A's Attendance Drops in Game Two of Sacramento Stay

The Athletics are expected to sell out of most of their home games this season, given that the capacity of the ballpark is right around 14,000 and this is a Major League team coming to a brand new city. Yet, in game two of their three-year stay in West Sacramento, they drew 10,095. The A's averaged 11,386 per game as they left Oakland last season.

The first sign of potential trouble was that the team was offering ticket deals ahead of Opening Day, which was odd, given that they should have no trouble selling around 14,000 seats per game, especially early in the season before the summer heat really picks up.

Capacity at Sutter Health, including lawn seating, is 13,416.

While this is just one data point at the beginning of a full season of home games, this could be cause for some concern. Their opponent, the Chicago Cubs, are a team whose fan base tends to travel well, so for the second game to not also be a sellout is interesting. Presumably the visiting fans didn't just make it for one game.

This is also the model that the A's plan to use for their proposed ballpark in Las Vegas, with visiting fans accounting for about 27% of the fans at each and every game. That could be the bigger picture focus to keep an eye on throughout the season, because if Sacramento doesn't stay filled, then the chances of the ballpark in Las Vegas being packed nightly would likely follow a similar trend.

Of course, the response will be that "Vegas is different." To a degree that's true. If given the option between traveling to Sacramento to watch your favorite team play in a minor-league ballpark and going to Vegas for a few days, Sin City likely wins that decision-making process. The question is just how different Vegas is, and the answer may not be 9,000 visiting fans per game.

Sacramento has plenty of existing A's fans, along with a slew of baseball fans excited to catch a big-league game in their backyard.

So why the lower attendance on Tuesday night? There are a few reasons this could be the case. The first is that it was a second consecutive cold night at Sutter Health Park, and the A's had lost the previous game 18-3.

Those factors could also correspond with the A's having the highest median ticket price in all of baseball, and fans not wanting to drop $181 per ticket to sit in the cold and watch the home team lose by 15.

Another reason could be that the people of Sacramento feel like a temporary stop, because they're being treated like a temporary stop. Not only are the ticket prices high to maximize profits, but on the wall in left-center field is an advertisement for Las Vegas, that serves as a reminder that the A's plan to leave town. Why would fans want to grow attached to this club, given the circumstances?

To that point, the A's are wearing three patches this season. One is the number 24 to celebrate the life of Rickey Henderson. The other two are the Tower Bridge, to honor Sacramento, and a Las Vegas sponsorship patch.

It's the Vegas one that is on the camera-facing sleeve when Brent Rooker or any other A's hitter steps up to the plate, not Sacramento.

All of these small details could lead to larger attendance issues in time. For now, the tickets were probably priced too aggressively and the weather was just too chilly to get them to a capacity crowd. But this is certainly something to keep an eye on, with this just being game two of a three year plan.