Astros.jpg

Via Deadspin, the Houston Astros’ televised 9-2 loss against the Tribe drew an improbable 0.00 Nielsen rating in Houston yesterday.

Says Deadspin:

It’s not as bad as it sounds. The Nielsen numbers are calculated by extrapolating a limited number of meters, in this case 581 of them. So it’s more accurate to say that of 581 randomly selected Houston-area households, none tuned into the Astros game.

Plus, the game was televised during the Houston Texans’ football game against the Baltimore Ravens. So most of the sports-oriented households were likely tuned in to the gridiron. Still, pretty embarrassing.

The Astros and the Indians are 27th and 28th, respectively (out of a total 30 teams), in total MLB attendance this year. By percentage, the Indians are dead last, selling on average only 44 percent of available tickets.

However, in a recent Crains’ story about attendance woes, Indians’ President Mark Shapiro cited some encouraging statistics. The Tribe’s television ratings on SportsTime Ohio are up 36% this season from last season, and a Fox Sports Ohio source told reporter Kevin Kleps that games have been watchd by an average of more than 81,000 homes in the Cleveland-designated market in 2013.

This article appears in Sep 18-24, 2013.

Sam Allard is a former senior writer at Scene.

8 replies on “Indians’ Attendance is Dismal, But the Astros Just Pulled a 0.00 Nielsen Rating”

  1. I went to the Indians game on Saturday, and they weren’t even able to effectively handle the 20,000 or so people that did show up. Long lines everywhere, concession stands running out of food/drinks, etc.

  2. The Indians are struggling with the same problem that most professional sports teams are: how to convince fans to come to a game (and drop $$ on gas, parking, food, tickets, and beverages) instead of those fans staying at home and watching the game. I mean, even with a $10 bleacher seat, a $3 hot dog, $4 beer/pop, let’s say $4 for gas, and $5 for parking, that’s still $26 bucks to go downtown to watch the game. Or, if you stay at home, you can get big steak for yourself, a bag of potatoes, a six pack of beer, and still have money left over for the electric bill. Yes, the atmosphere of going to a ball game is better than sitting at home. But how many times during the year do you really absolutely have to have that experience? Especially when the Indians play 80 home games in the regular season?

    [This is coming from a guy who went to three games this season, but already has tickets purchased to the wild card and home games 1 and 2 of the divisional series]

  3. Adam, why are other cities drawing then? You obviously know the prices, which is cool, but other cities draw.

  5. Brian, other cities draw because their fans are going to see a team that they actually expect to win, and if they don’t, it’s a surprise. The Indians fans see a team that they probably expect to choke at any point, just like the Tribe did in the second half the last two seasons. It takes a while for that perception to turn around. Perception of management has a lot to do with it as well, and that doesn’t turn around overnight either. No one wants to see a team that can’t sign big name players, or even worse, has 0% chance of resigning our own great players so we trade them away first. It’s all about the attitude regarding the team that the fans have, and how much it costs to see a game is the icing on the cake if it wasn’t a major deciding factor already. Everyone wants to see the awesome teams, the dominant teams. No one wants to see the teams that act like they’re poor, because compared to the average joe, the team is stinking rich, even if they are poor by MLB standards.

    The thing you can’t do, though, is say, “well the Indians are winning now, and ownership signed people in the offseason, so where is the fan support?” Again, it’s all about perception. The Indians fans have shown they will come out and support a winner, that 455 retired number proves that. But the perception has to be that we’ve built a great team and we’re going to have a great team for a while, not that we got hot or we got lucky, and the bottom could drop out at any moment. I’m expecting a full house (at at least almost full) if we make it to the wild card game, and if we’re competitive then i’m sure the division series games would be almost sold out as well.

  6. Sorry for the giant post, but here’s some figures. The Indians were seen as a winning team in the 90s, and that perception slowly started to change after the 2001 season. Everything bottomed out after 2003, but jumped a little when the Indians were doing better and seemed competitive again in 2005. That success brought the Indians higher until the 2009 season, when the bottom again dropped out. Attendance still jumped in 2011 when the Indians got hot and seemed like the team to beat, but never returned to previous levels. The Indians are still towards the bottom now, but I would expect these figures to go higher in 2014 if they have another successful campaign.

    Year Rank Record Avg Fans, Attendance Rank
    2001 1st 91-71 39,694, 4th
    2002 3rd 74-88 32,307, 12th
    2003 4th 68-94 21,358, 24th
    2004 3rd 80-82 22,400, 25th
    2005 1st 93-69 24,861, 24th
    2006 4th 78-84 24,666, 25th
    2007 1st 96-66 28,448, 21st
    2008 3rd 81-81 27,122, 22nd
    2009 4th 65-97 22,492, 25th
    2010 4th 69-93 17,435, 30th
    2011 2nd 80-82 22,726, 24th
    2012 4th 68-94 19,797, 29th

    Note that CC was traded midway through 2008, and Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez were traded away in 2009.

  7. Maybe its me but Cleveland is not a city that screams a sports destination to me. Also No championships from Cleveland sports teams in FOREVER can hurt too. Other city’s like New York, Boston, LA, Detroit have die hard fans. I’m from Michigan and its amazing how many people come to the games. Especially the Lions. For decades we have had a horrible football team. ( you guys can relate). The lions haven’t won a championship since like 1957, very few playoff appearances and, A few years ago they didn’t even win a game yet they sell out every week year after year.. The tigers had 3 million tickets sold this year ( I am assuming that’s above average). Then of course the redwings always sell out games. Not sure about the pistons. Not sure what the deal is. Maybe its a little of both of these things? Another thing to consider is that you guys have 2 mlb teams so obviously you have a split of fans there. If there were no reds how many of those people would travel to Cleveland to watch a game? I know a lot of people in Michigan that travel to come to a other game. I myself drive a couple hours.

Comments are closed.