I was talking to Shorebirds GM Chris Bitters yesterday evening and asked him about attendance. Surprisingly, it’s running close to last year’s despite the generally poor weather our region has seemingly endured this spring.
Being the curious sort, I did a bit of research. Including last night, there have been 23 nights the Shorebirds have managed to play a home game (not counting the three games scrubbed due to rain or wet field conditions.) Out of those 23 calendar days, we failed to reach our average high for the date on 13 of them, including 7 of the 11 dates thus far in May. Also, on 10 of those days this season we’ve had measurable precipitation and it’s seemed that the majority of those days we had rain during the ballgame (including last night.) We have not played at home on a dry day where the temperature was above average since May 6th – only 6 home dates of the 23 have been like that this season.
In comparison, the days where the Shorebirds have been on the road have been the nice ones. 12 of the 23 days were above average in temperature and 10 of the 23 featured rain – however in April the Shorebirds were away on 7 straight days where we had above-average temperatures and no precipitation. (Included in the string were the weekends of Pork in the Park and the Salisbury Festival.)
Because of that, it’s a tribute to the fans that we’ve even come close to normal on attendance. For the 12 April dates, 31,239 fans braved the elements at Perdue Stadium, about 2,600 per opening. With some promotions and a couple decent evenings at the ballpark weatherwise, the total through last night has bumped up to 72,897 – an average of 3,169 per game. (Between the last two evenings though the average took a hit as less than 3,000 combined made it out on two raw, chilly nights. Monday night’s draw was a pathetic 1,013.)
True to form, the weatherman is predicting sunny weather and highs in the 80’s come Saturday when the Shorebirds hit the road for 8 games in 9 days. But the worm will have to turn sometime and June promises to be a good month as the Shorebirds wrap up the first half with a short homestand against division-leading Lake County then host Phillies affiliate Lakewood in mid-month. Also on the June docket is cross-state rival Hagerstown as Delmarva only has 10 home games scheduled for the month.
With 44 home dates left, Delmarva is on a pace to draw just over 212,000 fans for the season. It would be a slight dip from last year’s total but traditionally attendance has picked up once the kids are out of school and weeknights are no longer school nights. Still being this close to pace after all the rain and chill speaks well of fan loyalty. Hopefully the team can reward them with a stellar playoff run.
Also the Orioles and Yankees were playing on MASN!! This kept a few of the seats empty, including mine. I’ll be there tonight, and leave the Orioles on their own.
Ken