Attendance Thread II

[The Mighty Mite]

Just last night I was going through some archived material (my summer project has been to organize all the stuff I have in printed form on the Sox in individual folders by season).

 

I came across the front page of the Chicago Tribune sports section from June 14, 1957 it was the day after the huge "base-brawl" between the Yankees and Sox at Comiskey that had racial overtones, went for :30 minutes and saw five players ejected.

 

Anyway on the bottom right side of the front page was a box with this headline: "Sox, Yanks draw 112,548...Giants, Cubs draw 8,518." Both teams had played a three game series.

 

That was probaby the fight when Walt Dropo beat the crap out of Enos Slaughter.

[LittleHurt05]

Just last night I was going through some archived material (my summer project has been to organize all the stuff I have in printed form on the Sox in individual folders by season).

 

I came across the front page of the Chicago Tribune sports section from June 14, 1957 it was the day after the huge "base-brawl" between the Yankees and Sox at Comiskey that had racial overtones, went for :30 minutes and saw five players ejected.

 

Anyway on the bottom right side of the front page was a box with this headline: "Sox, Yanks draw 112,548...Giants, Cubs draw 8,518." Both teams had played a three game series.

 

The fluctuations in attendance back then are crazy: https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CH...le-scores.shtml

 

May 28 vs. KC, Tuesday day game: 3,647

May 30 vs. CLE Thursday day doubleheader: 38,150

June 1 vs. DET : Saturday afternoon: 9,413

June 8 vs. BAL: Saturday afternoon: 5,642

June 11 vs. Yankees: Tuesday night: 49,114

June 12 vs. Yankees: Wednesday night: 40,033

 

Nobody went to games on Saturday afternoons back then?

[Dick Allen]

The Cubs/Sox attendance thing also has a lot to do with the neighborhoods. The people in Bridgeport don't want a lot of loud bars and people running all over the place pissing on their lawns. They don't in Wrigleyville either, but it's already built in. Back almost through the 70's the area around Wrigley Field wasn't exactly nice. It was a bit sketchy.

[Lip Man 1]

That was probaby the fight when Walt Dropo beat the crap out of Enos Slaughter.

 

It was...Slaughter walking back to the dugout with his jersey and undershirt ripped to shreds and his hat backwards is one of the most famous sports photo's of the 1950's.

 

Getting back to the business story, the Sox TV numbers though are staggeringly bad even though fans seem excited about the rebuild. Remember they have to negotiate a new TV contract with someone after 2019. If the rebuild is showing promise they could get a good amount of money...if not? That's major trouble considering the deals other teams, including smaller market clubs, like Seattle, Arizona and St. Louis have received.

 

For the Cubs it really doesn't matter since they are starting their own network after 2019 and since they don't figure to fall apart in the next two years they are going to be getting a LOT of money including from advertisers.

[Lip Man 1]

The fluctuations in attendance back then are crazy: https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CH...le-scores.shtml

 

May 28 vs. KC, Tuesday day game: 3,647

May 30 vs. CLE Thursday day doubleheader: 38,150

June 1 vs. DET : Saturday afternoon: 9,413

June 8 vs. BAL: Saturday afternoon: 5,642

June 11 vs. Yankees: Tuesday night: 49,114

June 12 vs. Yankees: Wednesday night: 40,033

 

Nobody went to games on Saturday afternoons back then?

 

Weather may have been a factor with some of those games as well as the opponent.

[The Mighty Mite]

The fluctuations in attendance back then are crazy: https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CH...le-scores.shtml

 

May 28 vs. KC, Tuesday day game: 3,647

May 30 vs. CLE Thursday day doubleheader: 38,150

June 1 vs. DET : Saturday afternoon: 9,413

June 8 vs. BAL: Saturday afternoon: 5,642

June 11 vs. Yankees: Tuesday night: 49,114

June 12 vs. Yankees: Wednesday night: 40,033

 

Nobody went to games on Saturday afternoons back then?

 

That's true and that was the norm for MLB in those years, usually big Friday night crowds, small Saturday crowds and big crowds on Sunday afternoons and usually a Double Header. I would bet that Saturday afternoons was the only day when the Cubs outdrew the Sox, why I don't know. No Saturday night games back then. My guess is that the work week was a lot different, most worked 9-5 jobs Monday through Friday, Saturday was the day that the old man would work around the house and do other chores but still listening to Bob Elson on the radio. As far as Sunday most everything was closed except drug stores and gas stations.

