Just read an open letter from the Brewer's owner to the fans... Man I wish I was him! That would be my dream, own the Brewers and build them back up to a contending team.
One really interesting fact that he said in his letter:
"More fans came to see the Brewers than went to games in Boston, in San Francisco, or on the South Side of Chicago to see the White Sox."
What? Milwaukee had greater attendance than the beloved Red Sox fans that read this blog???
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8 comments:
Dale - interesting figure, maybe the Brewers owner could be a politician the way he spins data. The facts are the Red Sox just broke the MLB record for consecutive sell out at home (457 home games!).
Another measure of team popularity or fan devotion is road attendance in which the Red Sox lead this year:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/attendance?sort=away_avg&year=2008&seasonType=2
The Brewers lead in hype and open letters to fans.
If the Red Sox lost in the ALDS the open letter to fans would have been "we are sorry we failed" not "We did it!" :)
(Sorry - had to defend the Sox)
I haven't checked the actual stadium capacity numbers, but if the Brewer's stadium is larger than the Red Sox', then it is possible that they can have higher attendances without having sellouts. Just a thought...
It looks like a quick search yields Fenway Park with 39,928 and Miller Park with 42,200. I didn't check the actual attendances, but it does appear that it is possible for the Brewers to have a higher attendance without a sellout.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_stadiums
p.s. perhaps the red sox should increase ticket prices!
also, i think a better measure would be not to count tickets sold, but tickets redeemed...those actually coming
What happened to using appropriate numbers (absolute vs relative)? =)
Fenway Park is the 5th smallest park in MLB. It averaged 104% attendance for home games. (Not sure how to interpret that... must be similar to giving 110% effort =).
And I'd qualify that statement by saying "More fans came to Brewers GAMES" rather than "see the Brewers" since many Cubs fans contributed to those numbers. In fact, looking at the Cubs games, I estimate about a 5,000 per home game vs Cubs boost. Multiply that by 7 games vs the Cubs, and that would put Boston above Milwaukee in attendance.
Not that I want to knock on the Brewers, but I gotta defend the Sox. It still is very impressive that Milwaukee had the 9th highest total attendance while being the 38th largest U.S. metro area.
One more parting shot: regarding a previous comment about time lived in Boston vs Wisconsin... how about time lived in Dallas vs Wisconsin? =)
All valid points. I'm just tickled that the Brewers were mentioned in the same breath as the Red Sox (kinda like how Tom said that he's so happy that Boston is now known for post-season success).
104% attendance includes standing room only
Don't know who anonymous is, but I like his/her comments. Alot of Cubs fans do go up to Miller Park for games other than the Brew Crew vs the Cubbies, simply because:
a) it's less expensive than Wrigley tickets
b) you can get more than 1 seat at a time the day of the game - at Wrigley you can't even do that 3 months in advance sometimes
c) for some of the north siders, Miller Park isn't much farther than Sox park
d) Sox fans are jerks
All that being said, you DO have a great ballpark in Milwaukee. I love that they always have Leinie's on tap, and the Sausage Races are fun, too. :-)
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