Pirates' attendance is heading toward worst in PNC Park history, lowest in 22 years: Fans keeping their word?
… MLB down significantly
When the Pirates traded Andrew McCutchen, their most popular player and the symbol of their resurgence in the 2010s, and also traded Gerrit Cole, currently one of the leading pitchers in the NL, a former number 1 pick, the fans were outraged. More than 28,000 petitioned MLB to have owner Robert Nutting removed, which did not happen.
Instead, the fans appear to be following through on one of their other pledges: to boycott the team. According to a story in last week’s Post-Gazette by Elizabeth Bloom, the Pirates are heading for one of the worst seasons in recent history in terms of attendance. “If attendance doesn’t pick up over the summer, the Pirates are on pace to have their lowest attendance in PNC Park history and their worst since 1996,” Bloom wrote about the team, which is now averaging just 17,138 fans, according to baseball-reference.com. That is a drop of 27.5 percent over the same period last year, Bloom wrote.
According to Bloom’s numbers, that could result in a loss of $5.8 million this year, which does not include concessions and team memorabilia.
MLB overall and weather
In an interview with the Associated Press in late May, MLB Commissioner Rob Mandred attributed some of that to an “aberrational part of a season.” That occurred because of horrible weather in April and, in general, in the first eight weeks of the season. Overall, MLB attendance is down 6.6. percent and is headed to the worst average in 15 years, according to the AP.
Pirates’ history
Since the Pirates started improving back in 2012, the team, despite being one of the smallest markets in the league, saw gradual increases in the people coming through the turnstile. They went over two million for the second time in 2012 (2.091), and then had 2.25 million in 2013, 2.44 in 2014, and hit their highest mark, 2.498 in 2015 when they lost in the NL Wild Card game for the second consecutive season. At that point they averaged 30,847 fans per season.
Coincidentally, 2015 was also the highest payroll in Pirates' history, $104.4 million. But, Bob Nutting was not happy paying out that much.
The attendance dropped slightly to 2.249 the next year, and then under two million (1.919) in 2017. The bad news is that they have little time to make up that attendance. Once high school football practice starts in August, combined with the Steelers preseason, the Bucs’ numbers decline. So, realistically, they could fall to 1.5 or 1.6 million this season.
Was McCutcheon trade the tipping point?
Pirates fans have never really been enamored with Nutting despite his improving them somewhat. However, a marketing professor who follows professional baseball said that the loss of Cutch pushed the fans into a feeling of gloom. Peter Fader is a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School who also has worked with the league. “The value of a McCutchen is so much more than adding up the WAR [Wins Above Replacement] that he might bring over the next couple of years, and fans feel that,” Fader told Bloom. “They know that.”
Nutting was humiliated this season when the most excitement, and one of the best crowds at PNC, occurred the night that McCutcheon returned to the park on May 11. He received a standing ovation from the crowd, which was the largest of the season at that point. That was the most exciting night of the season, and the Bucs, buoyed by the crowd perhaps, won the game.
The trade was probably not as controversial as the one by the Steelers that sent Franco Harris, who was poised to become the leading rusher in Steeler history, to Seattle many years ago. That was a contract dispute and an error by Harris, who never reached that mark and never became the leading rusher, even for a small time.
Still, it was embarrassing for your team to be upstaged by a player from another team. Such is life in Nuttings' tenure.
Is getting to the ballpark too much of a hassle — and too expensive?
The truth is that baseball has to realize a number of things. One, the game is boring unless the person is a true fan. Second, it is too expensive with the cost of a family of four to attend an average game at about $155. That does not include travel to the game or any other costs like that.
As Bloom indicates, the Pirates’ numbers are down despite being one of the least expensive tickets in the league. The Pirates also note that their TV ratings are very good, so fans still care for their team.
One analyst says that most sports are seeing declines for a simple reason: Watching at home is better. “I think that this is something that lots of sports leagues are trying to deal with, which is that the experience of watching at home continues to improve,” Matthew Notowidigdo, an associate professor of economics at Northwestern University, told Bloom. “Ultimately, whether that’s good or bad for revenue is complicated.”
That is generally not true of college football, however -- if the team is winning.
Future is complicated
Pittsburgh fans are notoriously loyal if they think management and the players are doing their best to field a winner. But even their own players criticized Nutting, though not by name, in the offseason when the team was trading away their top players. That is dismal on every level.
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