Attendance Notes
by Dalman on May 16, 2011 10:47 AM CDT
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PrintOn July 1, 1994, up three games in the American League West, the Rangers came to the brand new Ballpark in Arlington for an 8 games in 7 days homestand against the Tigers and Indians. Games 1 and 2 were a Friday night double header against the Tigers. Kevin Brown started the first game against the Tigers but didn't pitch particularly well, giving up just 4 earned runs in 2/ 2/3 innings. But, in the 8th a young lefty names Darren Oliver came in to face Lou Whitaker in a tight situation and got him. The Rangers went on to score 3 in the bottom of the 8th, eventually winning for a score of 10-6. They won the second game of the double header too, witnessed by a crowd of 40,852.
On Saturday, Sunday and Monday (4th of July) they drew 46,000+ to each game and on Wednesday, against Cleveland, they drew 46,000+ for the fourth time that series.. The Rangers ended up going 6-2 that series and left up the same three games that they had arrived. In all they drew an average of 42,622 to those 7 dates, a new team record for a long (seven or more dates) homestand..
On June 19, 1997, coming off their first playoff appearance in club history the year before, and down just 2 games to the Mariners, the second place Rangers started a big seven game home stand in which they would face the Mariners and the Angels. On the field, the homestand was a disaster as they went just 1-6, departing in third place 6 back of the Mariners and also behind the Angels. The Rangers would never again get closer than 5 games to the division lead.
The largest crowd of that entire series 46,193 was there on Saturday June 21 to watch the Rangers lose 15-8 to the Mariners. Jamie Moyer started that game for the Mariners and a thirty five year old righty with an era of 10.24 by the name of Mike Maddux came in and held on for the win. In all, the Rangers drew 300,353 to those seven games for a new club record for a seven game plus home stand of 42,908,
On May 6, 2011 the Rangers came to the ballpark for what was supposed to be a nine game homestand against the Yankees, A's and Angels. The Rangers drew 48k-50k for each of the three games against the Yankees, but only 24,375 for the Monday game against the A;s. They drew a bit over 30k on the Tuesday and while I would guess they were probably in the same range for Wednesday's day game, like Moreland's grand slam, it never officially happened as the game was wiped out by rain. The most recent three games against the Angels followed, with fireworks on Friday, Feliz jerseys on Sunday, and absolutely spectacular weather for all three games, the Rangers drew an average of 47,000+ to the three games against the Angels.
In all, the Rangers drew 344,672 to those 8 official dates, an average of 43,084, a new club record for a seven game+ home stand. Here's hoping that the Rangers will be playing meaningful ball throughout this season, If so, I wouldn't be at all surprised if between July 1-10, with 7 of the 10 games of that homestand either on a weekend or a holiday, the Rangers challenge or break this new record.
No home games this week, but I'll be back Sunday with a preview of the coming week's attendance, tickets and promos.
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June 21,1997
that Mike Maddus that won that game in June was pretty good; but his brother George Maddus was even better. He won like 8 Cy Youngs for the White Sox and Atlanta Thrashers over his career.
keep on rockin' in the free world !
According to ESPN
The Rangers have averaged 36,917 for their home games, good for 7th in the majors between Boston and St. Louis. They’ve had 24 games for 886,008 people total.
If they were to maintain that pace, which is probably unlikely, they would finish the season with 2,990,277 people total. That’s an increase of almost 500,000 over last year’s 2.505 million. Adding in the (likely) increase in average ticket price and I have a sneaking suspicion we’re going to see a payroll over $100M next year if they can maintain anything close to this going forward.
"I’d love to walk in and hug everybody every day, but that’s not critical to us winning." - Jon Daniels
attendance typically low for April and May
Typically attendance picks up significantly as the kids get out of school in late May and stays high until they return, or longer, depending whether there is a pennant race. With the exception of the fact that they have already played most of their games against the Yankees and Boston, all other factors point to average attendance increasing from here, not decreasing.
normally i would say that already having played "most of their games against BOS/NYY" would be all the reason you need
I think the Rangers had 7 sellouts last year
so, if you’ve already played OD and a handful of other games against BOS as well as ALL your NYY games, i would say that average attendance is without a question going to drop. that’s pretty much you seven sellouts from last year (except that Cliff Lee debut where the team had 14,000 walk-ups.
this year, though, you’ve got some pretty compelling matchups in the 2nd half. your weekday series, which would probably be the lowest attended games, are BOS, MIN, CLE (the year’s biggest surprise), TB and SEA. it shapes up pretty good.
by sam in so cal on May 16, 2011 12:09 PM CDT up reply actions
That is a good point.
"I’d love to walk in and hug everybody every day, but that’s not critical to us winning." - Jon Daniels
by GhettoBear04 on May 16, 2011 1:19 PM CDT up reply actions
That would be a massive jump.
I would love it, but I would bet everything I have against it unless this team just goes berserk on people’s faces.
