Conversely, Major League Baseball is mired in embarrassment with record low attendance at some of its premiere franchise stadiums, most notably with the New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves.
Powered by the alliance of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade with the Miami Heat and Kobe Bryant‘s L.A. Lakers on a “three-peat” championship quest, the NBA announced that its three national TV partners all had their most viewers ever this season, topped by a 42 percent increase for TNT. ABC was up 38 percent and ESPN had a 28 percent jump, the league boasted to the media on Friday. Turner Sports also says its 1.6 rating was its highest in 27 years of NBA coverage and that it televised three of the five most-watched NBA regular-season games ever on cable this season.
Despite the ominous league labor stoppage looming over the season, the NBA reported success across many platforms. Arena capacity was 90.3 percent, its seventh straight year of 90 or better, and the 17,306 average was up 1 percent from last year and was its fifth highest. Merchandise sales jumped more than 20 percent and NBA.com saw an increase of more than 140 percent in video views.
On the other end of the spectrum, professional baseball executives and pundits try to rationalize away their attendance woes. Commissioner Bud Selig attributes the empty seats to poor weather, kids in school and the economy. However, these issues arise every year, and the poor economy hasn’t impacted the NBA coffers whatsoever.
These baseball numbers below, according to USA Today, are hideous enough to cause baseball execs to raid the medicine cabinet to quell internal organ rumblings.
Braves: 13,865 on Tuesday against the Marlins, the worst crowd in Turner Field’s 15-year history.
Twins: 36,286 on Wednesday at Target Field.
Mariners: 12,407 at Safeco Field Tuesday against Toronto. Previous record low of 13,056 was set in mid April.
Indians: 8,726 on April 3. Four of the Indians’ six home dates drew crowds of less than 10,000. Oddly enough, their lowest crowd came on a Sunday.
Yankees: 40,267 on April 5. Capping a four-night run of new lows.
Cardinals: 32,007 on April 4 vs. Pirates, the lowest in the six seasons of new Busch Stadium. The total for the three-game series — 100,638 — was also a record low.
–terry shropshire
