GO ROYALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[GRID]

Also its possible people simple cannot afford to go or choose to spend money elsewhere. Royals games are not cheap and when you take a family, the kids care more about the snacks and other entertainment than the actual game on the field, if it was just me going i could get by on just watching the game and be fine but when kids go they want the 15 dollar chicken tenders, soda, sweets, souveniers, the carnival games in the outfield, the baseball game comes last. The royals game is a bigtime money suck, its really not much different than Ren Fest or a state fair when you take the family.

So what you are saying is KC is no longer a major enough city with a strong enough economy to sustain a MLB team?

If that's the case, it's no wonder KC has not landed an NHL or NBA team.

BTW, I go to MLB games quite often here in DC and Balt (really all over) and you can spend as little or as much as you want. I rarely spend more than $40 a ticket and $10-15 for a drink or something. Typically just bring in peanuts or buy on way in. MLB games are actually cheap, even with kids.

You can barely get into a Capitals games in the nosebleed for under $100 a ticket. If MLB is too expensive, not sure KC could do NHL or NBA.

[Highlander]

Also its possible people simple cannot afford to go or choose to spend money elsewhere. Royals games are not cheap and when you take a family, the kids care more about the snacks and other entertainment than the actual game on the field, if it was just me going i could get by on just watching the game and be fine but when kids go they want the 15 dollar chicken tenders, soda, sweets, souveniers, the carnival games in the outfield, the baseball game comes last. The royals game is a bigtime money suck, its really not much different than Ren Fest or a state fair when you take the family.

They are not cheap but far more affordable than the Chiefs and the summertime weather is generally far better than many Chiefs games. You can get some pretty inexpensive tickets to Royals game and manage the other costs making it the only affordable major sports options for many people and families in the city. It's also far less of a hassle to get to than most pro baseball games. I had to leave work very early if I wanted to go home and get the family and then get to an Astros games when I lived in Houston due to distances and the unrelenting traffic.

[Imarealperson]

Also its possible people simple cannot afford to go or choose to spend money elsewhere. Royals games are not cheap and when you take a family, the kids care more about the snacks and other entertainment than the actual game on the field, if it was just me going i could get by on just watching the game and be fine but when kids go they want the 15 dollar chicken tenders, soda, sweets, souveniers, the carnival games in the outfield, the baseball game comes last. The royals game is a bigtime money suck, its really not much different than Ren Fest or a state fair when you take the family.

Come on, Man. Royals games are not expensive.


https://www.mlb.com/royals/tickets/packs/sunday-4-pack

[Imarealperson]

The reason people aren’t going is the stupid Bally Sports deal. The Royals have become an afterthought because they aren’t on TV every night.

[dukuboy1]

I think attendance will pick up for sure over the summer, given the historical boost you get once school is out etc. I think there are some fans that have been just tuned out given the the complete shit shows the Royals were from 2018-2023. I mean they had bad stretches' before but these 6 season were rough and you through in a global pandemic that effected the better parts of 2 seasons, and the Chiefs becoming an NFL dynasty people just kind of forgot about the Royals. The only headlines they were making were bad ones. People were still fans but just investing their time elsewhere.

I think now we will see a steady increase as more & more casual fans get on board and start to pay attention. Plus I think the marketing & advertising they do will now be more effective as people will be more in tune to listen when the hear the Royals mentioned. They have some great promotions planned as well as some affordable deals on ticket packages and $5 concession areas in the park. As more and more people become aware the attendance will pick up. Plus just the simple fact of they are more likely to win than lose will have an impact on your game day experience. Meaning you go to a game after a few years of being away, they win and you are like, "that was fun, I'm going to come back". It's pretty simple, marketing 101 of sorts. Winning solves most problems. All the hand wringing is just that, noise and clickbait. Is it possible attendance will be down all year? Sure, but it's possible it may move up gradually as well.

If they make the playoffs, I can guarantee any games will be sold out. The "look at me" crowd will be out in full force for sure along with the die hard fans.

[dukuboy1]

The reason people aren’t going is the stupid Bally Sports deal. The Royals have become an afterthought because they aren’t on TV every night.

Yes, the TV deal with Bally's is a huge mess and effects a lot of people. But there are a ton of folks in the Metro that still have some sort of traditional cable package. I have a stripped down Spectrum plan for streaming. It's not for everyone but works for me. I can watch every night, and since I have AppleTv as a subscription as well I can get the games that pop up over there at times.

