Cubs attendance

[Irrelevant Dude]

One of the things that has surprised me lately is how many seats are still unsold at Wrigley Field despite having a contending team in late August.  I don't know where to find attendance figures by game, but I believe the individual game attendance for Monday and Tuesday nights against the Brewers was somewhere around 34,000.  I know those were weeknight games and school has started again, but I still expected more fans for such an important series.  What is is going to take for the Cubs to actually sell out Wrigley again?  They are a somewhat disappointing 9th in home attendance this year, trailing the Dodgers, Yankees, Padres, Cardinals, Braves, Phillies, Blue Jays, and Astros.  It still feels strange to go from a time where Standing Room Only was the norm to today where there are large sections of seats unsold for even the most important games.

[UMFan83]

The team was what 5 games under .500 and buried in the WC standings at the break?  I think there are a couple of things at play:

-Late blooming team so advance ticket sales aren't as strong

-Dynamic pricing designed to optimize revenue more than optimize attendance

-The Cubs simply aren't the same franchise that could open their ticket booths in mid-Feburary and expect half the home games to be sold out by the time the season starts.  Pre-2003, this is basically what Cubs attendance looked like.  2003 brought a surge of fans desperate to see the Cubs end their WS drought and now that they have, attendance is going to be a little more elastic.

Their attendance floor is still pretty damn high, I only see 1-2 games after April that were below 30k in attendance and they were just below 30k.

Maybe that doesn't explain everything, but just some thoughts.  Personally, I'd probably go to 5-6 additional Cubs games per season if the ticket prices were more like they were in the 00's and early 10's.  But if it is going to cost me $300 minimum to take wife and three kids to the game, I'm only good for a couple games a year.

Edited August 31, 2023 by UMFan83

[jersey cubs fan]

Attendance has always lagged performance. 
200,000 more people attended in 1999 than 1998.

same for 2004 vs 2003. 
 

if they make the playoffs this year attendance will go up next year. But never expect people to show up before the resurgence happens. 

[Sammy Sofa]

Get a horsefeathers star or two.

[Andy]

6 hours ago, UMFan83 said:

-Dynamic pricing designed to optimize revenue more than optimize attendance

I think the late-blooming thing is a big part of it, but writ large this is probably the biggest factor. From college football I've learned that in so many words, athletic departments consider it almost a failure if games fully sell out because that means they didn't charge enough for tickets. That dynamic is surely in play with MLB franchises too.

[jersey cubs fan]

1 hour ago, Andy said:

I think the late-blooming thing is a big part of it, but writ large this is probably the biggest factor. From college football I've learned that in so many words, athletic departments consider it almost a failure if games fully sell out because that means they didn't charge enough for tickets. That dynamic is surely in play with MLB franchises too.

That can’t be notre dame’s athletic departments protocol