A popular topic in the sports media industry today is how baseball is a "dying sport", a victim of the rising popularity of more exciting sports such as football and basketball. Go onto a sports blog such as Bleacher Report, and you will find numerous references to baseball being a sport that is on the decline. These articles are so prevalent because they generate interest and page views. Calling baseball a "dying sport" is a controversial statement, so therefore it also forces people to click on it so that they can disagree with it. Writing articles with controversial, attention-grabbing titles is far from a new concept, and is one that far predates the Internet. However, the problem with the latest fad of writing about the decline of baseball is that there is no truth to the rumor. In fact, baseball has grown in popularity over the last 15 years as opposed to declining.
2001 can easily be considered a very good year in terms of the popularity of baseball. 2001 saw the Seattle Mariners win more regular season games (116) than any other team in history. It saw Barry Bonds hit more home runs (73) than any other player in history. It also served as a venue for the country to unite after the 9/11 attacks, as is highlighted by such events as Mike Piazza's home run during the first game in New York City after 9/11 on September 21st and by President George W. Bush's first pitch during Game 3 of the World Series, which has since been the subject of ESPN's 30 For 30. In short, 2001 is a perfect example of a popular year for baseball.
Given all the events that happened in the baseball world in 2001, one would think that baseball was certainly more popular then than it is in 2016. However, this is not the case. In 2001, the total attendance of Major League Baseball was 72,267,544, with the average attendance at individual games being 29,739. So far in 2016, the MLB has drawn a total of 27,823,049 people, which averages out to 29,195 per game. So the average attendance at major league baseball games has remained virtually unchanged since 2001.
It also must be pointed out that the 2016 attendance numbers only represent the early part of the MLB season in April and May. Keep in mind that more fans begin to attend baseball games as the weather gets warmer and as children finish school for the year. For example, last year on June 13th, 2015 the average attendance at MLB games 29,476 per game. However, the average attendance at the end of the season had risen to 30,515 per game, which was higher than the average attendance during the 2001 season.
As these numbers demonstrate, the decline of baseball has been greatly exaggerated by the sports media industry. The popularity of baseball has not declined in the slightest. In fact, more people attended baseball games in 2015 than in 2001. This blog does not even go into detail about various factors that make the rise in attendance over the last 15 years even more impressive. For example, the price of tickets has gone through the roof over the past decade+. In 2001, the average price of a ticket to a Boston Red Sox game was $36.08. In 2015, that price ballooned all the way to $52.34. Despite this enormous increase in price per ticket, the Red Sox drew 35,564 people per game in 2015, as opposed to 32,411 per game in 2001. Another factor that should have driven baseball attendance down is the simple fact that baseball stadiums hold less people than they used to. Take the 2 New York stadiums for example. The old Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium held 57,545 and 57,333 people, respectively. In 2009, both teams opened new ballparks, the new Yankee Stadium and Citi Field. These new stadiums hold 50,287 and 45,000 people respectively. So the average baseball attendance has gone up despite new stadiums being designed to hold less people.
As we can see, baseball is not declining in popularity. Rather, the exact opposite is happening.
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