I agree the Royals really need to have a complete local network deal so that an over the air "free" channel shares in the broadcasting. But I think the days of those types of stations being included in broadcast rights with cable, satellite, and streaming are over.

But MLB needs to fix their archaic black out rules and get a better centralized broadcast deal in place that still allows teams to work out local deals and benefits from that more local/regional money, as baseball is still very dominate as a regional product.

[TheUrbanRoo]

It's not the expense. It's really just people aren't fully bought in yet still, and all the sports fans still live in Chiefs gaga land now.

I mean the dude above on this very forum just said he knows they're on pace for 100 wins but thinks they'll only win 82.

[Anthony_Hugo98]

Also its possible people simple cannot afford to go or choose to spend money elsewhere. Royals games are not cheap and when you take a family, the kids care more about the snacks and other entertainment than the actual game on the field, if it was just me going i could get by on just watching the game and be fine but when kids go they want the 15 dollar chicken tenders, soda, sweets, souveniers, the carnival games in the outfield, the baseball game comes last. The royals game is a bigtime money suck, its really not much different than Ren Fest or a state fair when you take the family.

So what you are saying is KC is no longer a major enough city with a strong enough economy to sustain a MLB team?

If that's the case, it's no wonder KC has not landed an NHL or NBA team.

BTW, I go to MLB games quite often here in DC and Balt (really all over) and you can spend as little or as much as you want. I rarely spend more than $40 a ticket and $10-15 for a drink or something. Typically just bring in peanuts or buy on way in. MLB games are actually cheap, even with kids.

You can barely get into a Capitals games in the nosebleed for under $100 a ticket. If MLB is too expensive, not sure KC could do NHL or NBA.

My Father and I went to a Royals game last month, we got tickets for $4 a piece. Parking was the most expensive single purchase made that was required to attend.

If we were just there for the game and maybe a beer or two we could’ve easily made it out of there for less than $50. We definitely bought some big BBQ plates and a hoodie though, so a little more pricey

[shinatoo]

It's not the expense. It's really just people aren't fully bought in yet still, and all the sports fans still live in Chiefs gaga land now.

I mean the dude above on this very forum just said he knows they're on pace for 100 wins but thinks they'll only win 82.

82 wins was my pre season prediction and I'm sticking to it. Baseball is very streaky. 2014 we were on pace for close to 100 wins at the all star break and barely made the wild card with 89 wins.

Hasn't stopped me from going to games and I'll be thrilled if we get 100 wins. Will be the first team ever to go from 100 losses to 100 wins in one season.

[Cratedigger]

Also its possible people simple cannot afford to go or choose to spend money elsewhere. Royals games are not cheap and when you take a family, the kids care more about the snacks and other entertainment than the actual game on the field, if it was just me going i could get by on just watching the game and be fine but when kids go they want the 15 dollar chicken tenders, soda, sweets, souveniers, the carnival games in the outfield, the baseball game comes last. The royals game is a bigtime money suck, its really not much different than Ren Fest or a state fair when you take the family.

Come on, Man. Royals games are not expensive.


https://www.mlb.com/royals/tickets/packs/sunday-4-pack

+1

Also people are fighting for Current tickets even though it's $80 for standing room only there.

Issue is that:
- The location is inconvenient. Either they don't want to deal with the hassle of driving, calling an uber or having a DD OR the location makes it unlikely someone makes a last minute decision to go to the game
- People don't know the Royals are good this year because they can't watch the games
- People don't care that the Royals are good because they were bad for so long/MLB is not covered as much as NFL and MLB (or nationally even NHL) in sports media/MLB took too long to implement necessary rule changes. So people have checked out from the sport.

[TheUrbanRoo]

^This

Especially the second point.

[ericwyner]

This is a big reason the Royals need to move downtown. They are still missing that young, urban demographic of fans at the stadium.

nationally, the demographic of MLB fans is older and whiter, the young urban demographic are fans of the NBA

[ericwyner]

Also its possible people simple cannot afford to go or choose to spend money elsewhere. Royals games are not cheap and when you take a family, the kids care more about the snacks and other entertainment than the actual game on the field, if it was just me going i could get by on just watching the game and be fine but when kids go they want the 15 dollar chicken tenders, soda, sweets, souveniers, the carnival games in the outfield, the baseball game comes last. The royals game is a bigtime money suck, its really not much different than Ren Fest or a state fair when you take the family.

parking is $20 not including service fees, but would parking at a downtown stadium be any less?

