Attendance

[arkimadee]

Ok, I'm going to start this thread. It was only a matter of time before one was started. Why did we draw 11,000 last night? No longer can not winning be an excuse. I'm going to throw my 2 cents in on why the Reds can't draw crap on a weeknight and perhaps a way to fix it. First of all, many of the Reds fans are from Dayton, Columbus, Lexington, Huntington, Ashland, etc.... Thats a long way to drive when gas is 3.79 a gallon. Also, the fact that every game is on tv has to have something to do with it. Sometimes its just cheaper and easier to watch a game on tv or on the internet. Another reason is from years and years of losing. We have to have a couple of sustained winning seasons to get the season ticket numbers up so we don't get these low numbers. If you see Yankees or Cards games you will see that they say there are 30 to 40 thousand there and last night if you looked in the crowds it did not look like there were that many. That's because their organizations sell so many season tickets that the number is always gonna be high, no matter what the walk up crowd is.

Possible short term solutions : Why not do your give-a-ways such as bobbleheads or whatever else you are promoting on a weeknight ?? Chances are the weekend crowds are going to be decent anyway. Why do so many promotions for weekend games? Give someone an extra reason to go on a weeknight. Maybe start games at 6:35 instead of 7:10? Especially during school season. It would put the game ending at around 9:30 every night and that makes getting home and getting the kids to bed on time easier. I subscribe to all the Reds twitter and facebook accounts. They need to be hounding people to go to these games. Remind people that there is a first place team playing tonight. Tell them the first 10,000 there gets a free hot dog or something.. PROMOTE PROMOTE PROMOTE..

Anyway thats just my 2 cents..

[Reds]

Looked like a nasty evening on the tele. Our second game of the year drew heavy, last evening was probably more of an exception than anything. Cold + Astros = Attendance issues lots of places.

[brm7675]

monday night game
playing astros
poor weather
school still in
economy still issue

[Helms1]

How many tickets were sold?

[mlh1981]

monday night game
playing astros
poor weather
school still in
economy still issue

The market size and lack of continuous success over the years speak to me more than the reasons you listed.

Every other market has many of these same excuses, but manage to draw well.

[Helms1]

We come from NC about every Memorial Day and a weekend in August. I really like to go to Cincinnati, great town. The people in the area need to step up.

[Captain13]

I live just over an hour away (NE edge of Louisville) and I will make it up for Sunday's game v. the Pirates. With two little ones it is all but impossible to go up on a weeknight.

[brm7675]

The market size and lack of continuous success over the years speak to me more than the reasons you listed.

Every other market has many of these same excuses, but manage to draw well.

Really? Have you seen some of the numbers so far this season? Cleveland had like 9000 at a weekend game...Wrigley had open seats...what other teams are you speaking of?

[Moosie52]

I am glad we get 95 games on Fox in Indy. Not many of us are traveling to Cincinnati on a week night anyway. The Reds are going to have to draw more paying customers from within 25 miles of the stadium. Or maybe black out games in Cincinnati and let the rest of the area have TV games.

[davrix]

I thought almost 12K on a Tuesday night in April was not too bad.

[Krawhitham]

Maybe start games at 6:35 instead of 7:10? Especially during school season. It would put the game ending at around 9:30 every night and that makes getting home and getting the kids to bed on time easier. I subscribe to all the Reds twitter and facebook accounts. They need to be hounding people to go to these games. Remind people that there is a first place team playing tonight. Tell them the first 10,000 there gets a free hot dog or something.. PROMOTE PROMOTE PROMOTE..

Anyway thats just my 2 cents..

It would be hard for people in Dayton, Columbus, Lexington, Huntington, Ashland to get off work and be able to make it to the game before it starts

[davrix]

You would think that with the Bengals doing everything possible to drive fans away and the Reds being one of the most fan friendly teams in baseball, that the attendance should grow pretty significantly. Maybe with another good year, the season ticket base will grow to a reasonable level.

[AintlifeGrande]

I heard Marty saying it was a sparse crowd.

[mlh1981]

Really? Have you seen some of the numbers so far this season? Cleveland had like 9000 at a weekend game...Wrigley had open seats...what other teams are you speaking of?


