How tough a ticket are the Atlanta Braves at SunTrust Park?
The draw was good – even as fan amenities were still being built around the shiny new stadium. But has it been everything that the Front Office had hoped?
We have arrived at the end of the first season of the Atlanta Braves in SunTrust Park – just 3 games remain in this christening year that we had been anticipating since the surprising announcement was made less than 4 years ago.
Turner Field officially held 49,586 fans… though the record attendance was considerably higher at 54,357. Standing Room Only sales helped a lot.
SunTrust was designed to be a smaller, more intimate arena at 41,149 capacity – a figure that has also been eclipsed (41,627 on July 15th).
But how has the attendance been currently and historically? Let’s stack up the numbers from data collected at ESPN.com:
- 2010: 2.510 million fans, 13th in baseball, avg. 30,989
- 2011: 2.373 million, 15th, avg. 30,108 (*79 home dates)
- 2012: 2.420 million, 15th, avg. 29,878
- 2013: 2.549 million, 13th, avg. 31,465
- 2014: 2.354 million, 18th, avg. 29,065
- 2015: 2.001 million, 24th, avg. 25,017
- 2016: 2.020 million, 22nd, avg. 24,949 (* Ft. Bragg counted as a home date)
- 2017: 2.399 million, 14th, avg. 30,750
With 3 games to go, that number should beat 2.5 million for only the second time since 2010, and will probably solidify that MLB rank of 14th overall… already back to the ‘normal’ range for this decade.
That’s a pretty nice showing for a team that has just now matched its 2016 win total of 68 with 11 games to go (3 vs. Philly/4 vs. Mets/4 in Miami).
Nearest Pursuers?
The only team close to Atlanta’s attendance with more remaining home games are the Kansas City Royals, but even with 7 more home dates, they would need close to half a million fans to catch the Braves and that’s simply not possible.
Like Atlanta, Houston also has 3 more home games this season, but Hurricane Harvey’s influence hurt them as the Astros are 100,000 fans behind Atlanta.
The number 1 team in attendance is the Dodgers – already with 3.473 million fans, averaging 46.302 per date. They will surge past 3.5 million with 6 home games to go.
“Small market” St. Louis is next – despite their odd season – with 3.1 million and 42,519 on average per date. They are followed by the Giants, Yankees, and Cubs (with a good chance that the Yankees will surpass the Giants by October).
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The Nationals lead the NL East (and are 11th overall), though in terms of averages, the Mets are right on their heels (31,095 for the Nats… the Mets are 58 behind).
The double-header that the Mets are playing on Monday with the Braves could hurt that CitiField average as New Yorkers may have trouble getting to Game 1 – even with a 4pm start time.
Mired behind… the Phillies (24th) and the Marlins (28th)… Miami averaging only 20,320 per start.
The worst in baseball? Oakland and Tampa Bay. No surprise.
But for the Braves…getting close to 31,000 per game is pretty solid, given that many were tending toward a wait-and-see approach while kinks were being worked out.
Next: Bank this: a 1st estimate of 2018 payroll
Once this team really gets good, though… this could quickly become the toughest ticket in town.