With the NBA Final recently completed, and the NBA itself is enjoying new heights in
popularity, the Warriors are one of the most popular teams playing against one of
the most popular athletes in the world in LeBron James, we begin our series of posts
on stadium attendance and interest with an analyses of NBA regular season game
attendance. (We opted for regular season attendance because playoffs games are
almost always sold out.)
Fan Data
A Deeper Look into Fan Attendance by MLB Team
In our last post, we explored the attendance patterns across major league baseball. In this post, we take a closer look at the attendance performance of individual teams. As the data in the table show, the Los Angeles Dodgers have the highest average attendance in baseball the past three years (46,230) followed by the St. Louis Cardinals (42,854) and the San Francisco Giants (41,303). The Tampa Bay Rays have the lowest average attendance the last three years at 15,650.
The ticket sales departments of the high average teams are undoubtedly pleased, but even better than a high average is a consistently high average, or put differently, low variance in attendance. The Giants have the lowest attendance variance of any team in baseball the last three years, though the Cardinals and Dodgers are also in the top five. After all, it’s hard to maintain a high average without regularly selling a lot of tickets. But having a high average and low variance suggests that home team fans are supportive of their team no matter who is playing—arguably a higher degree of interest.
MLB Stadium Attendance: Is America’s Pastime Experiencing a Decline in Popularity?
Stadium attendance is, of course, the oldest form of fan interest and occurs whether a game is televised or not. So, as we contend in our previous post, in-stadium attendance is ultimately the highest fidelity signal available for measurement. Each stadium has a fixed capacity and standing room only ticket sales are rarely sold with the exception of the Dallas Cowboys after the construction of their home venue in 2009. Even with standing room tickets, Cowboys stadium capacity is capped at 105,000. Because one body fits in one seat on almost all cases, attendance is thus a reliable benchmark to compare television viewership. (We acknowledge that not everyone who bought a tickets makes it to the game and many teams count promotional tickets—many of which go unused—in their reported attendance numbers, but we assume that most teams that do not sell out every game do this to roughly similar degrees which makes for a bit a noise in the data, but otherwise doesn’t completely destroy our model.)
Does A Decline In TV Viewership Signal A Decline In Sport’s Fandom?
Cord cutting—the process of cancelling paid TV service—which began in roughly 2010 has continued to proliferate to the tune of 3.4% of subscribers cancelling year over year during Q4 2017. These cancellations have likely affected the mediated viewership of major sports since sports programming is a significant driver of cable subscriptions. Available viewership data from the various leagues cut in both directions—NFL television viewership is down almost 10 percent season over season in 2017, but NBA viewership is up by upwards of 20 percent. So it is unclear whether cord cutting represents a decline in interest the sports themselves or merely paid television viewing of certain sports.
The Success of the Vegas Golden Knights
The Vegas Golden Knights have played one complete NHL regular season and are already making the franchise’s first appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals. They’ve built a brand out in the desert of Nevada. Historically, expansion teams in American sports struggle in their opening years like the Toronto Raptors, Vancouver/Memphis Grizzlies, and Houston Texans. However, the Golden Knights have broken the curse.
In the 2017-2018 NHL season, their inaugural season, the Golden Knights boasted an astonishing 51 wins, securing the top place in the Pacific Division, and a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Currently, they are up 1-0 in the Stanley Cup Finals against the Washington Capitals. This situation begs a few major questions. How did the Vegas Golden Knights accomplish so much in their first season of NHL play? And what are the implications of their success?
Visit FanWide.com to find a Las Vegas Golden Knights game watch party or fan club near you.
250,000 FanWide Game Watch Parties – Part 3: Sports Bar Hosting Data
FanWide (https://www.FanWide.com) has promoted and collected data from over three hundred thousand events nationwide for its Sports Fan Club Data Platform. An event is an organized meetup where a group of sports fans gets together out of their home to watch one of almost 15,000 televised games, commonly known as a “watch party”, and this blog lists the Top 100 most popular sports bars and restaurants nationwide.
FanWide helps bars and restaurants attract new customers and makes them a premier sports viewing location. Learn more about how venues can join our network at https://www.fanwide.com/host/overview or contact Sales@FanWide.com.
250,000 FanWide Game Watch Parties – Part 2: Geographic Sports Fan Data
In just under thirteen months since its launch, FanWide (http://www.FanWide.com) has promoted and collected data from over a quarter of a million events nationwide. An event is an organized meetup where a group of sports fans gets together out of their home to watch one of almost 15,000 televised games, commonly known as a “watch party”.
250,000 FanWide Game Watch Parties – Part 1: Team & League Sports Fan Data
In just under thirteen months since its launch, FanWide has promoted and collected data from over a quarter of a million events nationwide. An event is an organized meetup where a group of sports fans gets together out of their home to watch one of almost 15,000 televised games, commonly known as a “watch party”.