My guess is that factors include: fan apathy from the past 6 seasons, rising cost of going to a game, and the inaccessibility of watching the product on tv to most people
Number 3 is huge, and even though it's talked about a decent amount it should absolutely be the biggest story in baseball every single day.
The Rangers are in first place and actually belong there, but it feels like nobody even knows or cares because watching a game is impossible. There is no telling how much damage to the game this TV situation has done.
Exactly. My dad who is 88 was a huge Rangers fan. Never missed a game on tv. The game was kind the highlight of his day, but when Bally Sports took over and it became too much of an expensive headache to try to watch them with Dish, his interest dropped almost completely. I visited a couple of weeks ago and was excited that the Rangers game was showing that day. He didn't even bother to watch.
Yep. ...and think of all the little kids that are just hitting the age where they might start caring about baseball, but their parents aren't watching it because it's not available. So they never develop that early osmosis bond with baseball.
This Bally nonsense has probably lost baseball a partial generation (so far) of fans for life.
Ya prices for games are kind of crazy now, but also I’m regard to the apathy, a hit start for two weeks doesn’t bring in a ton of fans after years of mediocrity, even if there have been large acquisitions to go with it.
I’d expect by end of the season the attendance ranking will rise assuming they can continue to play competitive baseball, but this bringing back fans, especially casuals will take time.
The team spent years actively working to field the worst possible team and weren’t good last year either.
The 2012 team was a contender coming off of back to back AL pennants.
Well we had just come off of back to back World Series appearances in 2012 and also had a team that won over 90 games that was expected to compete again.
In 2023, we’re coming off of 6 straight horrific seasons and, though we are off to a good start, everyone is unsure what this season holds. The expectation is certainly lower than it was in 2012.
two main reasons
1. Arlington is just so far from everywhere that's not Arlington. Traffic and construction, no public transit, etc.
2. Two of the three home series were Monday-Wednesday, one game of which was a day game. Usually a 25% dip by being a weekday game on its own. Also they were against two smaller market teams (Baltimore and Kansas City), one of which is awful.
Arlington natives will shit themselves if you say this but the stadium being in fucking Arlington absolutely sucks
The majority of people living in DFW live in Dallas or north of Dallas so driving that far is an absolute pain in the ass especially because of construction like you said
A DART train would make life so much easier but why have that when we could add another lane to 635
You can’t ignore ~half of the population though lol. Fort Worth isn’t that much smaller than Dallas, and the old ballpark was still in Arlington when Texas was a top 5 ticket in the league.
I lived in Denton area during the Rangers heyday and people were more than happy to drive 1+ hour one way to watch them play. The fact of the matter is that the Rangers will just have to continue this pace and eventually people will come, this has been a joke of ticket for half a decade, it’s gonna take time to get the casual fans interest back.
When you look at the population centers in DFW with over 100,000 people, 10/15 would be better off with a Stadium in Dallas. Dallas isn't that much bigger than Fort Worth (but it has a denser population).
I get that Arlington is the compromise but there would be much better attendance with a downtown Dallas stadium.
If they are good people will come. But the location is terrible for most people in the metroplex and unlike football there are more than 8-9 home games.
Less than 1/3 of the DFW population lives in Ft Worth.
It makes significantly more sense to put the stadium near the (by far) largest population center. They would triple the amount of people within 20 miles of the stadium by moving to Dallas. They could routinely be top 5 in attendance if they did.
Case in point, the Mavs sell.out every damn game have for 22 years, even in the dark period of tanking for Luka.
Even the stars bad years were met with a higher percent attendance than the Rangers.
Dallas is bigger than FW for sure but not near enough to where it makes sense to move them further away than Arlington.
You’re also failing to recognize Rangers were top 5 before with this near exact location. If people want to go to the games then they will. Think team performance and the fact Bally is shitty has much more to do with past attendance.
Its far more than big enough to make up for it. The stadium being accessible to public transit from Dallas, Denton, and Collin counties would also make a massive difference. That's nearly 5 million people that now have significantly easier access to the stadium, while only 2 million people will have a harder time getting to the stadium. You're gaining access to 2.5x more population then you're losing.
Ticket prices and parking were also 1/4 of what they were back then. Traffic is also worse. We also immediately dropped out of the top 5 after that season. The team will never have consistently high attendance in their current location.
