Ballpark attendance has struggled to rebound after a 2020 season without fans in the stands, and the Philadelphia Phillies are no exception.
With about three weeks left in the regular season, they currently rank 15th in MLB in home attendance at Citizens Bank Park.
According to ESPN, the Phillies have hosted 1,222,972 fans so far this season, and are average 18,814 fans per home game. They’re one of 17 teams with an average of 18K or higher.
Prior to the pandemic, the Phillies were a top-10 ballpark. In 2011 and 2012, they actually led MLB in home attendance. In 2019, they ranked 10th overall, finishing the season with 2,727,421 fans at home, for an average of 33,671 in attendance per home game.
The Dodgers, who have led MLB in attendance every year since 2013, finished the 2019 season having hosted nearly four million fans in the stands. This year, they’ll be lucky to crack three.
MLB ballpark attendance is suffering due to the pandemic
Ballpark attendance was a league-wide issue before the pandemic, but now there are new factors impacting ballpark attendance across MLB. Every ballpark began the season with seriously limited capacity, and even now that all ballparks are at full capacity, many fans do not want to be in large crowds as COVID and Delta Variant numbers continue to surge. It’s understandable, but ballpark attendance was a problem before the pandemic, too.
In an effort to ameliorate ballgame costs and revitalize baseball in the COVID era, the Phillies are one of several teams offering affordable ticket packages.
This month, you can get tickets to twelve home games for $60, which is how much four beers would cost you at Fenway Park.
https://twitter.com/Phillies/status/1435365182335856640?s=20
This isn’t a new idea, but it has taken on new meaning and importance in the context of the pandemic. As long as COVID health & safety protocols are observed, this is a fantastic idea that all MLB teams with attendance issues should embrace now and in the future.
In 2019, the Oakland A’s offered free tickets for children under 12 for the entire month of September with the purchase of one adult ticket. This year, the Orioles offered a $40 unlimited ticket pass for August and September.
Most ballparks could offer similar ticket packages every year, and it would increase attendance, concession and souvenir revenue, and grow the game. After all, people can’t buy overpriced food and drinks if they can’t afford to get into the ballpark in the first place. Creating options like this to fill seats that would otherwise remain empty feels like a no-brainer, especially if you’re making family-friendly options that could inspire kids to grow up to be the next generation of players, fans, and sportswriters.
By offering affordable tickets, the Phillies are showing fans they matter
For most of 2020, fans heard MLB team owners complaining about how much money they lost during the fan-less shortened season. But unlike the literal billionaires who own baseball teams, the average Americans who took pay cuts or got furloughed or laid off, are shouldering heavy burdens that make pricey sporting events a luxury they cannot afford.
A ticket package like the one the Phillies are offering will pay both short and long-term dividends. More importantly, it’s a gesture of goodwill and outreach to fans; they deserve to feel like they are part of the game again after a season of watching from home.