The Phillies' Poor Attendance Likely Cost the City Around $1 Million
No one went to Phillies games this year. We all know this. It’s been well documented here. But we were usually talking about actual attendance, not official numbers based on ticket sales. But even with those trumped up figures, it was an abysmal year. It’s also done some financial damage. According to Philadelphia Business Journal, the Phils’ revenue drop was gigantic, and the city lost out on some money too:
Take the average ticket price at Citizens Bank park of $37.42 and add a conservative $12 spent per fan on food, a program or other memorabilia and that works out to $49.42 per fan. Multiply that by the drop in attendance of 592,772 fans and that works out to a $29.3 million drop in revenues for the Phillies.
The city collects a 5 percent tax on tickets to sporting events. Using that same average ticket price, the drop in tax revenues on ticket sales for the city is $1.1 million.
According to Biz Journal, the Phillies’ average attendance of 23,475 fans per game was 25th in the league. According to Baseball Reference, whose numbers differ slightly, the Phillies dropped a total of 592,772 fans this season for an average of 7,318 fewer fans per game. Both of those are the worst in baseball by far (the Braves, ranked 29th, only lost 352,913 compared to last year).
From their high just five years ago – 3,777,322 in 2010 – the Phillies’ annual attendance has dropped 1,946,242 (more than any year’s total attendance from 1996-2002) to 1,831,080 this season. Their per-game average in 2011 was 45,441– MORE THAN DOUBLE this year’s average.
Next year, the Phillies will have the first overall pick in the draft, a new front office direction, and some young talent likely to see tons of playing time. But will anyone be there to bear witness? That remains to be seen.