Major League Baseball\u2019s overall attendance will surpass 70 million fans for the third consecutive season in 2025, despite the Tampa Bay Rays and A\u2019s playing in minor league ballparks. It marks the first time MLB has accomplished the feat since 2015-17. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe think it\u2019s an important milestone. It was kind of a goal of ours, so we take a lot of satisfaction in that,\u201d MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told Sports Business Journal. \u201cThere\u2019s no question that the minor league ballparks were not helpful in terms of our overall attendance numbers. But even though that current was running against us, we still managed to get above 70 million, and I\u2019m still hopeful we\u2019re going to get above last year\u2019s number.\u201d <\/p>\n
MLB drew 70,747,365 fans in 2023 and 71,348,413 fans in 2024. As of games played by Sept. 23, MLB had drawn 68,914,953 fans, according to SBJ\u2019s analysis of MLB official data, and it was unclear whether it would achieve a third straight yearly increase. The last time that happened was 2005-07. <\/p>\n
Manfred pointed to factors such as the pace-of-play rule changes, balanced schedule and expanded postseason as reasons for the overall consistency at the turnstiles. Still, the commissioner noted the emergence of star players is the biggest contributor. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got [Philadelphia Phillies left fielder] Kyle Schwarber\u2019s run this year, [Seattle Mariners catcher] Cal Raleigh [hitting 60 homers], just really great players and young guys like [A\u2019s rookie first baseman] Nick Kurtz,\u201d Manfred said. \u201cAll these things that we try to do really matter, but at the end of the day, it\u2019s about the talent.\u201d <\/p>\n
Playing at Steinbrenner Field, the spring training home of the New York Yankees, the Rays saw their average attendance drop an MLB-worst 41.2% year over year, from 16,515 to 9,713. Under new ownership, the team is expected to return to a repaired Tropicana Field for the start of the 2026 season. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the A\u2019s, who are slated to play at Sacramento\u2019s Sutter Health Park for two more years before moving into a new ballpark in Las Vegas in 2028, were down 17.7% YOY, from 11,529 to 9,488, through 76 home dates. It is noteworthy that figure is just 485 fewer fans per game than they drew in 2022 at the Oakland Coliseum. <\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Dodgers (4,012,470) set an all-time attendance mark, while also becoming the first team to draw more than 4 million fans since 2008. The New York Mets (3,184,570) posted an MLB-best 33.3% YOY increase (29,485 to 39,316), while hitting the 3 million mark for the first time since 2009, their first year playing at Citi Field. \u201cGreat showing by some of our larger-market teams,\u201d Manfred said. <\/p>\n
The commissioner also acknowledged the San Diego Padres (surpassing 3 million fans for three consecutive years) setting an all-time attendance record; the Arizona Diamondbacks (2,315,604 through 79 games) posting their best attendance since 2008; and the Detroit Tigers (up 25.1% YOY) posting their best attendance (2,413,442) since 2016. The Chicago Cubs are up for a fourth straight year, while the Cincinnati Reds posted their best attendance since 2015. <\/p>\n
On the other end, the St. Louis Cardinals (2,250,007), down 21.8% YOY, had their worst attendance since 1995. The Baltimore Orioles (1,768,511 through 78 games), meanwhile, were down 19.5% YOY. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a truism in our game: When a club doesn\u2019t perform well, or underperforms expectations, it\u2019s going to affect your attendance,\u201d Manfred said when asked about the Cardinals and Orioles. \u201cAnd I think that effect gets stronger if it\u2019s more than a year or two in a row. And it\u2019s obviously stronger in our smaller markets. The larger markets just hold up better.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Broughton contributed to this report.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Major League Baseball\u2019s overall attendance will surpass 70 million fans for the third consecutive season in 2025, despite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[1558,74371,363,8837,99,23573],"class_list":["post-183120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-baseball","tag-data-and-insights","tag-mlb","tag-print","tag-sports","tag-upfront"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}