SAN ANTONIO (Texas News Radio) — The number of people who show up for a professional baseball game is a good indicator for team support.
In 2018, the Astros have taken that crown away from the Rangers.
The Astros saw a 19 percent increase in attendance after they won the World Series in 2017 to welcome nearly 3 million fans to Minute Maid Park. That is the most since 2007.
Meanwhile, the Rangers saw the opposite happen, with the team now barely above the 2 million fan mark.
Both teams were in the 2.4-2.5 million ballpark in 2017.
In the minor league ranks, the Round Rock Express handily takes the attendance crowd. In fact, it was the third-best in all of Minor League Baseball, only behind Charlotte and Indianapolis.
Round Rock’s 8,809 average attendance puts it in range of Miami’s woefully low 10,013 average attendance. In fact, both Florida MLB teams were dead last in attendance, with Tampa Bay getting just over 1 million people into its stadium.
Frisco was the best performing AA team in the nation. San Antonio barely had the second-best average attendance in the state, though was hurt in the overall attendance numbers because of three cancelled home games. San Antonio will be moving up into AAA in 2019, already outperforming the Colorado Springs team it will be replacing.
Sugar Land continued its strength in the independent league ranks, ranking fourth-best in the nation among non-affiliated teams. It was third-best in the Atlantic League, despite its closest rival being over 1,200 miles away.
Nationally, the Associated Press says Major League Baseball’s average attendance at ballparks dropped 4 percent to 28,830. The average is down over 14 percent from its peak of 32,785 in 2007 and has not been this low since 2003, where an average ball game had 28,013 in attendance.