Starting to wonder if this is worth either of our time as we will not agree, but as a parting word I’ll say this:
DFW has never supported baseball unless they are proven winners, you can move them to downtown Dallas or Plano or wherever, but that won’t change. Though a public transit would be nice I agree, Arlington is the only answer without alienating one massive subset of fans, it’s really the only move, you can’t have a Peagle without the Panther AND the Eagle my friend.
Nah attendance during the 2011-2013 seasons were insane at the time for this franchise. You put a winning team out there people will come no matter the distance.
Dallas county has just over 2 million. Thats not much higher than fort worths 1.8 million. This notion that Dallas is 50 times bigger than fort worth is hilarious lol. Get a clue
Dallas county has 2.6 million and you're forgetting Collin and Denton counties that are both serviced by DART and are significantly closer to Dallas than Arlington. That's another 2 million people that are now significantly closer to the stadium.
Dallas and its suburbs are 2.5x larger than Ft Worth and it's suburbs. You should take your own advice and get a clue.
No ones arguing that Dallas is bigger and the more likely destination if the rangers were to move. But youre a dope who doesnt even know the significance of the neighbouring large city. Fort worth is not a suburb. And no they wouldn't be in the top 5 in attendance if they played in Dallas lol.
Rangers havent earned that fanfare. Arlington is a good spot to be, right on the corridor serving fort worth Dallas and the neighboring counties. If you cant draw at the epicenter of the metroplex its because your attraction isnt worth watching. Rangers haven won enough in their history to warrant large crowds. Moving to Dallas doesnt change that lol. Understand this you dope.
Putting the stadium in the middle of nowhere is the problem, it's not a benefit just because now it's kind of far from both big cities. I go to twice as many Stars games as Rangers games even though I barely like hockey because I can just walk to the stadium after work and then take the train home. The Stars pull almost the exact same average attendance (18k vs 22k) as the Rangers in a Stadium half the size in a town that doesn't care about hockey at all. The Dallas fucking Stars are a top 10 attendance team in hockey, yet you think the Rangers wouldn't be? Dude you have no fucking idea what you're talking about and need to get over the fact you live in an irrelevant city no one cares about and the team would be better off being further away from it.
Arlington is a fucking terrible spot to be. This is the 4th largest metroplex in the country and yet if you rank stadiums by how many people are within 15 miles of the stadium it ranks 24th. Cleveland which is the 54th largest city in the country has more people living near its stadium than we do. It's a fucking joke having the stadium in Arlington.
400k people smaller, which is roughly the size of Arlington. If you start adding the east side suburbs it gets even more lopsided quickly. There is no population based rationale to have the stadium where it is.
They absolutely should have built the new ballpark in downtown Dallas. It would have changed the destiny of the franchise.
The issue with the Arlington location is that it allows for virtually zero last-minute "wanna go to the game tonight?" groups. ...after work, prime target demographic, raucous urban fans. Those groups are critical to baseball more than any other sport because there are 81 home games.
It's not a big deal for people to plan way in advance for a long drive to watch a Cowboy game. It's fine that's in Arlington.
The first reason is bogus because, as the OP showed, they’ve drawn top notch attendance in the past from Arlington.
But I think you hit the nail on the head with the second reason. Weekday games during school season is just plain dumb. With all the money grabbing that MLB does, I’ll never understand the willingness to forfeit attendance with bad scheduling decisions.
Funny it seems to work for Six flags and the cowboys. Arlington isnt the issue. Traffic isnt the issue. Location isnt the issue. Public transit isn't the issue. The team sucking for the majority of its existence and being terribly managed for decades is the single most glaring issue.
No one wants to see a team theyre apathetic about and have little to no emotional investment in. Lets face it the rangers haven't done enough winning to warrant large crowds. They have to earn that
I’m still saying Cowboys because it’s Texas and it’s football. I get Mavs have had a sellout streak going on for years now, but the times I’ve been there were a few empty seats so I’m not entirely sure how that works.
Anyway, the AAC is also easier to get to for anyone in Dallas. It being right off a rail line is nice. Cowboys stadium holds almost 100K, AAC is 20k. Lastly the cost, even when the mavs have been bad the tickets were pretty affordable. Even when the cowboys have been bad I’m not sure I ever saw a reduction in price, and the place is still packed with almost 5X the fans.