Ever been in a boardroom, or a gang fight? Ever save a life? Ever won a court case against the odds? Ever held a dying buddy in your arms?.- jackanape on "perspective," 11/8/2010.
"do you a jet ski rental place would work here" - Mike E, 5/10/2011, in response to me saying I would rather face the Thunder than the Grizzlies in the WCF.
what's really sad is that 10 MLB teams have pulled in over 3.5M in a given season
several more teams over 3M
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Baseball_attendance_records
3M shouldn’t be an issue… queue up the complaints about heat, travel to the BP, pricing and decades of futility
by sam in so cal on May 16, 2011 11:28 AM CDT up reply actions
3M is quite hard to do.
"I’d love to walk in and hug everybody every day, but that’s not critical to us winning." - Jon Daniels
by GhettoBear04 on May 16, 2011 11:41 AM CDT up reply actions
only 8 teams have not done it at least once
yes, it is hard, but it’s clearly not unattainable. a team in a major market coming off a WS appearance should be able to pull 3M.
more teams have pulled 3.5M than have not pulled 3M (10 v 8)
honestly, this speaks volumes to the shit product this franchise has run out there year-in and year-out. the fact that the Rangers won their first playoff series in franchise history last year is no surprise when you look at attendance numbers v the other teams. even last year, a lot of fans assumed that the Rangers would poop all over themselves. there’s really no excuse not to blow past 3M. i’m not saying it will happen, but it really, really should.
by sam in so cal on May 16, 2011 11:54 AM CDT up reply actions
There's plenty of excuse:
there’s really no excuse not to blow past 3M. i’m not saying it will happen, but it really, really should.
"I’d love to walk in and hug everybody every day, but that’s not critical to us winning." - Jon Daniels
by GhettoBear04 on May 16, 2011 11:58 AM CDT up reply actions
if you look at other teams' best attended seasons, there really isn't
DFW is #4 in population for major metropolitan areas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_United_States_Metropolitan_Statistical_Areas
The first three have two MLB teams.
The Rangers went to the WS last year.
The team is 1/2 of 1 game out of first.
There really isn’t “plenty of excuse”
by sam in so cal on May 16, 2011 12:15 PM CDT up reply actions
You are vastly oversimplifying things here.
If we don’t hit 3 million, it won’t be a ridicufail situation.
Ever been in a boardroom, or a gang fight? Ever save a life? Ever won a court case against the odds? Ever held a dying buddy in your arms?.- jackanape on "perspective," 11/8/2010.
"do you a jet ski rental place would work here" - Mike E, 5/10/2011, in response to me saying I would rather face the Thunder than the Grizzlies in the WCF.
never said it would be a failure - just said there was no excuse not to
i don’t think i’m oversimplifying anything. i stated that futility has mired this franchise among the league’s lowest attendance figures.
if futility is behind us, then there really isn’t anything that precludes the team from having 3M in attendance – something every other franchise has done except these eight:
TB – 26th major market in US
PIT – 22nd
CIN – 27th which includes parts of KY
KC – 29th
Washington – horrific franchise that has finished 28, 34, 32.5, 16 and 26 games out of first the last five years. BAL in the same market has hit 3M.
Next up, OAK and CHW – the lesser teams of major markets with two teams.
That leaves one team – Texas.
That really seems to be just-the-right-amount simplified.
by sam in so cal on May 16, 2011 12:32 PM CDT up reply actions
Thank you for stating facts that everybody here already knows.
While D/FW has a large population, it’s much more spread out than most of the other metro areas on that list.
Furthermore, one year of making the playoffs doesn’t mean the Rangers have established a huge fanbase. With more years of success and with an ownership that does a better job of promoting it’s product, it seems very likely the fanbase will grow. However, it will take longer than one or two offseasons.
On top of that, the Rangers were ‘only’ at 2.5M last year. There is room for a hugely successful improvement that doesn’t hit the magical 3M mark.
"I’d love to walk in and hug everybody every day, but that’s not critical to us winning." - Jon Daniels
by GhettoBear04 on May 16, 2011 1:19 PM CDT up reply actions
wow that's pretty impressive...
you say that there are a lot of excuses – i say that there aren’t and go into fairly significant detail by looking at hard numbers from around the league.
the best you can do is to insult me for providing reasons saying that you already knew them (even though you said that there were lots of excuses, you switch your argument to “you’re right, but we already knew that”)
then you go to the one thing that i have been saying this entire thread – this team’s futility is astounding. what a GREAT point you make.
i’m almost embarrassed to have graduated from Baylor if this is what they’re turning out now.
by sam in so cal on May 16, 2011 5:11 PM CDT up reply actions
They need to use the no wave sign all the time
instead of just when we are pitching
"Life's tough... It's even tougher if you're stupid." - John Wayne
by Texas Jihad on May 16, 2011 12:04 PM CDT up reply actions
It doesn't work. I yell out "Read the sign! Quit being selfish and think of the team! Do what the team asks of you!"
to our entire section. It doesn’t help.
