A's living up to the hype? Smaller-than-expected Sacramento crowds, cheaper-than-predicted tickets
WEST SACRAMENTO — For the "not-Sacramento" Athletics, Monday will mark one month since the A's inaugural home opener in its three-year stint at Sutter Health Park before the team ultimately moves to Las Vegas.
So far, attendance has not proven to be as high as the pre-season hype -- many area leaders had predicted and hoped to see a near-nightly sellout crowd.
Of the A's thirteen home games so far this season, the only sellout has been the home opener versus the Chicago Cubs. Since then, A's attendance has not once dipped below 9,000 ticketed fans at any home game.
On average, ticket sales are sitting at about 10,800 per game: a good-sized crowd, but nearly 3,000 shy of a sellout.
What sold out early were season tickets, which account for about 6,000 seats. Katie Thompson is one of the A's inaugural season ticket holders.
"I think the ballpark, because it feels smaller, it feels like it's more crowded," Thompson said. "I think people were also thinking they were going to get season tickets and resell them for a lot of money, and that's not what is happening."
Regional economic leaders eyeing an MLB expansion team in the Sacramento area after the A's move on know these next three years are a trial run. The MLB will be watching for local fan support: Can the region consistently put up sellout crowds in the West Sacramento ballpark?
So far, more than 130,000 fans have walked through Sutter Health Park's gates since March 31. But is it enough to prove the Sacramento region can support professional baseball long term?
"It is sad to see that this is a Triple-A ballpark and we can't sell it out, you know?" said Vanessa Waszczuk, a lifelong A's fan.
The A's have some sellout games down the pipeline, like two games in the San Francisco Giants series on the July 4th weekend.
But there is a plus side to the smaller-than-expected crowd sizes — ticket prices are also lower than predicted. Ticket companies pre-season predicted that an A's ticket on average would be "the most expensive ticket in Major League Baseball."
For some upcoming games like the Yankees, Dodgers and Giants, it's likely. But for all, not quite.
An hour and a half before first pitch at Friday's home game versus the Chicago White Sox, dozens of tickets in the stadium were still available on sites like Ticketmaster and SeatGeek for $25 to $30. Some were even seats as low down as the 9th row.
"We definitely overpaid to be here. We bought the tickets over three weeks ago," said White Sox fan Joey Snella.
Snella and his dad are in town from Chicago, traveling to every MLB stadium in the country before he turns 30. They're ranking each one down to the very last detail. Friday, Sutter Health Park was their latest stop.
"So far I've given them a 5 [out of 5 ranking] on mobility inside the stadium, so far great on average weather," Snella said about the ballpark.
With ticket prices coming down, families like the Danielsons in town from Redding are seeing more A's action than they expected.
"I was really surprised, it's really fair," said mom Kasey Danielson, with her daughter and husband.
"My birthday present was tickets tomorrow night. We were already coming down and looked at ticket prices, they were reasonable, so we are here this evening too," father Jason Danielson said Friday.
Friday night's game attendance was just over 10,000 ticketed fans.