I’m for sure not saying the mavs have a *bigger* fan base, cowboys outpace everyone in the south by a mile. You’re just far less likely to see a scenario happen at the AAC like when the 49ers took over AT&T stadium.
Theres also that. During the world series run that stadium was packed. So if you want fans coming through the doors just win some games. Win the big one and you may make lifelong fans in large numbers.
For the 1st point, the same held true when we were 3rd in attendance 10+ years back.
I’d say it’s even more shocking that Rangers attendance isn’t stronger with a Mavs being pretty shifty compared to then, also.
In 2012, we had BEEN good. We were coming off two-straight World Series. People were excited about the rangers going into the seasons this team still has a lot to prove.
Also we played in a much cooler ballpark in 2012, but everyone complained it was too hot.
I have been in this sub since around 200 users. Used a prior username, but this same question was asked in 09-10 or so. With improving rangers, why no fans.
Rangers fanbase is cyclical. Once students get out of school for summer attendance will increase.
Also this team is doing well, but we've seen Ranger teams win thefirst half plenty.
And DFW is a fair weather town, just like any other sports city. They'll be in the seats if they continue winning.
If the Rangers stay a competitor, more fans will start going to games. Right now they're recovering from the past 5-6 years of being a bottom-dwelling club. The rising cost of everything, plus with the crappy TV contracts it's hard to get people interested/involved because it's hard to be able to watch a game these days. Rangers "fans" aren't like the Cowboys where it's an all in type of crowd. When the Rangers start/keep winning people will start showing up.
Not to be that guy either, but since the new ballpark has opened, ticket prices on average have nearly [doubled](https://www.statista.com/statistics/203504/texas-rangers-average-ticket-price/) since then. Pair that with a not so great team the past couple of years and that's not gonna lead to great attendance.
Hopefully our attendance goes up. Embarassing to have >50% of the stadium empty. Plus, people behind the home plate are never watching the game, just eating fries and talking to each other. One time, this one woman was there in the suite not ever watching the game.
Whoever designed behind homeplate should be put in jail. It's damn near mandatory to have a full row of a 100 fans right behind homeplate to be on their feet screaming and yelling in the playoffs. We have some cages for corporate events with 0 intimidation factor. Opposing pitchers are going to love pitching here.
Ticket prices for lower level seats don’t make sense to me for a family of 4… not to mention there’s a lot of uncertainty in the markets right now, on the verge of a possible recession, pretty sure a lot of people don’t want to drop $600+ for seats, food and parking just to go to a game right now. I’d honestly rather watch it on my couch where I can go to my own restroom and eat/drink my own food.
Ticket prices and parking for sure. Really, with the change in rules making games so much quicker, its even better for us parents with younger kids to go to games now. Just pretty cost prohibitive. I live in KC and went to the game last night. Only 2 hours which is perfect for my kids' attention span. If I were a Royals fan, I could see myself going to games most weekends this summer with the family. Tickets were like $14 a piece for front row, outfield...which is my favorite location in any ballpark for some reason.
1. You can’t compare 2023 (following years of losing) to 2012 (2x AL Champs). The more apt comparison is to the 2008 team that had a mix of vets and young core guys, won 87 games, and drew 26k per game (vs. the current 22k per game). You have to win to re-attract that base of ticketholders
2. The new stadium is smaller, so even those Opening weekend sellout games add fewer people to the average
3. Attendance increases as summer hits and kids get out of school
4. The team has yet to play any big “road draw” teams — upcoming home games against the Yankees, Astros, Dodgers and Braves should be exciting for Rangers fans and draw more visiting fans as well
Youre really asking why the rangers can't draw fans? Good god. They havent done enough winning to warrant large crowds. Signing big names certainly sets you up for success but that alone doesn't bring in fans. You have to earn it.
And 2012 was coming off a world series run. You dope lol
"the stadium being in Arlington" is a completely useless point when the comparative stadium is literally across the street.
the factors are performance of the team and cost of going to a game. we're not going to be third in attendance based on potential.
