From: dpw@sei.cmu.edu (David Wood)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: Pittsburg Fans
Date: 13 Oct 92 15:18:08 GMT
Article-I.D.: sei.1992Oct13.151808.15458
Organization: Software Engineering Institute



kiviat@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Brian Kiviat) asks...

>Does anyone know what the average attendence per game was for the Pirates
>this year. If the Pitt fans are so great, this better be high.

First, I personally don't think that Pittsburgh fans are any better or
worse than fans anywhere else (*).  Let's not be silly.

Pirate attendance was off this year, without question due to the
summer-long and still ongoing newspaper strike.  I don't have the
exact figures, but a reasonable estimate is 22,500 per-game.  While
this is below average in the league, it still represents one of the
highest per capita attendance figures in the majors.

I don't have figures for this year, but I can give some numbers for
last year.  Keep in mind that attendance is off this year, at least
for the Pirates.

The Pirates ranked 17th out of the 26 major league teams in raw
attendance last year, but 6th in terms of per capita attendance based
on metro area population and 4th in terms of city population.  They
sold approximately one ticket per metro resident, or 5.6 per city
resident.  Their performance was eclipsed only by the fine fans of the
Reds, Royals, Blue Jays, Orioles, and Cards.  The Brewers and Twins
were not far behind.

By comparison, the Pirates outdrew teams from huge cities such as
Boston, San Franscisco/ Oakland, both Chicago teams, Detroit, Philly,
both LA-area teams, and both New York teams (these are the 7 largest
metro areas in the country, by the way - there is a definite pattern
here).  In fact, not only did the Pirates out-draw both New York teams
on a per capita basis, but they out-drew them both *combined*, and by
an order of magnitude (based on city population).  Even when adjusted
for winning percentage (by dividing per capita attendance by winning
percentage), the New York teams round out the bottom two spots on the
list, while the Pirates fall to 9th out of 26.

If fact, quite apart from the per capita comparisons, the Pirates
out-drew the Yankees outright, 2.07 million to 1.86 million.  This is
really pathetic, given the huge population of New York, not to mention
the obscene amounts of money lavished on the Met and Yankee payrolls.

It is suggested every year that cities such as Pittsburgh "don't
deserve" a baseball team because of low attendance.  While the city
may not deserve a team from an economic standpoint by virtue of its
small size, clearly this is not true if one looks at the support
provided by the local population.  To the contrary, one could make a
pretty strong case that residents of large cities have become fat and
lazy - they don't have to go to the games because somebody else will.
In fact, since the television market is where the money is, attendance
doesn't matter much anyway, right?  No wonder baseball is such a mess
and degrading rapidly.

--Dave Wood 

(*) Although they are not nearly as annoying as Braves fans and their
asinine, mind-numbing moaning and chopping routine.  Couldn't some
kind Atlantean please do the world a favor and assassinate Ted and
Jane (and her sequined cap)?  Please??