Despite a marked drop in the number of fans between weekend and weekday games, the Akron Beacon Journal is reporting that the Cleveland Indians are expecting to reach their attendance goal of 2.2 million this season at Jacobs Field.
Weekend, weekday, therein lies the difference. The Tribe has drawn much larger crowds on the weekends.
Doesn’t it make sense that more fans come Friday through Sunday, when fewer people are at work? Not necessarily, though the Indians’ marketing department almost planned it that way.
“We have marketed from Day 1 to make big games bigger, pushing for Friday, Saturday and Sunday,” said Bob DiBiasio, vice president of public relations. “It obviously has worked. Now, we need to revisit our strategy for Monday through Thursday.”
Generally, the Tribe has saved its most popular promotions for weekends: fireworks on Friday nights, bobblehead-doll giveaways, handing out blankets last Saturday night.
On weekdays, the club has relied on several varieties of discounted tickets and Dollar Dog Night, probably next to fireworks, the team’s most popular promotion.
The Indians’ goal this year was to draw 2.2 million fans to Jacobs Field. In that regard, they are exactly on target, even though they will lose one date because a home game was moved to Seattle the final week of the season.
With nine home dates left, attendance is 1,959,089, an average of 27,592, 21st in the majors.
