Worcester Business Journal

last year." Rea said teams can extend their in- creased attendance for longer. He pointed to the only team above the WooSox in the 2022 attendance standings: the Dayton Dragons, which have sold out about 1,400 consecutive games. "Many teams have struck a certain chord in their markets," Rea said. "Ev- erything we are seeing in the early going here shows we are likely going to have a good long run." wbjournal.com | May 30, 2022 | Worcester Business Journal 9 W Business Banking doesn't have to come from a bank. Insured by NCUA 800-262-1001 | iccreditunion.org Business Solutions Sources: Worcester Red Sox box scores, Ballpark Digest to new cities and stadiums see the great- est spike in attendance in their first year. "We really focus on the grassroots marketing," Rea said. "We just couldn't do that for the 2021 season." COVID-19 created an unprecedent- ed situation in 2021. Among the many ways the pandemic impacted the team's ability to attract fans, Rea said the most frustrating was not knowing in late 2020 and early 2021 if the team would even play or when the first game would be. is impacted the WooSox's ability to engage with fans and potential partners, sell group tickets, plan events, and get an understanding of what people in the community expected from the team. "We do all sorts of marketing, but my favorite is the micromarketing, where we can meet individual people and fans to see what really drives them," Rea said. "Now we've gotten out to about every possible community event." e team technically sold out 13 of the 22 home games it played through May 30 this year. e city-owned Polar Park has a capacity of 9,508 including the standing-room-only areas, but the ballpark has 7,236 seats. Any game in which the team sells more tickets than seats is considered a sellout, said WooSox spokesman Bill Wanless. e stadium has reached its 9,508 capacity twice, both times in the 2021 season. For this season, its most-attend- ed game so far was Friday, May 13 with an attendance of 9,188. "I've been a critic of the stadium-fi- nancing deal the city used to bring the team to Worcester, but clearly the team knows what they are doing to actually attract people to the games," Matheson said. "e group sales and events have been wildly useful for the team to in- crease those attendance numbers." Extended honeymoon Major League teams were averaging about 28,000 fans per game in the 2019 season before that fell to about 19,000 in 2021, according to Matheson. rough May 23, the average 2022 per-game attendance was 25,498, ac- cording to the sports website ESPN. Likewise, attendance is rebounding in the minor leagues, where the 36 million total fans in attendance in 2019 fell to 22 million in 2021, said Matheson. Historically, when a minor league team moves to a new stadium or city, the team has a honeymoon period of 10 years, where attendance is above average, Matheson said. e numbers will be highest in the first year and slowly decline as the novelty wears off. "Maybe we delayed that honeymoon by a year," said Matheson about COVID impacting the WooSox first season. "People's thoughts about being out in large numbers have changed a lot in the 2018, season average (played in Pawtucket) 2019, season average (played in Pawtucket) 2020, season canceled 2021, average of all home games without COVID restrictions 2021, first 22 home games after COVID restrictions were lifted 2021, first 22 home games 2021, season average 2022, first 22 home games 5,982 5,254 0 7,107 6,874 4,421 7,638 6.145 Per-game attendance WooSox attendance Through their May 22 game, attendance at Worcester Red Sox home games at Polar Park are up 24% compared to the 2021 season average, the team's first in Worcester. Yes, it will rise significantly. 17% Dayton 7,891 Worcester 7,638 Charlotte 7,446 Nashville 7,216 Albuquerque 7,189 Las Vegas 6,978 El Paso 6,820 Lehigh Valley 6,691 Durham 6,113 Columbus 6,071 Team Per-game attendance Top minor league baseball teams, by attendance Through their first 22 home games of the 2022 season, the Worcester Red Sox rank second among the 120 minor league baseball teams in per-game attendance, up from sixth for the entirety of the 2021 season. Note: All teams play on the Triple A level, except Dayton, which is Single A. Source: Worcester Red Sox Since this picture was taken, the City of Worcester has finished two plazas designed to transition people better into the ballpark: Rockland Trust Plaza and DCU Plaza.

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