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As David continues to look forward to possible attendance trends he's wound his way through the AL East (see the Yankees - Red Sox - Rays - Orioles - Jays) , the AL Central (see the Kansas City Royals, the Chicago White Sox, the Minnesota Twins, the Cleveland Indians, and Detroit Tigers) and the beginnings of the AL West with the Angels, today he looks at the Oakland A's as part of his analysis of attendance for each of the 30 clubs leading up to the 2011 season - Maury Brown
Team: Oakland A's
2009 Total Attendance: 1.4 million
2009 Average Attendance & Sell-Thru: 17,392 (39.8%)
2009 Record: 75-87, Missed postseason
2010 Total Attendance: 1.41 million
2010 Average Attendance & Sell-Thru: 17,511 (40.1%)
2010 Record: 81-81, Missed postseason
Looking ahead to 2011……
Notable offseason addition/subtractions: Addition of Hideki Matsui, David DeJesus and Josh Willingham
Interleague LY: SF Giants, Cincinnati Reds, and Pittsburgh Pirates
Interleague TY: SF Giants, Florida Marlins, and Arizona Diamondbacks
April/May Games: 11 in April, 17 in May in 2011 vs. 14 in April and 13 in May in 2010
Holidays: Home - 6/19 Father’s Day 7/4 Independence Day, & 9/5 Labor Day Road - 4/24 Easter & 5/8 Mother’s Day
Overall Outlook: The A’s hard their lowest attendance in 12 years last season. Their attendance was 2nd worse in baseball and one game away from being the worse. Keep in mind, the A’s achieved peak attendance at 27,000 in 2003 after 4 years of postseason appearances. They went a perfect 5/5 on the holidays this year. Only 16 of their first 35 games are against teams over .500 last year and add in only 11 April homes games it seems that this year should be a turnaround at the box office for the A’s. This will help the team get out to an early start and sell more tickets for the summer months. On the surface, fans and players seem to not want to come out to the stadium. Much has been said about moving the team and refurbishing the stadium. I think the underlying problem for years is that A’s lack of a true everyday talent to bring in the fans. You won’t be seeing any of the A’s starting lineup of Kurt Suzuki, Daric Barton, Mark Ellis, Cliff Pennington, Kevin Kouzmanoff, Coco Crisp, Josh Willingham, Hideki Matsui, or David DeJesus on any commercials anytime soon. The best the A’s can hope for is to win and stay in the race until late September. I think this will happen for the team and predict a 10% increase in attendance to 19,000 fans a game this season.
David Simmons is a graduate of the University of Central Florida who worked in the front office of the Los Angeles Dodgers over 4 seasons. He has a decade of ticketing experience and currently resides in Baltimore. You can follow David on Twitter @davidesimmons
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It's so easy to bash A's fans because it seems like the 'thing' to do. I guess if you didn't have to write about all 30 teams, you would have bypa*sed your a*sessment of the A's.
I'll continue to go to the games even though I live 90 miles away.