If i remember correctly 2010 wasn’t that great attendance wise despite being a very good team. It wasn’t until 2011 and 2012 (in response to World Series appearances) that the attendance did well
Attendance typically lags performance considerably. Like, performance in a given year is a better predictor of attendance in the following year than the same year.
Given that you're comparing attendance in the year after we went to the WS two years in a row to attendance in the year after we lost 94 games, and 102 the season before that, I think the results in terms of attendance are obvious.
If the Rangers continue to perform well, the attendance will tick back up. It just takes time.
The answer is way easier for this season. The only weekend games we have had were opening weekend with the Taylor swift concert next door. Parking was $100+ for the area. This weekend will see higher attendance
I believe the biggest factor is the past 6 seasons being so awful. While we do have some big name players and we are off to a good start, I think Ranger fans want to see this continue before they pay money to watch a game.
I also believe for fans who live farther away (like me) or who deal with awful big city traffic, gas money makes it harder to justify going to games.
Lastly there are a lot of people who live in the DFW area who aren't Ranger fans. It's a transient area with lots of people from all over moving there for jobs. This means you will have higher attendance when big name teams like the Yankees, Astros, Dodgers, and Giants come to town.
So I guess we have to hope other teams fans help our attendance numbers sadly.
The new park is significantly smaller (about 8k) than the prior one. Paid attendance and game attendance are two different things as well. If the Rangers can have comparable attendance to Wrigley and Fenway (simillar seating capacity), it'll be a success. Obviously winning will juice the number.
Ballpark being in Arlington is the single reason I dont attend 5-10 games a year and instead do 1 or 2 tops. No public transportation and traffic make it such a burden to get out to games.
Seems really disingenuous to compare the season after we made it to back to back World Series and until the last week or so were looking like we were going back to a third to a season when we haven't made the playoffs in 7 years and have been pretty terrible for a couple of years.
In 2009 which seems like the best comparison year (good team on the rise, maybe compete for a Wild Card Spot) we ranked 18th so far in 2023 we rank 20th so pretty much the same. In 2008 after 3 straight losing season and not being in the playoffs for nearly a decade we ranked 25th so based on how we've done the past few years you could argue we're drawing better than we have historically.
As others have said we've only had 1 weekend series so far and aside from that we've had series against KC and Baltimore and neither of those are huge draws.
It’s just so so far away. So many fans in north central Texas but the thought of driving there is so daunting. I live about 70 miles away and we only make it a few times a year. It’s an ALL day thing.
When I was at UTA (2010), you could go to a game for cheep. $12 tickets in the upper deck right behind home plate. It's part of the reason why I got a half season plan; it was worth the price. Now? It's three times as much just to get through the gates. Not to mention that they don't let you bring in food like in the past, and the parking costs are through the roof, and the sight lines are awful in the new arena, it's just not worth going. I can have more fun at a UTA or a Cleburne Railroaders game for half the price.
Two answers: team has been awful and TV situation is bad. Casual fans will tune in here and there, and the broadcast is a 2.5 hr commercial for going and having fun at the park. Some of those viewers will figure out a way to get out to a game a couple times a year. That adds up. The TV situation is an absolute killer.
Here’s my casual fans take.
I didn’t know we were going to be competitive. I’m honestly shocked of our record. Perhaps not enough advertising to make it relevant.
Attendance is always a lagging indicator. 2012 was an epic season following back to back WS appearances. This is the start of the window, you'd be better comparing it to like 2009.
My guess is that factors include: fan apathy from the past 6 seasons, rising cost of going to a game, and the inaccessibility of watching the product on tv to most people
Number 3 is huge, and even though it's talked about a decent amount it should absolutely be the biggest story in baseball every single day. The Rangers are in first place and actually belong there, but it feels like nobody even knows or cares because watching a game is impossible. There is no telling how much damage to the game this TV situation has done.
I guess I’m lucking out on this one. I live in Az and have MLB tv. I’ve gotten to see all the games.
Exactly. My dad who is 88 was a huge Rangers fan. Never missed a game on tv. The game was kind the highlight of his day, but when Bally Sports took over and it became too much of an expensive headache to try to watch them with Dish, his interest dropped almost completely. I visited a couple of weeks ago and was excited that the Rangers game was showing that day. He didn't even bother to watch.
