Let me start off by saying that I love the Oakland A's and Bay Area sports teams. I have been going to A's games since 3rd grade and Golden State Warriors games since the 5th grade. However, over the years I have noticed a problem that occurs for the A's: Attendance. According to baseballreference.com, the average attendance per A's game from 2001-2019 (not including the pandemic and current season for obvious reasons) is around 22,200. There were only six instances in that 19 year time frame where the average attendance per game dipped below 20,000 for the season. Half of those instances happened in the '16, '17, '18 seasons. (The 2019 team saw a very successful A's team that barely edged out of the 20,000 fans a game threshold.) This is certainly not good news for the A’s. Attendance has been in a significant downtrend. Unfortunately, this is a league wide problem as well. According to baseballcube.com, average attendance to a MLB baseball game has consistently stayed above 30,000 - until just recently. The average attendance broke below 30,000 back in 2017 (which had not been done since 2003) and has been steadily dropping ever since.
What do these numbers mean?
There are two big conclusions we can draw from the data. We can make the first conclusion by taking a step back and looking at this situation using a broad lens. The first obvious statement we know to be true: Less and less people enjoy going to baseball games. Why? Because it is too slow, the food is overpriced, and kids simply don't want to play or watch the slow game of baseball anymore. The weekend tradition of taking the kids to the baseball game just isn't as prominent as it was before. Kids just want to spend hours on youtube or social media and don't enjoy the slow pace of baseball. Don't think that the league hasn't noticed this trend. The MLB started pitch clocks back in 2015 in the minor leagues hoping to speed up the game by reducing time wasted between pitches. It made its first appearance in the major leagues at the 2019 spring training. We also have seen the adoption of the new extra inning base runner rule where the batting team starts with a man on second base to start extra innings in an effort to reduce 13 inning games that can go on in excess of 3 and a half hours. Regardless of trying to shorten the long run time of the game, these rules really only end up shaving off a handful of minutes. They don't really do anything meaningful to the average runtime of each game. Conclusion #1: The fact of the matter is, you simply cannot change the pace of baseball. It is not supposed to be a fast paced game. Matter of fact, you cannot change the pace of ANY sport by a large margin. Imagine forcing every NFL team to run hurry up offense for 4 quarters straight. Imagine the NBA reducing the shot clock to 15 seconds. To make any drastic changes you have to change the sport drastically; I don't think anyone wants that.
The second point I want to make is in regards to: Why do the Oakland A’s have such poor turn outs at their games? You might say that well maybe they are all going to Giants games. As it turns out, more people do end up going to Giants games but they are experiencing the same attendance problem of late as well. It's not like bay area fans just switched teams. In the same time frame of (2001-2019) the Giants average attendance per game has only dipped below 39,000 five times. Two of those seasons were ‘18 and ‘19. This isn't just an Oakland A’s problem. Bay Area baseball has seen declining attendance per game numbers since 2016. This leads me to Conclusion #2: As kids grow up in the Bay Area, their focus has shifted more on academics, tech and the new world. They don't want to be stuck in the past watching old and slow baseball. The Bay Area is home to Apple’s HQ, Salesforce HQ, NVIDIA HQ, Adobe HQ, and a Tesla factory! There are simply way too many tech companies to mention. These kids want to grow up to be like their parents and work at Fortune 500 companies with tech positions. The median 2019 household income in San Francisco was over $121,000 according to fred.stlouisfed.org. Money is not an issue for many in the Bay Area. The issue is the demographic and interests of the population. Ultimately, we have a fundamental issue that we cannot change the game of baseball combined with a demographic issue of interests in the Bay Area.
The Solution
I will give credit where credit is due, Major League Baseball has tried changing. The fact of the matter is however, you cannot change the game. But, you can change WHY people go to the game. You can change why people choose to spend 3+ hours in a stadium eating overpriced food. You have to give them what they want. No, I'm not talking about a lottery system where every fan gets a chance to win a million dollars or some crazy scheme. I believe that the way MLB teams advertise and operate as a business needs to change. My proposition - Imagine this: A young student and her family go to the A’s game on a beautiful, sunny Saturday afternoon. She brings her laptop and in between innings or pitches she opens her laptop working on decoding a secret message. She advances in levels to reach increasingly difficult challenges from coding to hacking. She reaches a milestone record and her name is displayed in between innings on the Scoreboard. She works hard, determined to figure out what the secret message Stomper (the A’s mascot) has given her. While she tends to her coded mystery, the parents enjoy an escape from their fast paced life and bask in the serenity of enjoying American's national pastime. By the bottom of the 8th inning the game is tied 3-3. The crowd starts to get restless as Matt Olson steps up to the plate. She sets her laptop down confidently, knowing her progress will be saved until the next time she visits the stadium. She watches as Olson smacks a solo home run to right field and the A’s go on to win.
The possibilities are truly endless. Furthermore, wouldn't it be a great idea for the Giants and A’s to partner with nearby tech companies like Google and Apple to host special competitions? The winner may land an interview for a role at the company. Better yet, get the teenage high school kids involved. Have them break a certain code and get rewarded in small amounts of a cryptocurrency of their choice. (knowing them they will probably go with the all mighty DogeCoin) There are truly countless possibilities to drive up ticket sales and make baseball fun and trendy. It is even easier for the Giants and A's that have the a huge trump card - there are hundreds of Fortune 500 and other tech companies within a 30 minute radius of their stadiums.
The Ultimatum
If baseball organizations want to survive in our fast paced and changing society, especially in the tech heavy Bay Area, the business of baseball needs to change. Interest in baseball may be at an all time low, but that doesn't mean tickets can not be sold. Front offices need to adapt to the times and their surroundings. They need to adapt early to make baseball fun and exciting for everyone involved. Others will soon follow in their footsteps using their local resources and exclusive enviroment. There can be profit in it for everyone, but the Oakland A’s and San Fransisco Giants management need to take the first step in evolving not the sport of baseball, but the business of it.
Very insightful stuff!