[ericwyner]

Unless I'm mistaken, the last time the Royals were 31-19 was the 1976 season, first year they ever made the playoffs. Finished the year 90-72 before falling to the Yankees in the ALCS.

how much was parking then? back then the concessions were cash only, now they're cashless (but they do have kiosks to load cash on debt cards)

[phuqueue]

It's not the expense. It's really just people aren't fully bought in yet still, and all the sports fans still live in Chiefs gaga land now.

I mean the dude above on this very forum just said he knows they're on pace for 100 wins but thinks they'll only win 82.

82 wins was my pre season prediction and I'm sticking to it. Baseball is very streaky. 2014 we were on pace for close to 100 wins at the all star break and barely made the wild card with 89 wins.

Hasn't stopped me from going to games and I'll be thrilled if we get 100 wins. Will be the first team ever to go from 100 losses to 100 wins in one season.

The Royals were two games over .500 at the ASB in 2014, on pace for 82 or 83 wins. They actually fell back under .500 coming out of the break. It was a hot streak that got them up to 89 wins, not a cold streak that brought them down to that.

I do agree that it's way too premature to extrapolate the current pace to a final season win total, though. These Royals tied with Cleveland 1988 for the best fifty game start by a team coming off a 100 loss season, and that Cleveland team finished with only 78 wins. There is a lot to like about this team, not least of which being the wins they've already banked (they didn't win their 32nd game last year until July 30, in the middle of that wildly improbable seven game winning streak), but there are also some red flags. Sooner or later, both corner outfielders batting below the Mendoza line will catch up to them, and the large splits between batting with men on [.304/.366/.481/.848] vs. with the bases empty [.215/.272/.360/.632] will regress, but baseball is streaky, like you said, so there's no telling whether that's going to start happening tomorrow or if they can ride it out all season long.

I want to be optimistic and call 82 wins too conservative, but I would be very (pleasantly) surprised to see this team reach 100 wins, despite their current pace. I think 82 wins could be too conservative because the pitching looks comparatively legit, even if there are question marks around the offense. I want to believe the pitching is strong enough -- and will remain strong enough -- to at least defend the cushion of games over .500 that they've already built up even if the offense regresses. If they went only .500 from here on out, that would put them at 87 or 88 wins, which would still be a dramatic improvement over last year (an improvement that I 100% did not believe was possible coming into the season, and I probably posted as much in this very thread). That would have won the division last year (probably won't this year unless Cleveland stumbles) and has been good enough to capture a wild card in some seasons. I don't really know what I think the final win total will be, but Fangraphs puts the Royals at 61.8% to make the playoffs in some capacity, which feels about right at this point in time.

[shinatoo]

It's not the expense. It's really just people aren't fully bought in yet still, and all the sports fans still live in Chiefs gaga land now.

I mean the dude above on this very forum just said he knows they're on pace for 100 wins but thinks they'll only win 82.

82 wins was my pre season prediction and I'm sticking to it. Baseball is very streaky. 2014 we were on pace for close to 100 wins at the all star break and barely made the wild card with 89 wins.

Hasn't stopped me from going to games and I'll be thrilled if we get 100 wins. Will be the first team ever to go from 100 losses to 100 wins in one season.

The Royals were two games over .500 at the ASB in 2014, on pace for 82 or 83 wins. They actually fell back under .500 coming out of the break. It was a hot streak that got them up to 89 wins, not a cold streak that brought them down to that.

I do agree that it's way too premature to extrapolate the current pace to a final season win total, though. These Royals tied with Cleveland 1988 for the best fifty game start by a team coming off a 100 loss season, and that Cleveland team finished with only 78 wins. There is a lot to like about this team, not least of which being the wins they've already banked (they didn't win their 32nd game last year until July 30, in the middle of that wildly improbable seven game winning streak), but there are also some red flags. Sooner or later, both corner outfielders batting below the Mendoza line will catch up to them, and the large splits between batting with men on [.304/.366/.481/.848] vs. with the bases empty [.215/.272/.360/.632] will regress, but baseball is streaky, like you said, so there's no telling whether that's going to start happening tomorrow or if they can ride it out all season long.

