A's Attendance Woes

ElephantsInChitown — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:34:34 -0000

Attendance, attendance attendance...here we go again. Attendance this year at the Coliseum has continued to be a sore point despite a surprisingly competitive (yet everchanging) team that is sent to play night in and night out; one that is within spitting distance of first place. There've been articles recently regarding the A's home attendance slump this year and this most recent one, as well as past articles highlight a few points that may be reasons casual fans are staying home:

1.The departures of Swish and Haren this past off season.

Sure, this was tough for everyone. Trading these two went a long way in anonymizing this team as did the Scutaro trade prior to these. Who were we left with to really root for? Chavez, Crosby, Harden? Yeah...no. Ellis? I love the guy as much as the next person and think he may have been the most valuable player for the past couple of years for his stellar defence and consistency but he doesn't really make me feel all warm and fuzzy. How about Jack Cust ...not so much. We were all waiting for Blanton and Street to be delt so that pretty much ruled them out. That basically left Travis Buck and Daric Barton to fill that void. Barton's time with the big club last year was a nice surprise but that was all of 18 games and Buck, when he was healthy, really tailed off as the year went on. And then there's Bob Geren . Enough said.

Has the casual fan given up on the A's due to the departures of great players the likes of Tejada, Giambi, Dye, Mulder, Zito, Hudson, etc.?

2. The faltering economy.

This one hurts everyone in just about every business, however certain areas of the country namely the Northwest and Bay Area are feeling the effects much less than most other areas. Attendance is down all over baseball but some teams in good positions are drawing very, very poorly like the A's, Marlins, Rays and Rangers. Dont' forget, the Rangers are right on our heels. The A's average attendance this year is 18,968 and it wasn't too long ago when we weren't selling out playoff games. The Giants average attendance this year is 33,708 and they watch a far inferior team with almost no hope but they do get to watch them in a far superior satdium, which brings me to my next point:

3. The Coliseum

I remember one writer some time ago refer to it as looking like a post nuclear apocolypse version of a ballpark, or something to that effect. No one can deny the fact that it really does look like a concrete turd and there really isn't much in the way of amenities to be had once inside the stadium.

I live in Chicago where there's the Oh So Mighty Cubs and then the white sox. Both teams are in first place in their respective divisions but much like the Bay Area one team can do no wrong and the other is an afterthought. Much like the Giants fans, many Cubs fans know little to nothing about baseball (not nearly to the extent as Giants fans, they're on another level) and most Sox fans are die hard. My friends that are Sox fans point to the stadium issue as a big reason for the Cubs bias that goes on here and just about everywhere else. Wrigley field is located right in the heart of the north side (aptly named Wrigleyville), surrounded by numerous bars, restaurants and night clubs all shrouded in Cubs flags and paraphernalia. Whereas U.S. Cellular field (nicknamed The Cell) is in an industrial area of the south side that doesn't really have much to offer other than the ball park itself much like The Coliseum in Oakland. Most Cubs games sell out and Sox games aren't even close.

So what do you guys think? Why aren't people showing up to the games in Oakland? What are the main issues as to why the seats only fill up when the Red Sox are in town? As I said before, I'm in Chicago and looking at it from an outside perspective.

SB Nation User Blog: ElephantsInChitown

A's Attendance Woes