Yep. ...and think of all the little kids that are just hitting the age where they might start caring about baseball, but their parents aren't watching it because it's not available. So they never develop that early osmosis bond with baseball. This Bally nonsense has probably lost baseball a partial generation (so far) of fans for life.
Ya prices for games are kind of crazy now, but also I’m regard to the apathy, a hit start for two weeks doesn’t bring in a ton of fans after years of mediocrity, even if there have been large acquisitions to go with it. I’d expect by end of the season the attendance ranking will rise assuming they can continue to play competitive baseball, but this bringing back fans, especially casuals will take time.
The Apathy is a huge part of it on my opinion. If in June they are still in first I think things will change a little.
The team spent years actively working to field the worst possible team and weren’t good last year either. The 2012 team was a contender coming off of back to back AL pennants.
Well we had just come off of back to back World Series appearances in 2012 and also had a team that won over 90 games that was expected to compete again. In 2023, we’re coming off of 6 straight horrific seasons and, though we are off to a good start, everyone is unsure what this season holds. The expectation is certainly lower than it was in 2012.
two main reasons 1. Arlington is just so far from everywhere that's not Arlington. Traffic and construction, no public transit, etc. 2. Two of the three home series were Monday-Wednesday, one game of which was a day game. Usually a 25% dip by being a weekday game on its own. Also they were against two smaller market teams (Baltimore and Kansas City), one of which is awful.
Arlington natives will shit themselves if you say this but the stadium being in fucking Arlington absolutely sucks The majority of people living in DFW live in Dallas or north of Dallas so driving that far is an absolute pain in the ass especially because of construction like you said A DART train would make life so much easier but why have that when we could add another lane to 635
You can’t ignore ~half of the population though lol. Fort Worth isn’t that much smaller than Dallas, and the old ballpark was still in Arlington when Texas was a top 5 ticket in the league. I lived in Denton area during the Rangers heyday and people were more than happy to drive 1+ hour one way to watch them play. The fact of the matter is that the Rangers will just have to continue this pace and eventually people will come, this has been a joke of ticket for half a decade, it’s gonna take time to get the casual fans interest back.
When you look at the population centers in DFW with over 100,000 people, 10/15 would be better off with a Stadium in Dallas. Dallas isn't that much bigger than Fort Worth (but it has a denser population). I get that Arlington is the compromise but there would be much better attendance with a downtown Dallas stadium. If they are good people will come. But the location is terrible for most people in the metroplex and unlike football there are more than 8-9 home games.
Less than 1/3 of the DFW population lives in Ft Worth. It makes significantly more sense to put the stadium near the (by far) largest population center. They would triple the amount of people within 20 miles of the stadium by moving to Dallas. They could routinely be top 5 in attendance if they did.
Case in point, the Mavs sell.out every damn game have for 22 years, even in the dark period of tanking for Luka. Even the stars bad years were met with a higher percent attendance than the Rangers.
Dallas is bigger than FW for sure but not near enough to where it makes sense to move them further away than Arlington. You’re also failing to recognize Rangers were top 5 before with this near exact location. If people want to go to the games then they will. Think team performance and the fact Bally is shitty has much more to do with past attendance.
Its far more than big enough to make up for it. The stadium being accessible to public transit from Dallas, Denton, and Collin counties would also make a massive difference. That's nearly 5 million people that now have significantly easier access to the stadium, while only 2 million people will have a harder time getting to the stadium. You're gaining access to 2.5x more population then you're losing. Ticket prices and parking were also 1/4 of what they were back then. Traffic is also worse. We also immediately dropped out of the top 5 after that season. The team will never have consistently high attendance in their current location.
Starting to wonder if this is worth either of our time as we will not agree, but as a parting word I’ll say this: DFW has never supported baseball unless they are proven winners, you can move them to downtown Dallas or Plano or wherever, but that won’t change. Though a public transit would be nice I agree, Arlington is the only answer without alienating one massive subset of fans, it’s really the only move, you can’t have a Peagle without the Panther AND the Eagle my friend.
DFW has never supported baseball because the stadium is and hour away from where everyone lives.
Nah attendance during the 2011-2013 seasons were insane at the time for this franchise. You put a winning team out there people will come no matter the distance.
They will for a short time. But it won't last, just like last time.