The Phillies, for one. They played the same crappy Astros team last week, cold weather, and drew huge numbers.

[lonewolf371]

The Phillies, for one. They played the same crappy Astros team last week, cold weather, and drew huge numbers.
Philly's a bigger city, easier for most Philly phans to get to the ballpark. I have to drive 4 hours to get to Cincinnati and I'm poor.

[mr. red]

Ok, I'm going to start this thread. It was only a matter of time before one was started. Why did we draw 11,000 last night? No longer can not winning be an excuse. I'm going to throw my 2 cents in on why the Reds can't draw crap on a weeknight and perhaps a way to fix it. First of all, many of the Reds fans are from Dayton, Columbus, Lexington, Huntington, Ashland, etc.... Thats a long way to drive when gas is 3.79 a gallon. Also, the fact that every game is on tv has to have something to do with it. Sometimes its just cheaper and easier to watch a game on tv or on the internet. Another reason is from years and years of losing. We have to have a couple of sustained winning seasons to get the season ticket numbers up so we don't get these low numbers. If you see Yankees or Cards games you will see that they say there are 30 to 40 thousand there and last night if you looked in the crowds it did not look like there were that many. That's because their organizations sell so many season tickets that the number is always gonna be high, no matter what the walk up crowd is.

Possible short term solutions : Why not do your give-a-ways such as bobbleheads or whatever else you are promoting on a weeknight ?? Chances are the weekend crowds are going to be decent anyway. Why do so many promotions for weekend games? Give someone an extra reason to go on a weeknight. Maybe start games at 6:35 instead of 7:10? Especially during school season. It would put the game ending at around 9:30 every night and that makes getting home and getting the kids to bed on time easier. I subscribe to all the Reds twitter and facebook accounts. They need to be hounding people to go to these games. Remind people that there is a first place team playing tonight. Tell them the first 10,000 there gets a free hot dog or something.. PROMOTE PROMOTE PROMOTE..

Anyway thats just my 2 cents..

I completely agree with the terrible attendance showing and how the Reds need to do something to boost those numbers, but realistically, what can you do? I HATE seeing small crowds at any point during the year, but it's hard to fill seats when the Astros are in town. I agree with the promotions, however, it is expensive to run promos. You can run bobblehead, photos, hats, and whatever else, but promos just aren't as effective as they used to be. People could buy that stuff on the internet now for $15-20 and save the hassle of buying a ticket, paying for parking, and driving to the ball park. It's sad, but it is the reality of the situation.

As for moving game times up to earlier starts, the times are set by MLB in order to provide proper televised coverage to other areas. Investors, sponsors, and local companies rely on televised games as a source of marketing which help drive their businesses. It's all one big entity. Also, bumping times up doesn't necessarily help if people are stuck at work late. It's a massive overhaul that just isn't plausible.

Again, I agree that our fans need to step up and get out to games EVERY NIGHT of the week. And I agree that the Reds need to figure out some way to draw more people into the stadium during the week. Anyways, that's just my input. Hopefully we keep up the winning!

[BPhillips4]

I agree a lot with the fact that a lot of Reds fans are out of towners. What is the population in Metro-Cinci?

I live in Columbus, and would LOVE to make it to games, but it requires a 90 minute to 2 hour drive just to get there. I've made it a goal to try and get to one game every two weeks this season though.

And also, this weather has SUCKED so far. I love baseball, I love being in the park, but I don't want to sit in 40 degree dreary weather for 3 hours.

[mlh1981]

Philly's a bigger city, easier for most Philly phans to get to the ballpark. I have to drive 4 hours to get to Cincinnati and I'm poor.

That's my point exactly. It has everything to do with market size, and very little to do with opponent/day of the week/weather/school being in session, etc.

[arkimadee]

More than 17,000 tonight. I can handle that for an early April Wednesday night..

[Helms1]

That's my point exactly. It has everything to do with market size, and very little to do with opponent/day of the week/weather/school being in session, etc.


