Jays: Low Attendance Proves Power of Promotion?

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The highly anticipated Jose Bautista Bobblehead day took place on Sunday, the Jays third game of the 2011 season, in-front of over 35,000 fans. With only 10,000 units handed out, fans had to show up earlier than usual.

Callum shared an image of Sundays pre-game ticket window lineup via his twitter account. Not your typical Sunday at the RC.

jays-promotion-lineup.jpg

Game four of 2011 season took place last night. Just a smidgen over 11,000 showed up, creating a game over game decline of over 24,000.

Select Attendance figures from B-Ref (5 years)

jays-attendance-figures-early-2011-1.png

Overall team expectations, day of the week (for 3rd + 4th game), promotions, etc can be factored in to all of these numbers. Only a few facts can be drawn:

A) Opening Day always sells

B) 2008 showcased strong opening week attendance. For the season the Jays would draw 2.4 million (6th out of 14 AL Teams)

C) The Bautista Bobblehead game brought in the highest Sunday & Third Game attendance of the past five seasons

D) The nearly -25000 fans from yesterday is the biggest drop-off on the 3rd/4th game list.

Chart Aside

Judging by the large lines, overall attendance, social media buzz and even the current demand on Ebay:

jose-bautista-bobblehead-giveaway.jpg

The Bautista promotion was a dramatic success. Unfortunately the Jays have very few standout promotions the rest of the season.

I can’t fathom those in the Jays marketing department sleeping on this huge attendance gap. I’d expect/hope the Jays to sprinkle additional high-level promotions throughout the season.

Matthias Koster
Written By

has written for mopupduty.com since 2006. Follow Matthias on Twitter, Facebook and Google +

  • MK

    I totally agree. I remember how crazy it was for Dave Stieb bobblehead day last year. Wanting a bobblehead was the reason I was there (and didn’t get one – still mad about that). 10,000 is ridiculous. And the low number of promos also is stupid. Hope the new marketing team they’ve brought on tells them that.

    • That’s a great point.

      Why piss of paying fans with a quantity of only 10,000?

  • Ian

    Didn’t the Phillies give away the Roy Halladay bobbleheads last year to the first 40,000 (or pretty much everyone in attendance)?

    Agreed on the lack of giveaways front – I imagine it costs a lot of money to put those promotions together, and hopefully they come through next year with a little more variation.

  • Early

    So power of promotion explains the highest 3rd game.

    How does power of promotion explain the high attendance for the 2nd game?

    • In 2010 Sat slightly outdrew Sun

      This seasons opening weekend attendance

      Sat = 27,194
      Sun = 35,505

    • MK

      Saturdays are Jr Jays days. And with the addition of 1/2 price tickets for kids, they’re always going to do well.

  • Pete