In an attempt to gauge the “real” state of the economy in the sports and entertainment industry, the 2009 baseball season has been a much-anticipated yardstick. And, despite the doom and gloom emanating from empty front row seats in New York, the business of baseball is still booming.
Through the first three weeks of the season Major League Baseball attendance was down just 3% vs. 2008, according to research by CNBC.com. Given the economy and the fact that baseball depends so greatly on single-game ticket sales and walk-up ticket sales, this is a positive sign.
ESPN did its own research and found that when you omit attendance figures from the two New York teams (who both moved into new, smaller ballparks this year), the average attendance for MLB games for the month of April was down a mere 287 fans per game. Even with the New York teams included, attendance is down only 2.9 percent, from an average of 29,783 to 28,917 per game. If the trend continues more than 76.3 million fans will attend MLB games in 2009, down from a record 79.5 million in 2007.
In addition, baseball has been strong on TV through the first three weeks of the season, with ratings increases for both the FOX Saturday Baseball Game of the Week and ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball vs. 2008.
NASCAR has billed itself as the U.S.'s top spectator sport, which is true based on average attendance per race. But when you consider that less than 5 million fans attend NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races each year, it's clear the real winner is baseball. Combine the yearly attendance of the NFL (17.5 million), NBA (21.3 million) and NHL (21.4 million) and you still do not come close to the total number of fans who stream through MLB's turnstiles each year. And, that doesn't include the more than 40 million fans who attend Minor League Baseball games each year.
What does this mean for marketers? Baseball is still a good buy (at the right price).
Those 75 million+ attendees guarantee a lot of potential brand interactions, and inventory is more plentiful than in past years. In addition, field-level signage such as outfield wall signs is visible to television audiences during marquee post-season games, unlike the NFL and NBA.
And although baseball season is already underway, it's not too late to get into the game.
