Major league baseball is concerned about lower attendance this year and the reason for more empty seats vary, notes Grumpy Editor --- who has his own theories.
A Saturday story in the Wall Street Journal points out league-wide attendance through last Friday is 27,328 per game, down 6.6 percent from a year prior and 8.6 percent overall, adding the sport hasn’t seen an attendance drop of more than 6.7 percent in a season since 1995.
Some think weather --- with rain and unseasonal cold in some areas --- is a cause for the drop.
However, the Blue Jays play under a retractable roof in Toronto, and attendance there is off 29 percent, notes the WSJ.
The newspaper adds crowds also are down 10.9 percent in Oakland (where many empty seats were observed at the Los Angeles Angels-A’s televised game Saturday afternoon), 6.7 percent in San Francisco and 4.2 percent in Tampa Bay where weather seldom is a factor.
Grumpy Editor, with his own theories, cites pitchers (some earning millions more a year than top corporation executives) who, with routines, slow the game.
At Saturday’s game in Oakland, for example, Grumpy Editor timed 36 seconds of one pitcher's mound antics that included rubbing the baseball, putting hand to mouth, adjusting cap, staring in to the catcher. The ninth inning saw the A’s catcher making three trips to the mound for conversation.
Another factor (not mentioned in discussions) are lofty ticket prices to see a major league game.
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