Photo of a poorly attended Cincinnati Reds game at Great American Ball Park.

Image Credit: Redlegsfan21/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Cincinnati Reds set an all-time single-game attendance low earlier this week when they hosted the Milwaukee Brewers at Great American Ball Park. The game was a Monday night series opener and drew fewer than 8,000 fans. The story took a bizarre twist considering the Cincinnati Reds set a single-game attendance record just a few days earlier when they hosted the Pittsburgh Pirates on Opening Day. The Opening Day matchup vs. the Pirates drew more than 44,000 fans at Great American Ball Park.

The attendance for Tuesday night’s matchup with the Milwaukee Brewers rebounded slightly and drew more than 10,000 fans. The weather likely played a part in the poor turnout for Monday night’s game thanks to a chilly 46 degrees at first pitch. Nearly all of Great American Ball Park’s lowest attended games in its history occurred during the month of April. The previous single-game attendance low occurred a decade ago when the Reds hosted the Pittsburgh Pirates on August 31, 2009. That game drew just over 9,000 fans.

The Cincinnati Reds debuted at Great American Ball Park back in 2003 and have never been a franchise that sets attendance records. The club finished 24th in Major League Baseball attendance during the 2018 season; its lowest since the 1984 season. And its not just the Cincinnati Reds that are experiencing attendance problems. Major League Baseball admittedly has an attendance problem; especially among Millenials. The culprit? Young fans don’t have the attention spans that they once had. In an effort to boost attendance, Major League Baseball has experimented with everything from speeding up the play of the game, building more laid back party areas at stadiums, and offering monthly subscription-based ticket programs. Many fans can also no longer afford to attend Major League Baseball games on a regular basis. Teams like the Miami Marlins, Tampa Bay Rays, Oakland Athletics, and Toronto Blue Jays are being hit the hardest by attendance woes.

 

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