Not all MLB teams are living the same reality: some of them are succeeding and playing their best ball in years, while others are struggling.
Just like it happens with performance, some squads are enjoying excellent attendance numbers, while others are reporting a frustratingly low number of fans in the stands.
In fact, some Triple-A teams are drawing a larger crowd than a couple of MLB franchises.
“Triple-A Albuquerque drew 15,190 fans last night. That’s more than the Pirates, Marlins and A’s drew yesterday and only 5 fewer fans than the Rays attendance,” Baseball America editor JJ Cooper tweeted.
Triple-A Albuquerque drew 15,190 fans last night. That’s more than the Pirates, Marlins and A’s drew yesterday and only 5 fewer fans than the Rays attendance.
— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) May 15, 2022
This speaks loudly about the Albuquerque Isotopes’ attractiveness, but it speaks even louder about the shortcomings of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Miami Marlins, and the Oakland Athletics as franchises.
Uncompetitive Franchises
The Tampa Bay Rays have put together a competitive, sustainable team over the last few seasons, but the Pirates have been bad for years, and the same can be said about the Marlins even though they made the postseason two years ago (in an expanded version, though).
The Athletics sold half of their team and let go of the other half via free agency, and now field a Triple-A team on an ancient ballpark.
Unless those teams start trying soon and change some of their realities, they are doomed to host just a handful of loyal fans every game.
It’s something that the league certainly needs to address, but they had a golden chance during the lockout and largely failed to come up with real, impactful solutions.
The reality is that not many people are eager to go to the stadium and watch their team lose two out of three games, and it’s hard to blame them.
