game. On those jersey Saturdays, I moved heaven and earth at work to get off early and still missed out on the 40th Anniversary Jersey even though I got there 1-1/2 hours before game time and only barely got the Monarchs jersey by getting there an hour earlier than that.
by Gross(est) on Oct 30, 2009 2:56 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Not to defend Aramark for running out of food,
because that should be preventable.
I do want to say, however, that it is actually EASIER for a team like the Yankees or the Red Sox or the Dodgers or the Cardinals to consistently staff adequately for food services. This is because they KNOW they will have a sellout (or a near sellout) every game. Meanwhile, the Royals can expect WILDLY fluctuating attendance because they are so shitty, they can only draw for promtions, discounts, on weekends, and in perfect weather. Normally, several of these categories have to align, or the walkup still isn’t there! Put yourself in the employer’s shoes: You have a part-time workforce that you may only need for 81 days out of the year. Now add in the fact that you may only need half or even one-third of them on a good portion of the games. You have to try to keep the workers happy with enough hours, which is hard enough, then factor in that you have to tell half or even two-thirds of them you only need them to work on Fridays, Saturdays, and one Tuesday a month. What a nightmare!
Again, this does not excuse running out of food (I assume you are referring to a buck night item?). Just wanted to give this some perspective from somebody who works there. The Aramark managment team consists of a lot of people who came in from Boston to run the K; presumably they needed some time to adjust to what amounts to a totally different sales environment than that from which they came.
Mr Glass, this is a pro sports team, not a retail store - run it like one!
by loyal2sdad on Oct 30, 2009 3:20 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I get your point, because I work retail and food services, too, but...
…it’s not just the running out of food, and it’s not a Buck Night to which I’m referring. And it happened several times this year under several different conditions, including in the middle of home stand, when you would think they would have some food stocked up for the remainder of the home stand.
And they do a HORRIBLE job of supporting their staff. When they do run out of stuff, they have nothing to mark it on the board, so that fans are standing in lines for up to 20 minutes to order only to get to the front and find out that half the things are sold out and the customers are naturally frustrated. I watched one poor young woman get yelled at because her station didn’t have certain items that were advertised, but there was nothing she could do. She didn’t have a radio to call for help, she didn’t have a sign to say she was sold out of a staple item, she was working alone so she couldn’t leave to track someone down to help her. The only thing she could do was hope that customers were passing the news down the line so at least the people who got to the front would actually be okay with what she had left to sell. Hoping for customers to take pity on you isn’t a way to manage a business.
And that was actually my husband’s point when he complained. He was frustrated with the way the situation was being handled, but realized they were powerless to do anything about it, so he went to guest services with the hope that someone who did have the authority to do something would. Based on our later experiences this year, it didn’t seem like it.
I’m a manager and I would never do that to my staff. They don’t get paid enough to be yelled at, they usually don’t have the power to do anything about what they’re getting yelled at for, and when they need help, I make sure they have a way to get ahold of me. My philosophy is, if my employees are successful then my business is successful, so what can I do to make them successful?
Having customers and employees wasting their time, standing around frustrated, with everyone involved powerless to do anything is a crap way to run a business.
by Gross(est) on Oct 30, 2009 4:02 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
I do realize that I'm making a bigger deal of this than I probably should.
Probably because I do work retail/food service when I see it run so differently than how I would run it, I get really pissed. Because I know I’m nothing special and I figure if I could do a better job at it, than they really must be duffing it, but that may not be the case.
But again – my problem isn’t so much with the running out of food (frustrating though that is, especially when it happened so often), but more with how they handle it.
by Gross(est) on Oct 30, 2009 4:08 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I know of one night they didn't run out of food.
I wasn’t there, but I wished I was. They actually made too many hot dogs for a Buck Night one night this last year, and they were giving them away at the end of the game. It devolved into a giant hot dog war! That would have been a lot of fun!
by AxDxMx on Oct 30, 2009 5:52 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
One more point on the giveaways
This is just my opinion, but if I were the Royals, I’d try to ensure that every fan with a paid ticket got every promotional item, instead of cutting it off at 20,000. In addition, I’d pass the items out to fans with a paid ticket as they were LEAVING the park, not entering, and I’d require that they couldn’t get the item until the 7th inning or later. My idea would be to prevent the hording of scarce items by non-fans who simply enter and reenter, and reenter, to sell their bobbleheads on ebay, for example.
Mr Glass, this is a pro sports team, not a retail store - run it like one!
by loyal2sdad on Oct 30, 2009 3:24 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
how are you going to prevent people from showing up in the 6th to pick up their giveaway?
Fire Everyone
by billybeingbilly on Oct 30, 2009 3:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
There would have to be a coupon passed out when you come in to go along with your ticket stub at redemption,
and you would have to be at the game by say, the 2nd inning or so to qualify.
Mr Glass, this is a pro sports team, not a retail store - run it like one!
by loyal2sdad on Oct 30, 2009 4:37 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
If the games were true sellouts, that would be possible
unfortunately, the Royals pretty much have no choice — they want to make sure they get the extra revenue from the eBay scalpers.
Unless I'm wrong...
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by Top Ramen on Oct 31, 2009 11:26 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Go be a Red Sox fan already!
Just kidding of course.
I agree to an extent, but the promotions are fun usually (TPJ bobblehead was hilarious). The Royals did run a t-shirt Tuesday on the Red Sox series. I suppose they were hedging their bets since it was an end of season series, and they wanted to be sure some Royals fans came even though they’d likely be at least 20 GB. But I did find it odd. I guess they probably aren’t as big as the Yankees though (which is why the league did the team no favors in giving them NYY to open the season).
by AxDxMx on Oct 30, 2009 2:02 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
good point, but i don’t blame him (or any R’s fan) for being jaded about the situation
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by benfunke on Oct 30, 2009 5:42 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Nice work
I don't understand how you calculate this stuff...I really don't
How did the bump in attendance for a new stadium (08 to 09) compare to the bump for a winning team (02 to 03)?
Unless I'm wrong...
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by Top Ramen on Oct 31, 2009 11:28 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Winning team beats a new stadium. The true best number for this would be revenue though.
17,182 per game in 2002 to 22,732 in ’03. 5,550 fan per game difference with a winning team. A 32% increase.
19,986 per game in ’08 to 22,473 in ’09. Roughly a 2500 fan bump. 12.4% increase.
Higher ticket and concession prices, plus more places to make money, mean the new stadium bump could be roughly equivalent to the winning team bump. I have no doubt this town would be wildly enthusiastic about supporting a winner, it’s too bad we have no interest in being one.
by AxDxMx on Oct 31, 2009 1:09 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
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