Why does fan base drop if your team is stll winning

[lancelot55]

Over the last two seasons my fan base has dropped and forced me to cut salary. This makes no sense, because the last two years I have won 128 and 115 games respectively. I have been forced to lower my tickets price because of the lack on attendance. Before I would have a payroll of about 500 points and now I have to keep it around 400. I have lost over 100 pts the last two years. Is this a glitch--what's hapenning--any replies would be helpful.

[takaplan]

exact opposite for me...
i was having a budget of about 250 and then i won the nl central (my team is pittsburgh)...my revenue shot up and i began to have about about 30,000 fans per game instead of around 24,000 and my budget went to about 310.

tom
a happy subscriber

[BBM]

Did you spend too much on expenses and which team were you using, and what were the ticket price?

[Cipster]

I am playing St. Louis in one league and I went to the playoffs 5 years in a row and won 100+ games every year. Unfortunately attendance would go up and down in strange ways (sometimes as much as 2-3000/game for the year).
One year I was NL Champ, got 38000/ game the next year and won the NLDS yet somehow this failure to make the WS cost me like 3000 fans per game the next year despite the fact that I was in first place by a lot the whole year... Makes it hard to operate at near budget limits.

[dturkenk]

I've had that problem too with St. Louis, which I thought was strange, since they have some of the most loyal fans.

What I did was cut salary for few years and switch from Pay TV back to Local. That increased my exposure and brought my attendance back up.

[kyles1483]

just to point out, some of the problems with looking at your attendance are still caused by playoff attendance being counted... i bet if you didnt have the playoff games count for attendance that everyones attendance levels would stay more constant. youll notice that looking at a team that didnt make the playoffs one year and plays in the world series in the next, that the attendance is way more than the previous year. ive mentioned this before and i really wish it would be changed.

[takaplan]

ok...but i dont think 5 home playoff games would make that big of a difference.

besides, my home attendance the next year is way up!

i don't think there is a bug here...just adds realism!


Tom

[Particleman]

Yeah it seems that long term Pay TV will erode your fan base even if you win. That's why it's a good idea to switch to Normal Broadcasts every season or so when you can afford it.

[Cipster]

The thing is that I never used pay TV, and I played that team for 10 years....Last year I won the WS and my attendance was an 45,000 now this year I'm still in first (in a tight race despite being 29-12) and my attendance is now 35,000/game. Even counting the playoff games, 8-9 or them I think at 49000 fans I still averaged about 41-42000 a game during the regular season. A drop of 5-6000 after winning the WS is ridiculous. In St. Louis too??? I can understand Montreal, they have been the best team over the last 10 years and still in first place today but they are bankrupt.
My projected revenue is now about 40 points lower than last year and I'll lose about 30 points this year. Good thing I have about 200+ in the bank so I can weather this out.

[dturkenk]

Part of the reason that you're average attendance is lower now is due to the fact that more people come out to the ball park starting in late June when schools get out. I think that's reflected in this game, although I've never really checked more than just noticing my attendence went up over the course of the season.

I don't know what part of the loss this would account for, but I can't imagine it being the whole thing.

[Cipster]

You were right. My attendance is now in the 42000. My attendance for the year is still down (at 38000/game) but I guess a couple good month will fix that. My loss of revenue is allright because I am now projected to lose only 4 pts.

[exep]

Playoffs totally screw up finances. They are counted in team attendance as well. All post season statistics should be kept seperately. It would also help if revenue was computed by number of home games; then real comparisons could be made.
ExEP
P.S. Post season player statistics need to be kept seperately as well. Just a suggestion.:cool:

[Godard]

When playing a small market team, the flux is more noticeable:

Attendance apparently goes up for

- weekend games
- teams with good records coming to town
- teams with superstars coming to town
- traditional rivalries ??? (could be they also have good records)


Anyway, as the Phillies, I jack prices up when Atlanta and the NY teams come to town and it helps a lot.