Minor League Teams Draw Nearly 1 Million Fans On Busy July 4th Weekend

At the minor league level, operators note that in most areas of the country, the crowds start to really come out around Memorial Day. From then until mid-to-late August, teams can pack in fans, especially on the weekends.

But for MiLB teams everywhere, there is nothing like the July 4 weekend. The promise of fireworks and baseball (with a heavy emphasis on the fireworks) is the most surefire way to get crowds streaming through the gates.

That was very true this fourth of July weekend. With the fourth occurring on a Sunday and good weather ensuring that not one MiLB team had to postpone its July 4 game, MiLB teams had their best, and most normal weekend of attendance in a very long time.

From Friday to Sunday, MiLB teams drew 949,252 fans in announced attendance—an average of 5,332 fans per game. The revenue from this weekend in some cases may exceed their total revenue some teams brought in during a 2020 year that saw the entire season canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

MiLB full-season clubs have drawn 8.88 million fans overall this season, which means that more than 10% of the clubs’ total attendance this season came on this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The 5,332 fans per game is far above the 2,926 fans per game teams are averaging for the 2021 season.

The Covid-inspired attendance restrictions that many teams began the season under have largely been eliminated, providing a chance for teams to start digging out from under the massive financial hole that they found themselves at the end of 2020.

While it served as a much-needed boost for teams whose revenues were crushed by the pandemic, the holiday weekend also showed that attendance isn’t necessarily all the way back to pre-pandemic levels. Some of this is due to the differences in which teams were home on the fourth, but attendance across the minors was 5,919 fans per game on July 4, 2021. In 2019, teams averaged 7,577 fans on July 4. For the July 2-July 4 stretch, attendance went from an average of 5,895 fans in 2019 to 5,332 fans per game in 2021.

The biggest difference was at the top of the attendance charts. In 2019, five different Triple-A teams drew 13,000 fans or more. The top attendance in 2021 (Albuquerque’s 13,035 fans) would have ranked sixth in 2019.

The change in schedule format for 2021 also may have played a role. In the past, the schedule was arranged to try to ensure that every team received a home date close to July 4. In 2019, 108 full-season teams had a home game on July 2, 3 or 4. In 2021, 60 teams were home for the entirety of the July 4 weekend while the other 60 teams spent the entire weekend on the road. 

Over the entirety of the July 4 weekend, there were 14 crowds of greater than 10,000 around the minors and 91 crowds of 5,000-plus.