Philly has a nice park, awful fans and a crappy city other than the historical sights which you can see only a couple of times. 17k is better, but I'm afraid 162-0 is the only way to get above 2.5 million. Cincinnati is a great product, I'm telling you as an outsider. Somebody needs to sell the Reds and the city.

[arkimadee]

Philly has a nice park, awful fans and a crappy city other than the historical sights which you can see only a couple of times. 17k is better, but I'm afraid 162-0 is the only way to get above 2.5 million. Cincinnati is a great product, I'm telling you as an outsider. Somebody needs to sell the Reds and the city.
I didn't know cities could be sold.

[tkemmerer14]

I completely agree with the terrible attendance showing and how the Reds need to do something to boost those numbers, but realistically, what can you do? I HATE seeing small crowds at any point during the year, but it's hard to fill seats when the Astros are in town. I agree with the promotions, however, it is expensive to run promos. You can run bobblehead, photos, hats, and whatever else, but promos just aren't as effective as they used to be. People could buy that stuff on the internet now for $15-20 and save the hassle of buying a ticket, paying for parking, and driving to the ball park. It's sad, but it is the reality of the situation.

As for moving game times up to earlier starts, the times are set by MLB in order to provide proper televised coverage to other areas. Investors, sponsors, and local companies rely on televised games as a source of marketing which help drive their businesses. It's all one big entity. Also, bumping times up doesn't necessarily help if people are stuck at work late. It's a massive overhaul that just isn't plausible.

Again, I agree that our fans need to step up and get out to games EVERY NIGHT of the week. And I agree that the Reds need to figure out some way to draw more people into the stadium during the week. Anyways, that's just my input. Hopefully we keep up the winning!

I think we also have to look at the fact that most of the Reds attendance comes from outside of the city of Cincinnati because it is such a small market, while a bigger city like NY has many of their fans from right inside their city. I drive 3-4 hours from Terre Haute, IN to go to weekend games when I can, but doing that on a weeknight with work and school is just out of the question. Thats why I say, Thank God for FS Ohio in Terre Haute (although I'm not sure why we actually get it here).

[LexRedsFan]

I'm a college student in Lexington. It's just HARD to pull off the drive and everything else. Last semester my friend and I got free tickets to one of the games against Arizona late in the season. We left at 5, didn't even have time to eat after stopping to get the tickets, driving, and parking etc. Got back at around 1130 PM. I'd imagine anyone who has a job getting off at 5 couldn't pull it off. Unfortunately with a small market team those are the problems we're gonna have.

[defender]

Looks like attendance is good today.

[bounty37h]

^Bunch of pelople must have moved into Cincy last night, cuase its a small market and no one lives there ;)

[PMand JM]

The attendance is fine... this is the first week in April, and (Thank God) We aren't Philly! My son and I are planning three weekend excursions to Reds games this year, and that is up from 1 last year. Others are planning the same , I am sure. The front office does an incredible job promoting this team.

[Helms1]

I didn't know cities could be sold.

Well, they are all mortgaged, especially in Ohio, but sometimes sell is synonymous with market.;)

[Eric from NC]

It seems that almost all the teams in the non-mega cities have the same problem. I get a lot of ATL games on cable. Their Mon. Tues crowds are fairly small, especially in the spring, but they have huge Saturday crowds because they draw from a lot of midsized cities like Columbia, Chattanooga and Savannah. I'm not a stats nerd. It seems to me maybe going to a 150 games schedule with Monday night games only once every four to six weeks would make sense. I'm also not a fan of the unbalanced schedule. I think you would draw a better mix of fans (especially fans of the road teams) if you did not play the same team all the time.

[jlb1705]

Philly has a nice park, awful fans and a crappy city other than the historical sights which you can see only a couple of times. 17k is better, but I'm afraid 162-0 is the only way to get above 2.5 million. Cincinnati is a great product, I'm telling you as an outsider. Somebody needs to sell the Reds and the city.

Awful fans? Their fans being jerks doesn't preclude them from buying tickets and showing up in large numbers.

Philadelphia is a much larger city with convenient public transit. It's much easier to jump on the bandwagon when there's a subway that will drop you off right outside the park.