Edited July 28, 2017 by The Mighty Mite

[LittleHurt05]

That's true and that was the norm for MLB in those years, usually big Friday night crowds, small Saturday crowds and big crowds on Sunday afternoons and usually a Double Header. I would bet that Saturday afternoons was the only day when the Cubs outdrew the Sox, why I don't know. No Saturday night games back then. My guess is that the work week was a lot different, most worked 9-5 jobs Monday through Friday, Saturday was the day that the old man would work around the house and do other chores but still listening to Bob Elson on the radio. As far as Sunday most everything was closed except drug stores and gas stations.

 

Interesting, thanks for that information. It does look to be a recurring theme all season. I'm sure the doubleheader on most Sundays played a huge part too.

[JPR]

Still think they should build a bigger ball park by the Tweeter Center in Tinley Park. I bet it would be sold out every night and they could add more seats to make the capacity 50,000+. The cell or whatever it's called till the next corporate contract comes up, is in a horrible location. And as you all know water is also wet unless its frozen and the sky is blue unless it's night. I really wish they'd build a new ball park in the Orland/Tinley area. $$$$$

Edited July 28, 2017 by JPR

[SonofaRoache]

Still think they should build a bigger ball park by the Tweeter Center in Tinley Park. I bet it would be sold out every night and they could add more seats to make the capacity 50,000+. The cell or whatever it's called till the next corporate contract comes up, is in a horrible location. And as you all know water is also wet unless its frozen and the sky is blue unless it's night. I really wish they'd build a new ball park in the Orland/Tinley area. $$$$$

 

 

The Sox are fine where they are. Two things will give them huge attendance boosts. 1. Winning consistently and not once a decade on average. 2. Putting things around the stadium that persuades fans to come to the park early and to stay late. The little restaraunt/pub they have across the street is a great start and I enjoy going over there after the game. They need to give people a reason to waste their time traveling to the park if they aren't going to win games consistently. No one is paying 200-400 bucks to take their family to a game just to see the team lose and then immediately go home after.

[mac9001]

Still think they should build a bigger ball park by the Tweeter Center in Tinley Park. I bet it would be sold out every night and they could add more seats to make the capacity 50,000+. The cell or whatever it's called till the next corporate contract comes up, is in a horrible location. And as you all know water is also wet unless its frozen and the sky is blue unless it's night. I really wish they'd build a new ball park in the Orland/Tinley area. $$$$$

 

Tinley Park is a pretty terrible place to build anything. 80% of Chicagoland would view Tinley Park as an inconvenient drive. The absolute best place to build a park was Rosemont. They're actually putting an unaffiliated minor league team there and I'm willing to bet they'll do fantastically well in terms of attendance.

[southsider2k5]

Tinley Park is a pretty terrible place to build anything. 80% of Chicagoland would view Tinley Park as an inconvenient drive. The absolute best place to build a park was Rosemont. They're actually putting an unaffiliated minor league team there and I'm willing to bet they'll do fantastically well in terms of attendance.

 

The south side baseball team to the NW suburbs? That would be awful.

[mac9001]

The south side baseball team to the NW suburbs? That would be awful.

 

You'll build a whole new fan base, one that might actually support the team.

[southsider2k5]

You'll build a whole new fan base, one that might actually support the team.

 

It would take a generation at least to do that, and in the meantime you would lose your existing fan base.

[mac9001]

It would take a generation at least to do that, and in the meantime you would lose your existing fan base.

 

Judging by attendance and TV ratings it's not much of a fan base and you'll place the team in fairly centralized geographic area with a fairly affluent high income population base with decent access to public transportation. At some point they're going to start thinking about a new stadium and and for the Sox sake I hope they seriously consider getting out of the south side.

Edited July 28, 2017 by mac9001

[southsider2k5]

Judging by attendance and TV ratings it's not much of a fan base and you'll place the team in fairly centralized geographic area with a fairly affluent high income population base with decent access to public transportation. At some point they're going to start thinking about a new stadium and and for the Sox sake I hope they seriously consider getting out of the south side.

 

The NW burbs are the opposite of centralized. It is one thing to say move downtown to the actual center of the metro area. It is another to move south as that is where their fan base is. Rosemont makes no sense at all.

[mac9001]

The NW burbs are the opposite of centralized. It is one thing to say move downtown to the actual center of the metro area. It is another to move south as that is where their fan base is. Rosemont makes no sense at all.

 

There's a reason someone just dropped 50 million to build a stadium for an unaffiliated minor league team and Rosemont offered free land to the Cubs to build a stadium. It's a perfect place to put a big entertainment spot. You have easy highway access, endless parking, airport, metra access, CTA link, tons of food/bar/entertainment/casion/shopping options and most importantly a population base with a ton of money.

