[Kneel B4 Zod]

[ QUOTE ]
kb4z, i am sure that they had down stretches - there is no debating that. the point is that when the team gets good people will definitely go pack the stadium. this is all i'm saying.

James

[/ QUOTE ]

I certainly agree with this. it's true of all teams to a certain extent.

I took a look at that attendance data, and calculated avg. yearly attendance of each team that has been around since 1969. (sorry for wonky formatting). some of this is surprising, as a lot of the mid-market NL teams, like Philly and Cinci, are right there with the big boys. they had huge attendance years when their teams were good. The Cardinals fans have always come out in droves.

Now, attendance is only one piece of the puzzle, but it's an interesting proxy for looking at, historically, how popular each team has been with its fans. Skimming through the data, it doesn't seem like there are many examples of great teams that didn't draw well.

as Triump mentions, the Braves have begun to have trouble drawing, even in the playoffs. but, that is at the end of a nearly unprecedented run of success. almost all other 4-5 years runs have seen the local team supported well.

LA 2,553,039
STL 2,284,767
NYA 2,161,100
BAL 2,156,733
BOS 2,135,705
PHI 1,994,835
CIN 1,967,352
NYN 1,943,505
CAL 1,814,940
ATL 1,813,456
HOU 1,751,849
MILA 1,723,027
CHIN 1,694,431
KC 1,686,815
DET 1,672,304
SF 1,636,253
SD 1,624,259
SEA 1,610,479
CLE 1,568,150
CHIA 1,553,299
OAK 1,471,828
MIN 1,406,198
PIT 1,395,733
MON 1,353,991