Even with Tampa Bay Rays playing at the Yankees’ Steinbrenner Field, Major League Baseball is seeing … More
Trends early in the 2025 Major League Baseball season indicate a third consecutive annual attendance increase, even as two clubs play in ballparks designed for Spring Training and Minor League Baseball.
As the league exits Memorial Day weekend, according to MLB, attendance is up +2% year-over-year compared to 2024. The current season sees an average paid attendance of 27,876 compared to 27,319 over the same number of dates last season at this time.
The increase is striking given the A’s are now playing at Sutter Health Park, home to the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats, and the Tampa Bay Rays are playing at Steinbrenner Field, the Spring Training facility of the New York Yankees. The A’s will spend three seasons in Sacramento while they construct their new ballpark in Las Vegas. The Rays are slated to return to Tropicana Field in 2026 after the $22.5 million plan to repair the roof and other damages is completed in the wake of Hurricane Milton shredding the roof.
Using data from Baseball-Reference, the New York Mets lead in the most significant year-over-year (YOY) increases (+12,915 per game), followed by the Detroit Tigers (6,561 per game), Los Angeles Angels (5,331 per game), and A’s (4,035 per game). The increase by the A’s was largely expected, given the acrimony with fans in Oakland in their last season there.
While the A’s are up, the same cannot be said of the Rays. Only the St. Louis Cardinals (-7,609 per game) are seeing a larger drop compared to this point last year. Through 35 games, the Rays are down -5,865 per game. Other large drops over the last year include the Toronto Blue Jays (-4,502 per game) and Texas Rangers (-3,080 per game).
For total attendance the defending World Series Champion Los Angeles Dodgers are the only club seeing per game attendance over 50,000 (50,231), up +3,428 per game, followed by the San Diego Padres (42,365, up +3,105 YOY), Philadelphia Phillies (41,296, up +2,857 per game), and Mets (41,296, up +2,021 per game).
At the bottom, the aforementioned Rays are the only club seeing per game attendance below 10,000 per game (9,932), followed by the A’s (10,167), Miami Marlins (12,148) and Chicago White Sox (16,329).
You may be wondering how Spring weather is affecting things. According to the league, through Memorial Day there have been 18 postponed games and 1 suspended game compared to 20 postponed games and 1 suspended game at the same time in the 2024 season.