And they do have it up when we are hitting. When we're hitting it's "Rangers Batting, No Wave Zone"
When we’re pitching it’s “Rangers Ballpark. No Wave Zone”. And from what I’ve seen, it’s up there every time it gets started, but they also have to switch to show season statistical numbers for the current batter every once in a while.
Yeah
it did absolutely no good yesterday, at all.
"I’ve been a Rangers fan all my life and I can tell you there’s been plenty of fucking crying in baseball…" - WhipSmart, 6.3.08
I was in sec 37 on Mother's Day...
Two “fans” in section 39 got up in the 8th inning when Eppley started to struggle. Swisher “singled” to first. The two fans got up, and ran up and down their row telling people to do the wave, and they were going to start it.
Getting annoyed each time that they tried it (as they were trying to go towards the infield from the outfield and it kept dying as it reached the fans watching the game), I stood up a few times, and booed them: “Stop the wave! watch the game!”
Posada singled.
YOu could see Eppley struggling.
A family of four glared at me, as if i were trying to stop them from enjoying the wave.
Gardner singled. bases loaded. Their efforts continued and they gathered more any more followers.
Frustrated, i stopped my protests.
As the stupid wave made it’s way around the ballpark, and the two fellas cheered their creation, Cervelli hit a grand slam. Yankees fans cheered, and the two people walked back up to their seats in the last rows of section 39.
maybe if we all just boo the people who try to start the wave, we can discourage their stupidity.
by Ranger miker on May 16, 2011 1:27 PM CDT up reply actions
I was there that day, and I was looking at sec 37.
Was that the day the two stoner looking kids at the front row of sec 37? Yeah, that pisses me off. And just for the record, I will accept the wave w/out poopooing it if we are up by >= 6 runs in the eighth or ninth. That’s about as far as my olive branch extends. And I’m right back against it if the score falls under 6 runs.
Yeah,
I won’t do it, but I’m fine with if it’s trying to deliver this message:
“You’re so bad at baseball today that we’re having to entertain ourselves”
"I’d love to walk in and hug everybody every day, but that’s not critical to us winning." - Jon Daniels
by GhettoBear04 on May 16, 2011 1:49 PM CDT up reply actions
I was at that game
and the wave plus the horrible bullpen meltdown plus the stupid Rangers fans cheering when the Yankees did something plus the stupid Yankees fans existing all added up to a miserable afternoon.
By 2028, Mark Teixeira will be in the HOF.
"I am one of the biggest Texas Ranger fans out there but I'm also one of the smartest. Deal with it."
-The Outlaw
perhaps
if you yelled out something more catchy
by studcrackers on May 16, 2011 4:42 PM CDT up reply actions
Ha. Yeah, I'm reminding myself of that Conan O'Brien skit where the shitty fan
keeps cheering really long paragraph cheers expecting everyone to cheer along with him.
there were a whole lot of kids there yesterday
if they think it’s fun to wave I don’t expect that putting a sign up is going to keep them from doing it.
couple of deals worth mentioning
Given current marketing trends it’s almost inevitable that the Rangers would come out with their own “deal of the day”— in this case reduced priced seats for the Tuesday May 24 game against the White Sox. http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/tex/ticketing/deals.jsp Although the link claims they are selling May 24 lower reserved seats for only 16, when you click it you are offered Lexus Club Terrace for $16. Considering that you can get Lexus Club Terrace seats for that same for $15 using the Dr Pepper promotion this doesn’t seem like a big deal.
A better deal, however, if you don’t mind sitting in the third level, is the team’s “throwing gas promotion”. For the average price of a gallon of gas as of last Friday, $3.89, you can get seats in Upper Box or Upper Reserved Seating areas for the May 24 or May 25 games against the Sox. http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/tex/ticketing/gas.jsp Although available until May 22, you’ll want to buy as soon as possible to get the best available seats.
Not a fan.
I just think of him getting injured.
"I’d love to walk in and hug everybody every day, but that’s not critical to us winning." - Jon Daniels
by GhettoBear04 on May 16, 2011 1:51 PM CDT up reply actions
hope to see him in person on May 23, which could be a draw as well...
but I’ll happily settle for him at dh that night. Sounds like his playing in the outfield is still a ways off.
ummmm
FACE disagrees with this statement :)
"I always thought that there was going to be life after baseball, and so I designed that in my life I would have other interests after baseball that I would be able to step into. And I didn't realize the grip that baseball had on me and on my family."
Nolan Ryan
I don't know about that...
but if Cruz comes back, Hamilton has to dh and Young camps at 1b until Hamilton returns to the outfield, then only one of Moreland and Murphy would seem to fit into the lineup unless we are willing to put up with Murphy’s subpar cf defense for a little while, given the alternatives.
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