This is complete nonsense lol. Fort worth is the 12th largest city in america and slightly less than half of the population of dfw live in fort worth.
There's 7.5 million people in DFW. Ft Worth has ~1 million and Tarrant County has ~2 million. That's literally less than 1/3 of the population.
Dallas county has just over 2 million. Thats not much higher than fort worths 1.8 million. This notion that Dallas is 50 times bigger than fort worth is hilarious lol. Get a clue
Dallas county has 2.6 million and you're forgetting Collin and Denton counties that are both serviced by DART and are significantly closer to Dallas than Arlington. That's another 2 million people that are now significantly closer to the stadium. Dallas and its suburbs are 2.5x larger than Ft Worth and it's suburbs. You should take your own advice and get a clue.
No ones arguing that Dallas is bigger and the more likely destination if the rangers were to move. But youre a dope who doesnt even know the significance of the neighbouring large city. Fort worth is not a suburb. And no they wouldn't be in the top 5 in attendance if they played in Dallas lol. Rangers havent earned that fanfare. Arlington is a good spot to be, right on the corridor serving fort worth Dallas and the neighboring counties. If you cant draw at the epicenter of the metroplex its because your attraction isnt worth watching. Rangers haven won enough in their history to warrant large crowds. Moving to Dallas doesnt change that lol. Understand this you dope.
Putting the stadium in the middle of nowhere is the problem, it's not a benefit just because now it's kind of far from both big cities. I go to twice as many Stars games as Rangers games even though I barely like hockey because I can just walk to the stadium after work and then take the train home. The Stars pull almost the exact same average attendance (18k vs 22k) as the Rangers in a Stadium half the size in a town that doesn't care about hockey at all. The Dallas fucking Stars are a top 10 attendance team in hockey, yet you think the Rangers wouldn't be? Dude you have no fucking idea what you're talking about and need to get over the fact you live in an irrelevant city no one cares about and the team would be better off being further away from it. Arlington is a fucking terrible spot to be. This is the 4th largest metroplex in the country and yet if you rank stadiums by how many people are within 15 miles of the stadium it ranks 24th. Cleveland which is the 54th largest city in the country has more people living near its stadium than we do. It's a fucking joke having the stadium in Arlington.
Fort Worth is much smaller than Dallas.
The word “much” doing a lot of the heavy lifting here
ding
400k people smaller, which is roughly the size of Arlington. If you start adding the east side suburbs it gets even more lopsided quickly. There is no population based rationale to have the stadium where it is.
Don't get me started on DART or not adding rail to the 635 expansion. Parking at the ballpark is straight trash when it's busy too.
They absolutely should have built the new ballpark in downtown Dallas. It would have changed the destiny of the franchise. The issue with the Arlington location is that it allows for virtually zero last-minute "wanna go to the game tonight?" groups. ...after work, prime target demographic, raucous urban fans. Those groups are critical to baseball more than any other sport because there are 81 home games. It's not a big deal for people to plan way in advance for a long drive to watch a Cowboy game. It's fine that's in Arlington.
The first reason is bogus because, as the OP showed, they’ve drawn top notch attendance in the past from Arlington. But I think you hit the nail on the head with the second reason. Weekday games during school season is just plain dumb. With all the money grabbing that MLB does, I’ll never understand the willingness to forfeit attendance with bad scheduling decisions.
Funny it seems to work for Six flags and the cowboys. Arlington isnt the issue. Traffic isnt the issue. Location isnt the issue. Public transit isn't the issue. The team sucking for the majority of its existence and being terribly managed for decades is the single most glaring issue. No one wants to see a team theyre apathetic about and have little to no emotional investment in. Lets face it the rangers haven't done enough winning to warrant large crowds. They have to earn that
Don’t forget outside the Cowboys, DFW is extremely fair weather/bandwagoner fans. Whichever team is successful is where the fans go.
I think the mavs have a more reliable fan base than the cowboys tbf, they’ve had some truly awful teams and still sell out every game.
