Yankees On Pace For Lowest Total Attendance Since 2003

This may seem hard to believe, but the Yankees are 75% done with their home schedule for the 2009 season. Only 22 home games remain and it is a certainty that the Yankees won't reach the 4 million fan mark for the first time since 2004. A smaller home stadium, combined with overpriced tickets and rainy weather have resulted in the Yankees being on pace to draw "only" 3.6 fans to the "new house."

As of today, the Yankees have a total attendance of 2,650,398, according to our attendance tracker. (note, some of our attendance numbers differ from the numbers on baseball-reference.com, but according to mlb.com, our numbers are correct). Being generous, we will assume that with the heat of a pennant race and numerous games against team that are over .500 (including the Red Sox), the Yankees will average 47,000 fans for the rest of the schedule. This may be a leap of faith considering they have only seen crowds swell to that size on nine occasions in 2009, but in this scenario, the total attendance would be 3,684,398.

Taking a look at the Yankees' encyclopedia on baseball-reference, you will find that the Yankees haven't drawn less than 4 million fans since 2004, and are on pace to have their lowest attendance since drawing 3,465,600 in the pre-A-Rodian year of 2003. Yankees brass knew this was coming when they announced plans for a stadium that held 4,000-6,000 fewer fans than the previous iteration of Yankee Stadium, but planned on the Legends suites to subsidize those lower totals. With a good portion of those seats being given away earlier this season as part of a price cut, we are left wondering if the Yankees are concerned about these lower attendance totals.

The Yankees are the best team in baseball and are playing in front of a packed house every night, so there is little cause for concern. However, when you step back and realize that the Yankees drew nearly 4.3 million fans for the past few years, you wonder who is being shut out of the fancy new stadium.

As it stands right now, there will be 700,000 - 800,000 less fans who have the privelege of walking through the gates of Yankee Stadium in 2009. Who are the people that helped the Yankees reach previously unattainable attendance marks, but are nowhere to be found in the new place? Are they out of towners who planned trips to NYC the past few years to catch one final (or first) glimpse of the cathedral? Are they the Wall Street suits who had reality set in once the financial crisis hit and are now unable to afford the luxury of baseball games? Are they hard-working middle class families who realized that the $12 bleacher seats and $20 upper deck seats were sold out within days of the public on-sale and can't afford any of the other seats?

We have really learned to enjoy the new stadium. The amenities are nice, the standing room spots behind home plate allow us to watch games from directly behind $375 seats without paying a dime over $20, and the atmosphere during the recent Red Sox series proved that worries about the new stadium being more quiet were unfounded. We just can't help but wonder who is being shut out of the new place. Read the full post, after the jump

Yankees On Pace to Draw "Only" 3.9 Million Fans in 2009

As of today, the Yankees shockingly are not on pace for 4 million fans in attendance in their brand new stadium. The official attendance for today's game was only 48,271. We're unsure why it was so low, but perhaps it is because the Yankees haven't put standing room only tickets for sale yet. Or maybe too many people bought tickets just to flip them, and were unable to dump them in time.

Regardless of the reasons, the capacity of the stadium is supposed to be somewhere in the 52,000 range. Today, on a highly publicized opening of the most expensive stadium ever, the Yankees couldn't even draw 50,000. For comparison's sake, the Yankees had 55,112 fans come through the gates one year ago, after a rainout forced opening day to be moved to the next night.

This must be pretty disheartening for the team. There are some cold nights to come in the rest of April. Is it possible that the attendance will not even crack 40,000 for some of those games? For a team that has been easily drawing 4 million fans the past few years, this definitely comes as a bit of a surprise. Was anyone listening to the John Sterling on the radio? Did he mention the lower than expected attendance? How about the YES broadcast crew?

We checked last night, and Ticketmaster was completely sold out of tickets. Did the Yankees have to remove more seats than they initially let on due to obstructions? Is the capacity of the new stadium actually only 48,000 without standing room? Unfortunately we don't have the answers, but perhaps a mainstream news source will do some more digging. Keep an eye on the papers tomorrow. Read the full post, after the jump

Will The Yankees hit the 4 Million Attendance Mark in 2009?

Peter Gammons had an item on his blog yesterday, quoting Major League Baseball officials in regard to expected attendance for the 2009 season:

Major League Baseball has warned club businesspeople that attendance is expected to be down 17-20 percent in 2009, and that it could be worse, especially for franchises such as the San Diego Padres, Toronto Blue Jays, Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians, Houston Astros, Colorado Rockies and others that could be seriously impacted by the recession.

The Yankees will be immune to these massive drops in attendance, but it will be nearly impossible for the Yankees to not see a percentage decrease as compare to 2008.

The old Yankee Stadium held over 56,000 fans, and the new one only holds 51,000. Even if the Yankees sell out every single game, they will draw 4,131,000 fans, a decrease from the 4,298,655 they drew in 2008. With the Yankees struggling to sell the most expensive seats, all 81 games being sold out is far from certainty, and is likely a long-shot in this economy.

So, the drama mounts - will the Yankees draw 4 million fans? It would have to be considered a failure for them to draw anything less. Feel free to chime in with your best 2009 Yankee Stadium attendance guess in the comments section.

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