How I raised atttendance 65% by adding 2 popular players

[3RunHomer]

I’m running the Orioles. In 2021 attendance per game was 27,740, which wasn’t terrible but wasn’t great either.

When I extended Sisco’s contract there was a spike in fan interest. I decided to see what would happen if I brought in more “extremely popular” rated players.

First I signed free agent closer Craig Kimbrel. I don’t know why, but he’s extremely popular in Baltimore. Fan interest rose again and we sold more season tickets.

Encouraged, I decided to make a big splash. I traded with St Louis to bring Manny Machado back to Baltimore. The fans were ecstatic and fan interest zoomed up to 72.

Average Attendance
2021: 27,740
2022: 45,851
65.3% increase

Revenue per game increased $300,000.

A few “extremely popular” rated players can make a big difference in your attendance and revenue. And some of them aren’t expensive to sign. For example half-star rated free agent RP Nate Smith is rated “extremely popular” in Baltimore and I could sign him for the minimum. There are lots of odd opportunities like that.

PS — Our attendance increase wasn’t because our record improved. The big spike in attendance was projected on the finances page before the season even started. It projected that our attendance would average nearly 47,000 per game. All based on bringing in 2 new extremely popular players, and extending the extremely popular Sisco.

[BBGiovanni]

Better trade for Tebow to complete the set!

[Le Grande Orange]

3RunHomer, please post your club's record for both seasons.

That much of an attendance bump for two players seems rather unrealistic. As various studies of real-world baseball have demonstrated, the biggest impact on a club's attendance is its record in the prior season, its record in the current season, and whether it made the post-season the season prior.

That is not to say popular players have no impact, just that winning has a much larger impact.

[Brad K]

Originally Posted by bbgiovanni

better trade for tebow to complete the set!

LOL.

And Marv Throneberry

[Marsupilami]

the "projections" are always meh .

if fan interest zoomed up to 72 !!! how low was it before???

and yeah, the interest will sell more season tickets, but day to day sales are linked to results/standings

[NoOne]

fan interests controls the attendance along with ticket price.

it may not have been 'only' the signings. recent history would be part of why it occurred too.

e.g. go edit all those players to be "nobodies" and keep fan interest the same and you'll get the same projection of ticket sales.

signing just 3-5 guys could bump it up 10 points or more, so that is a big deal going from ~60 to ~70 fan interest. you can recreate any context with comissioner mode on and compare. it is clockwork even though a multitude of combinations possible.

the predictions are usually spot on if you don't change prices throughout year or fan interest isn't skyrocketing/plumetting, of course. the other thing that can make them wonky is if you charge a significantly different price for season ticket sales. i notice if i mark these up high enough where you only selll 1/5-1/4th of capacity, the initial predictions for walk-up gate revenue are extremely low. it will underestimate by ~20M dollars and slowly fix its estimate by ~june or so.

[3RunHomer]

Record:

80-82 in 2021
48-54 as of July 26, 2022

In other words, the team isn’t good but attendance still shot up. “Extremely popular” players are an exploitable bug in the game program.

[Calvert98]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

3RunHomer, please post your club's record for both seasons.

That much of an attendance bump for two players seems rather unrealistic. As various studies of real-world baseball have demonstrated, the biggest impact on a club's attendance is its record in the prior season, its record in the current season, and whether it made the post-season the season prior.

That is not to say popular players have no impact, just that winning has a much larger impact.

Agreed; Sure, star players have an impact, but I always thought it was way more heavily weighted to what you noted here, because it's in-line with what I understood those factors to be, and then I was seeing such results in the game.

[Calvert98]

Originally Posted by 3RunHomer

Record:

80-82 in 2021
48-54 as of July 26, 2022

In other words, the team isn’t good but attendance still shot up. “Extremely popular” players are an exploitable bug in the game program.

Well, unless there is some extra world randomness added in (Fans can be a odd bunch), yea seems like it could be an issue.

Although bringing in such folks should have some impact, as Le Grande mentioned, overall it should fall more on team record/performance, so, that might be a bit too dramatic of a swing.

[itsmb8]

Originally Posted by 3RunHomer

For example half-star rated free agent RP Nate Smith is rated “extremely popular” in Baltimore and I could sign him for the minimum. There are lots of odd opportunities like that.

That still sort of makes sense though. Maybe he's from the area, or maybe he's a Brett Phillips-type that is extremely popular because of something unique about him. Etc.

[Calvert98]

Originally Posted by itsmb8

That still sort of makes sense though. Maybe he's from the area, or maybe he's a Brett Phillips-type that is extremely popular because of something unique about him. Etc.

Yea, agreed; that makes sense. And I'm glad the game accounts for things like that could happen such as that.

I just think in terms of moving the fan interest "meter", record should likely have a greater overall impact.