July 13, 2009
Well, we’re at the All Star break and it’s time for another Orioles attendance update. And this time — are you sitting down? — it’s good news!
If you’ll remember, back in early June I predicted we’d start seeing a boost in our beloved O’s attendance rate because the Birds were hosting a string of high-drawing teams, Matt Wieters had arrived and school was out.
I love being right.
After the June 9-11 series against Seattle, Oriole Park’s total attendance for the year was 692,891 — a whopping 21 percent down from its corresponding 32nd game at home last year. Since then, the O’s have hosted Atlanta, the New York Mets, Boston, Washington and Toronto and picked up 15 points in the meantime.
The team is still down from last year, but only by 5.2 percent. And that’s pretty much in line with the rest of Major League Baseball attendance, which is down between 4 and 5 percent, according to the Sports Business Journal.
Meanwhile, since Wieters joined the club on May 29, more than 600,400 people have passed through the gates at Oriole Park in 21 games. During the previous 26 games, attendance totaled about 541,000.
Now, not all is well — I attended Sunday’s matchup against Toronto (which drew about 21,600) as a plain old fan and the atmosphere was almost sleepy in the upper reserves. And this was despite the fact....
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