[Chicago White Sox]

Now that I'm a grown ass man and live in the west suburbs, I wish Reinsdorf would have pulled off the move to Addison. I can't even imagine living 10 minutes away from the Sox's stadium, would be so f***ing awesome.

[southsider2k5]

There's a reason someone just dropped 50 million to build a stadium for an unaffiliated minor league team and Rosemont offered free land to the Cubs to build a stadium. It's a perfect place to put a big entertainment spot. You have easy highway access, endless parking, airport, metra access, CTA link, tons of food/bar/entertainment/casion/shopping options and most importantly a population base with a ton of money.

 

Rosemont is in the dead center of Cubs country. You notice Rosemont didn't make the same offer to the White Sox?

[Chicago White Sox]

Rosemont is in the dead center of Cubs country. You notice Rosemont didn't make the same offer to the White Sox?

I'm not sure I'd call it the dead center, but it would definitely cater better to the Cubs' fanbase than ours.

[greg775]

The zoo is still free in Chicago.

Brookfield is the good zoo and not free. It's expensive.

 

I will not re-up next season. I still have 12 games left. It's jsut a waste of time now. I'll come back when they come back. Especially last night with Cubs fans. This woman about 25 was making blood curdling screams about 3 rows behind me, for about 3 innings almost non stop. A guy with his son, Blue Jays fans, asked her very politely if she could tone it down. Of course not, she paid for those seats. Finally security arrived at first saying they really couldn't do anything since the most vulgar she was was Sox suck screaming at the top of her lungs, just to piss people off. Finally they spoke to a few people who apparently matched stories and went to see her. She starts crying, but at least shuts up. I may not like people cheering for the Cubs at GRF, but this was something beyond and it wasn't only once or twice. It was for like an hour, and security wasn't going to do anything. I was miffed.

I love these kind of posts and rarely ever get to read them. This is amazing. WTF with the screaming Cub fan?

 

What the White Sox have to hope for is that a young generation of fans start following them in order to gain favorable attendance in 2020 and beyond.

I'd love to hear from millenials. Supposedly baseball is dead to millenials and they will not pay money to see a baseball game. It's way too boring for millenials.

[mac9001]

Your average Cub fan is not a baseball fan. They're just looking for some decent entertainment. You offer an competitive entertainment experience and people will show up. This is all kind of a moot point as the land they had available is now being developed. But there's no doubt in my mind it presented the best location in Chicagoland for building a huge entertainment focused development anchored with baseball stadium. That entire area, the western burbs and most of Northern Chicago is being heavily developed. If i'm going to build a new stadium it's definitely not on the south side of Chicago. If the south side is the only option I start to seriously considering other cities such as Vegas.

[The Mighty Mite]

Your average Cub fan is not a baseball fan. They're just looking for some decent entertainment. You offer an competitive entertainment experience and people will show up. This is all kind of a moot point as the land they had available is now being developed. But there's no doubt in my mind it presented the best location in Chicagoland for building a huge entertainment focused development anchored with baseball stadium. That entire area, the western burbs and most of Northern Chicago is being heavily developed. If i'm going to build a new stadium it's definitely not on the south side of Chicago. If the south side is the only option I start to seriously considering other cities such as Vegas.

 

Agree, either downtown or a near Western suburb, somewhere like Hillside which would put it smack dab in the middle of the Metro area.

 

[The Mighty Mite]

Now that I'm a grown ass man and live in the west suburbs, I wish Reinsdorf would have pulled off the move to Addison. I can't even imagine living 10 minutes away from the Sox's stadium, would be so f***ing awesome.

 

I lived in Wheaton at the time of the Addison deal and it would have been great.

[mac9001]

Agree, either downtown or a near Western suburb, somewhere like Hillside which would put it smack dab in the middle of the Metro area.

 

The western burbs are probably the next best place. What gave Rosemont an advantage was public transportation. You could have built a CTA stop right next to the park, there's already a metra stop there, a Metra/CTA bus terminal near by and new highway connections to the western burbs. Plus, O'Hare and a ton of high end hotels to stay for anyone coming in from out of town.

[JPR]

Hey Tinley orland frankfort Palos hills palos park Mokena new Lenox homer glen Olympia fields we are talking millionaires...rest in peace but Bernie mac lived down there twista too. R Kelly. The drummer for styx...way more families with bundles of cash to blow. Tinley is the spot and the reason why it's been the #1 concert destination for a list bands for decades on end...nothing but money and disposable income down there. And it's still growing unlike the west suburbs. Will county has been on fire for years when it comes to population booms.

 

Those stadiums in da burbs work flawlessly. Especially here in arizona and for our neighbors in Cali too.

Edited July 29, 2017 by JPR