I come back to the computer and check my email and I have about 50 emails giving me attendance figures for the Toronto Blue Jays and the Oakland Athletics. Seriously. Many, many people felt strongly enough to research this and write in about it. Thank you.
Once again, as a reminder, here's the setup:
There was never any emotion in A's scenarios. That was pure Moneyball.
This is not Moneyball. There has never been a chapter dealing with "replacement value" for fan favourites, which is the difference between A's and Jays and why on most nights you can fire a cannon through the Oakland Coliseum and not hit anyone.
And now, in honor of all of you who wrote in, I'm selecting one of the emails at random and printing it. Congratulations, TL.
Really? Because according to MLB's regular season attendance statistics, the Oakland A's have outdrawn the Toronto Blue Jays at home five of the last six years (2006 being the lone exception).
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/attendance?sort=home_avg&year=2006&seasonType=2
Check it out:
2001: OAK (26,598) > TOR (23,647)
2002: OAK (26,787) > TOR (20,220)
2003: OAK (27,365) > TOR (22,215)
2004: OAK (27,179) > TOR (23,457)
2005: OAK (26,040) > TOR (24,724)
2006: OAK (24,402) < TOR (28,422)
AVG: OAK (26,395) > TOR (23,780) (by 11%!)
Even if we assume that Griffin meant the Coliseum is emptier (percentage-wise), a quick look at the numbers defeats this proposition as well:
Attendance as Percent of Capacity:
2001: OAK (60.9) > TOR (47.4)
2002: OAK (61.4) > TOR (40.0)
2003: OAK (62.7) > TOR (44.0)
2004: OAK (62.2) > TOR (46.4)
2005: OAK (59.6) > TOR (48.9)
2006: OAK (55.9) < TOR (56.3)
AVG: OAK (60.5) > TOR (47.2) (by 28%!)
TL
Labels: richard griffin