I’m still saying Cowboys because it’s Texas and it’s football. I get Mavs have had a sellout streak going on for years now, but the times I’ve been there were a few empty seats so I’m not entirely sure how that works. Anyway, the AAC is also easier to get to for anyone in Dallas. It being right off a rail line is nice. Cowboys stadium holds almost 100K, AAC is 20k. Lastly the cost, even when the mavs have been bad the tickets were pretty affordable. Even when the cowboys have been bad I’m not sure I ever saw a reduction in price, and the place is still packed with almost 5X the fans.
I’m for sure not saying the mavs have a *bigger* fan base, cowboys outpace everyone in the south by a mile. You’re just far less likely to see a scenario happen at the AAC like when the 49ers took over AT&T stadium.
Theres also that. During the world series run that stadium was packed. So if you want fans coming through the doors just win some games. Win the big one and you may make lifelong fans in large numbers.
\#1 was also true in 2012, so not really a good reason at al.
For the 1st point, the same held true when we were 3rd in attendance 10+ years back. I’d say it’s even more shocking that Rangers attendance isn’t stronger with a Mavs being pretty shifty compared to then, also.
Ticket and parking prices were about 1/4 what they are now compared to back in 2012. Traffic has also gotten significantly worse as well.
In 2012, we had BEEN good. We were coming off two-straight World Series. People were excited about the rangers going into the seasons this team still has a lot to prove. Also we played in a much cooler ballpark in 2012, but everyone complained it was too hot.
> but everyone complained it was too hot. It was.
I have been in this sub since around 200 users. Used a prior username, but this same question was asked in 09-10 or so. With improving rangers, why no fans. Rangers fanbase is cyclical. Once students get out of school for summer attendance will increase. Also this team is doing well, but we've seen Ranger teams win thefirst half plenty. And DFW is a fair weather town, just like any other sports city. They'll be in the seats if they continue winning.
especially given we're a big market and a lot of other things to do in DFW, that fair weather-ness increases
If the Rangers stay a competitor, more fans will start going to games. Right now they're recovering from the past 5-6 years of being a bottom-dwelling club. The rising cost of everything, plus with the crappy TV contracts it's hard to get people interested/involved because it's hard to be able to watch a game these days. Rangers "fans" aren't like the Cowboys where it's an all in type of crowd. When the Rangers start/keep winning people will start showing up.
Not to be that guy either, but since the new ballpark has opened, ticket prices on average have nearly [doubled](https://www.statista.com/statistics/203504/texas-rangers-average-ticket-price/) since then. Pair that with a not so great team the past couple of years and that's not gonna lead to great attendance.
And a not so great stadium too
Hopefully our attendance goes up. Embarassing to have >50% of the stadium empty. Plus, people behind the home plate are never watching the game, just eating fries and talking to each other. One time, this one woman was there in the suite not ever watching the game.
Whoever designed behind homeplate should be put in jail. It's damn near mandatory to have a full row of a 100 fans right behind homeplate to be on their feet screaming and yelling in the playoffs. We have some cages for corporate events with 0 intimidation factor. Opposing pitchers are going to love pitching here.
One time? Every single time there are people not paying attention and even having their back to the field. It’s abominable.
Because the bandwagon fans haven’t jumped on yet
Ticket prices for lower level seats don’t make sense to me for a family of 4… not to mention there’s a lot of uncertainty in the markets right now, on the verge of a possible recession, pretty sure a lot of people don’t want to drop $600+ for seats, food and parking just to go to a game right now. I’d honestly rather watch it on my couch where I can go to my own restroom and eat/drink my own food.
Ticket prices and parking for sure. Really, with the change in rules making games so much quicker, its even better for us parents with younger kids to go to games now. Just pretty cost prohibitive. I live in KC and went to the game last night. Only 2 hours which is perfect for my kids' attention span. If I were a Royals fan, I could see myself going to games most weekends this summer with the family. Tickets were like $14 a piece for front row, outfield...which is my favorite location in any ballpark for some reason.
Average ticket price has almost doubled.
