The Braves opened what may be the season’s most important homestand for both attendance and the standings with the smallest crowd at SunTrust Park on Monday.
Only 20,942 saw the Phillies beat the Braves. It was the first time announced attendance was below 21,000.
Atlanta has played the fewest home games in the National League at 23, but it will play 18 of 21 at home, starting with Monday’s game.
The Braves average attendance of 29,710 is a respectable 13th in Major League Baseball, but some of that may be inflated by huge crowds attending the first games at the new stadium. Now, the team must draw fans more by the product on the field than by the novelty of a brand new stadium.
So far, weekend attendance has actually been pretty good. For Friday and Saturday games, the team averages 38,364. That is 93 percent of capacity.
For Monday-Thursday games, the team has drawn more than 30,000 only once.
Now, school is out, the team will look for bigger weeknight crowds. They could blame the threat of rain for Monday’s disappointing crowd, but it also could be the competitive situation.
Freddie Freeman, perhaps the team’s most popular player, is on the DL with a broken wrist.
The team’s overall situation also is not good. They are struggling to stay within a dozen games of the division lead. That means the playoff chances are all but gone. Fan Graphics, a company that provides playoff projections to MLB, puts the Braves chances of making the playoffs at less than 1 percent.
MLB attendance numbers are tickets sold rather than fans through the turnstiles. That means a stronger season ticket base increases average attendance, even if those people stay home once the team is out of the running.
The team will host its first double-header at SunTrust Park on Saturday. The first game against the Mets will be a make-up of a rained out game from last month.
Judging by the secondary ticket market, demand for upcoming Braves games – especially weeknight games – is soft. Tickets for most games, including some weekend games, are offered for less than $10 on StubHub.