I want to be optimistic and call 82 wins too conservative, but I would be very (pleasantly) surprised to see this team reach 100 wins, despite their current pace. I think 82 wins could be too conservative because the pitching looks comparatively legit, even if there are question marks around the offense. I want to believe the pitching is strong enough -- and will remain strong enough -- to at least defend the cushion of games over .500 that they've already built up even if the offense regresses. If they went only .500 from here on out, that would put them at 87 or 88 wins, which would still be a dramatic improvement over last year (an improvement that I 100% did not believe was possible coming into the season, and I probably posted as much in this very thread). That would have won the division last year (probably won't this year unless Cleveland stumbles) and has been good enough to capture a wild card in some seasons. I don't really know what I think the final win total will be, but Fangraphs puts the Royals at 61.8% to make the playoffs in some capacity, which feels about right at this point in time.

On pace for 102 now. You are correct, 82 is too conservative.
June will prove what this team is made of. We have a 6-9 record against teams above 500. The only team we play in June that isn't above 500 are the A's. Everyone else is in first place except the Rangers and Padres. It's a brutal schedule.

[GRID]

This is a big reason the Royals need to move downtown. They are still missing that young, urban demographic of fans at the stadium.

nationally, the demographic of MLB fans is older and whiter, the young urban demographic are fans of the NBA

Sure overall, the demographics are generally older for MLB (at least in viewership), but the younger demographic is increasing. The Royals still don't draw that younger demographic very well at all and I think it's mostly because of the location of the stadium and the fact that the Royals cater to suburban families and kids. Kauffman is not a social place to go for young people. I go to Nats games all the time and trust me, old white men (like me lol) are a minority. The crowd is mostly 20's and 30's, singles, young urban couples etc. Weekday games barely have any kids or families. So even if the Nationals are mostly followed by an older demographic on TV etc, the people that actually go to the games are on the younger side.

Same with games at Camden Yards. I have been to most other stadiums, but not enough games at each stadium to comment on their demographics. But places like Coors Field have tons of young people when I go to games.

And considering KC doesn't have an NBA team, it really doesn't matter what demographic they attract.

Bottom line is the Royals will always attract the weekend families, even if they move downtown. But they won't always attract that younger demographic unless the stadium was downtown or the team was in the playoffs. It would help them increase attendance to more respectable levels. 10k showing up on a weekday is not good and even when the Royals are playing well, they really struggle to draw MLB sized crowds on anything but fridays and saturdays.

[DMNBT_RCJH]

This is a big reason the Royals need to move downtown. They are still missing that young, urban demographic of fans at the stadium.

nationally, the demographic of MLB fans is older and whiter, the young urban demographic are fans of the NBA

Sure overall, the demographics are generally older for MLB (at least in viewership), but the younger demographic is increasing. The Royals still don't draw that younger demographic very well at all and I think it's mostly because of the location of the stadium and the fact that the Royals cater to suburban families and kids. Kauffman is not a social place to go for young people. I go to Nats games all the time and trust me, old white men (like me lol) are a minority. The crowd is mostly 20's and 30's, singles, young urban couples etc. Weekday games barely have any kids or families. So even if the Nationals are mostly followed by an older demographic on TV etc, the people that actually go to the games are on the younger side.

Same with games at Camden Yards. I have been to most other stadiums, but not enough games at each stadium to comment on their demographics. But places like Coors Field have tons of young people when I go to games.

And considering KC doesn't have an NBA team, it really doesn't matter what demographic they attract.

Bottom line is the Royals will always attract the weekend families, even if they move downtown. But they won't always attract that younger demographic unless the stadium was downtown or the team was in the playoffs. It would help them increase attendance to more respectable levels. 10k showing up on a weekday is not good and even when the Royals are playing well, they really struggle to draw MLB sized crowds on anything but fridays and saturdays.

DC will also never *not* have a stable population of young people who (1) don’t make enough to save; and (2)
Make just enough to spends

They also have a huge population of young people who make decent money at like 250k+ at the age of 25-27 but who don’t have the time to go out. But when they do…they pay for premium experiences.

Of course. With the COL, that may be the same group

[langosta]

Not sure your point? KC has younger people with enough to spend on a $5-50 Royals ticket. At the high ends that’s equal to a few drinks at P&L. Getting to the stadium is a pain and driving is increasingly unpopular with younger generations

[Imarealperson]

I think we’re overthinking this. Reason #1 is low number of season ticket sales. It’s hard to get 25k walk up each night anywhere