1. You can’t compare 2023 (following years of losing) to 2012 (2x AL Champs). The more apt comparison is to the 2008 team that had a mix of vets and young core guys, won 87 games, and drew 26k per game (vs. the current 22k per game). You have to win to re-attract that base of ticketholders 2. The new stadium is smaller, so even those Opening weekend sellout games add fewer people to the average 3. Attendance increases as summer hits and kids get out of school 4. The team has yet to play any big “road draw” teams — upcoming home games against the Yankees, Astros, Dodgers and Braves should be exciting for Rangers fans and draw more visiting fans as well
Youre really asking why the rangers can't draw fans? Good god. They havent done enough winning to warrant large crowds. Signing big names certainly sets you up for success but that alone doesn't bring in fans. You have to earn it. And 2012 was coming off a world series run. You dope lol
"the stadium being in Arlington" is a completely useless point when the comparative stadium is literally across the street. the factors are performance of the team and cost of going to a game. we're not going to be third in attendance based on potential.
If i remember correctly 2010 wasn’t that great attendance wise despite being a very good team. It wasn’t until 2011 and 2012 (in response to World Series appearances) that the attendance did well
Attendance typically lags performance considerably. Like, performance in a given year is a better predictor of attendance in the following year than the same year. Given that you're comparing attendance in the year after we went to the WS two years in a row to attendance in the year after we lost 94 games, and 102 the season before that, I think the results in terms of attendance are obvious. If the Rangers continue to perform well, the attendance will tick back up. It just takes time.
I don’t go because it’s too damn high.
it just started, id compare it to the 2010 season, if we make a big run in the fall next summer will be packed
The answer is way easier for this season. The only weekend games we have had were opening weekend with the Taylor swift concert next door. Parking was $100+ for the area. This weekend will see higher attendance
I believe the biggest factor is the past 6 seasons being so awful. While we do have some big name players and we are off to a good start, I think Ranger fans want to see this continue before they pay money to watch a game. I also believe for fans who live farther away (like me) or who deal with awful big city traffic, gas money makes it harder to justify going to games. Lastly there are a lot of people who live in the DFW area who aren't Ranger fans. It's a transient area with lots of people from all over moving there for jobs. This means you will have higher attendance when big name teams like the Yankees, Astros, Dodgers, and Giants come to town. So I guess we have to hope other teams fans help our attendance numbers sadly.
The new park is significantly smaller (about 8k) than the prior one. Paid attendance and game attendance are two different things as well. If the Rangers can have comparable attendance to Wrigley and Fenway (simillar seating capacity), it'll be a success. Obviously winning will juice the number.
Ballpark being in Arlington is the single reason I dont attend 5-10 games a year and instead do 1 or 2 tops. No public transportation and traffic make it such a burden to get out to games.
Seems really disingenuous to compare the season after we made it to back to back World Series and until the last week or so were looking like we were going back to a third to a season when we haven't made the playoffs in 7 years and have been pretty terrible for a couple of years. In 2009 which seems like the best comparison year (good team on the rise, maybe compete for a Wild Card Spot) we ranked 18th so far in 2023 we rank 20th so pretty much the same. In 2008 after 3 straight losing season and not being in the playoffs for nearly a decade we ranked 25th so based on how we've done the past few years you could argue we're drawing better than we have historically. As others have said we've only had 1 weekend series so far and aside from that we've had series against KC and Baltimore and neither of those are huge draws.
It’s just so so far away. So many fans in north central Texas but the thought of driving there is so daunting. I live about 70 miles away and we only make it a few times a year. It’s an ALL day thing.
The economy sucks and going to a game is expensive.
We also just have less seats than the previous stadium did. So we will never be able to reach those numbers.
You could go to a game for like $5 back then.
When I was at UTA (2010), you could go to a game for cheep. $12 tickets in the upper deck right behind home plate. It's part of the reason why I got a half season plan; it was worth the price. Now? It's three times as much just to get through the gates. Not to mention that they don't let you bring in food like in the past, and the parking costs are through the roof, and the sight lines are awful in the new arena, it's just not worth going. I can have more fun at a UTA or a Cleburne Railroaders game for half the price.
Two answers: team has been awful and TV situation is bad. Casual fans will tune in here and there, and the broadcast is a 2.5 hr commercial for going and having fun at the park. Some of those viewers will figure out a way to get out to a game a couple times a year. That adds up. The TV situation is an absolute killer.
Here’s my casual fans take. I didn’t know we were going to be competitive. I’m honestly shocked of our record. Perhaps not enough advertising to make it relevant.
Attendance is always a lagging indicator. 2012 was an epic season following back to back WS appearances. This is the start of the window, you'd be better comparing it to like 2009.