Hi friends! I'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile; I moved into a new house and haven't gotten the wifi working until today, so I will do my best to post as often as possible soon to get my rep back up.
I had a bit of a random question the other day. On Twitter, I follow all 30 MLB teams and went through to look a little at their profiles, bios, followers, etc. So in my mind, I began to wonder...
Is there a specific correlation between Twitter followers and attendance?
There are a lot of moving factors into finding a legitimate answer. In 2013, Forbes listed the Yankees as the third most valuable sports team in the world behind Manchester United and Real Madrid (European soccer teams). Obviously, the Yankees are not only the first baseball team to appear on this prestigious list (Dodgers come in at #6) but the first American team, showing the powerful international stretch that the famous Bronx Bombers have. So, they could have many Twitter followers from around the world that know the Yankees but have never been to a Yankees game.
Following a team on Twitter is obviously a lot easier than taking the time to find a free date, order tickets, commute to the game, enjoy the actual game, and then go home (not to mention the cost of an endeavor like that). Any average fan can give their team a follow but it takes a seriously dedicated fan to take that type of time.
And then there are people like me who follow every team. I want to stay connected as much as possible, and so do other journalists, fans, businesspeople, promotors, etc. Of course that would balloon everybody's followers so it wouldn't really matter. But here we go!
The top 5 teams in attendance this year (entering play on 8/25):
1) LA Dodgers, 3,094,307
2) St. Louis Cardinals, 2,826,831
3) New York Yankees, 2,708,255
4) San Francisco Giants, 2,665,190
5) Boston Red Sox 2,519,680
Here are there Twitter followers...(numbers are not exact)
1) LA 559,000
2) Cards 491,000
3) Yankees 1.2 million
4) Giants 633,000
5) Sawx 841,000
How about the bottom 5?
26) Kansas City Royals, 1,431,303
27) Houston Astros 1,427,160
28) Chicago White Sox 1,316,075
29) Cleveland Indians 1,178,791
30) Tampa Bay Rays 1,177,816
and their Twitter followers
26) KC 205K
27) Houston 158K
28) White Sox 213K
29) Indians 232K
30) Rays 183K
Sure, there seems to be a correlation, but I don't think it's so much attendance as it is the market. All of those teams (except Chicago) would probably be considered small market teams (although the White Sox have to share the Windy City). What I do think is interesting is that there is absolutely no rhyme or reason between attendance/Twitter followers and team success. For example, the first place Kansas City Royals rank 26th in attendance and have just over 200,000 followers, less than half their population. The same goes for Oakland, though they recently relinquished first place in the West to the hotter-than-sin Angels, they rank 24th in attendance. The A's are highest scoring team in the AL but can only must just over 1.5 million fans almost into September? Give Billy Beane some love!
Compare this to St. Louis, for example, who rank second in the MLB in attendance and have half a million Twitter followers while their population is just a shade over 300,000. Or here's another random anomaly: Milwaukee leads the NL Central (which I did not see coming), is 7th in total attendance, but they only have 211,000 Twitter followers? But the Packers have 706,000?
Here's a list of division leaders and their Twitter followers:
AL East: Orioles, 241,000 followers, 19th in attendance
AL Central: Royals, 205,000, 26th in attendance
AL West: Angels, 204,000, 6th in attendance
NL East: Nationals, 201,000, 11th in attendance
NL Central: Brewers, 211,000, 7th in attendance
NL West: Dodgers, 559,000, 1st in attendance
I have no idea what to think anymore. I'm convinced it's just the market/city the team happens to play in. I could get into average age of fans and how likely they are to be on Twitter, etc, etc. but I don't have the resources to go through that type of demographic.
Well this was fun, wasn't it? At least it was for me. Thanks for reading.
PS - if you are ever bored, look through each team's Twitter header (the big picture at the top of their Twitter page). The photos are beautiful.
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