Saturday, April 26, 2008

1875 Attendance Data

I've been looking at the attendance data for the 1875 season, which can be found at Retrosheet, and thought I'd post some of it. The following is the Red Stockings' schedule for 1875. I give the date of the game followed by their opponent, the outcome of the game, the score, and the attendance.

5- 4-1875 Vs STL L 9-15 1000

5- 6-1875 At WES L 2-15 500
5- 8-1875 At WES W 6- 1 1000
5-11-1875 Vs CHI L 0- 1 200
5-13-1875 Vs CHI L 2-15 400
5-21-1875 Vs WES W 3- 1 200
5-25-1875 At CHI L 2-16 714
5-27-1875 At CHI L 0-15 380
5-29-1875 At STL L 0- 6 500
6- 3-1875 Vs BOS L 5-10 1200
6-10-1875 Vs MUT L 4-18 100
6-15-1875 Vs PHI L 3- 4 100
6-17-1875 Vs MUT L 1- 4 200
6-22-1875 Vs HAR L 1- 8 300
6-24-1875 Vs HAR L 6-11 100
6-26-1875 Vs HAR L 0- 9 50
6-27-1875 Vs WAS W 3- 0 1500
7- 3-1875 Vs WAS W 8- 0 50

7- 4-1875 Vs WAS L 5-12 300

Breaking down the data, the Reds played before a total of 8794 people in 1875. They had a total attendance of 5700 at home and 3094 on the road. Average home attendance was 407 while their average road attendance was 618. That the Reds averaged more on the road then at home is interesting but is more a factor of the Reds poor home attendance rather than the idea that they were some kind of road draw.

The reality of the Reds poor home attendance is more obvious if we take their road games out of the data:
5- 4-1875            Vs STL   L  9-15   1000 
5-11-1875 Vs CHI L 0- 1 200
5-13-1875 Vs CHI L 2-15 400
5-21-1875 Vs WES W 3- 1 200
6- 3-1875 Vs BOS L 5-10 1200
6-10-1875 Vs MUT L 4-18 100
6-15-1875 Vs PHI L 3- 4 100
6-17-1875 Vs MUT L 1- 4 200
6-22-1875 Vs HAR L 1- 8 300
6-24-1875 Vs HAR L 6-11 100
6-26-1875 Vs HAR L 0- 9 50
6-27-1875 Vs WAS W 3- 0 1500
7- 3-1875 Vs WAS W 8- 0 50

7- 4-1875 Vs WAS L 5-12 300

The obvious point is that the Reds' home attendance was horrible. As I stated earlier, they averaged 407 fans per game at home but if you throw out the games of 5/4 against the Browns, 6/3 against Boston, and the first Washington game on 6/27 the home average drops to a pathetic 182 per game.

I've obviously underestimated the effect that poor attendance had on the Red Stockings. By looking at the data on a game by game basis and throwing out the three games that skew the data, it's obvious that the Reds were simply not a sustainable financial enterprise in 1875. Of course there are extenuating circumstances. If the weather had been better in St. Louis in May, the Reds would have most likely drawn better crowds against the Brown Stockings, Chicago, and Keokuk. If they had been more competitive, they would have drawn better. If the Brown Stockings hadn't had the early success that they did, specifically against Chicago, then there may have been some room in the market for the Reds. But in the end, a couple of hundred fans a game simply was not enough to sustain a co-op team financially.

Hopefully, I'll get the Brown Stockings attendance data up today and we can have some fun comparing and contrasting the two sets of numbers. Good times.

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