Should MLB “Reshuffle the Deck”?

For the 2025 season, the Rays and the A’s are both drawing fewer than 10,000 fans per game at home.  That fact is easily rationalized; both teams are playing in minor league facilities for the 2025 season and neither stadium has the capacity to hold a typical major league crowd.  It is no surprise that those two teams have the lowest home attendance in MLB so far this season.

The third lowest home attendance figure for 2025 belongs to the Miami Marlins at 11,698 fans per game.

• That average crowd could almost fit into the Rays’ home field in Tampa.
• That average crowd would fit fine with seats left over in Sacramento.

The Marlins’ attendance woes have nothing to do with the number of available seats on sale; the Marlins’ attendance woes are endemic.  The Marlins entered the NL in 1993; in that inaugural season, the team drew 3.06M fans; euphoria was in the air.  Then, in 1997 the Marlins drew 2.36M fans – – and by the way, the Marlins won the World Series in that 1997 season.  Fast forward to 2012, when the Marlins drew 2.22M fans.  The “occasion” for that attendance bump in 2012 was the opening of a new stadium for the team – – the one that exists today.

In more than 30 seasons, the Marlins have drawn more than 2 million fans only three times and all three of those occasions involved an unusual confluence of events:

• Inaugural season
• World Series victory
• New stadium

[Aside:  The Marlins also won the World Series in 2003 but drew only 1.30M fans that season and 1.72M fans in the subsequent 2004 season.]

If that does not seem bleak enough for you consider that in the lifespan of the Marlins, they have drawn fewer than 900K fans in a season five times – – and that miserable statistic does NOT include the COVID shortened season in 2020.  The low-water mark for Marlins’ season attendance came in 2021 when season attendance was 642,617 for an average attendance of 7,394 diehard souls per game.

MLB has four franchises that are laggards at the gate just about every season:

1. The Rays need a new stadium because a hurricane destroyed the old one – – the one that people say was awful and caused the Rays’ attendance woes.  That all happened last year; and so far, there has been no dirt moved to start a new construction project.
2. The A’s have broken ground on a new home field in Las Vegas.  Given the attendance successes for Las Vegas franchises in the NFL and the NHL, there is reason for optimism there.
3. The White Sox field is not in the best part of Chicago and there seems to be little if any interest in public contributions to a new home for the team in the city.  The team owner, Jerry Reinsndorf, is almost 90 years old and is not likely to fund a new stadium construction project on his own.
4. The Marlins’ situation is described above.

MLB wants to expand from 30 teams to 32 teams; officially, that is not a front-burner issue, but the league and the owners would love to divvy up those two expansion franchise fees.  And that presents a dilemma – – make that a trilemma:

1. Do these lowly attendance figures depress the price that expansion owners might be willing to “ante up”?  If so, MLB may need to think about moving the Rays, White Sox or Marlins to “greener pastures”.  That would be a modern-day analog to “salting the mine”.  OR…
2. Would moving those existing franchises to “greener pastures” take up space where there is enthusiasm for an MLB franchise but now the slot is filled, and the league must look for “lesser venues”?  OR …
3. Would the movement of the first existing franchise to a “greener pasture” encourage local pols in existing teams that have not  yet been relocated to ease up on the public purse strings a bit and be a bit more generous in their dealings with the team and the league?

If MLB were to embark on a strategy akin to the expansion/relocation ideas outlined here, where might they cast their gaze?

• Charlotte – – either expansion or relocation site
• Memphis or Nashville – – either expansion or relocation site
• Montreal – – relocation site
• Portland – – expansion territory
• Raleigh/Durham – – either expansion or relocation site if Charlotte is a non-starter
• Salt Lake City – – expansion territory
• Indianapolis?  Orlando?  San Antonio?  Tidewater, VA?  Vancouver?

Finally, here is Yogi Berra on attendance at baseball games:

“If people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s gonna stop ‘em.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports ………