Mammoth Blog

Major League Baseball announced today that despite the nation's worst economic downturn in 80 years, the 30 Clubs drew 73,418,479 fans during the 2009 championship season, producing the fifth largest total attendance in MLB history.

Two of Major League Baseball's most historic franchises, the reigning World Series Champion Philadelphia Phillies and the Boston Red Sox, set all-time club records, drawing 3,600,693 and 3,062,699, respectively. The Los Angeles Dodgers led the Major Leagues in attendance with 3,761,669 for an average of 46,400. Nine clubs drew more than three million fans (Dodgers, New York Yankees, Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, Red Sox and Milwaukee Brewers) and 10 clubs averaged more than 35,000 fans per game (the above clubs plus the San Francisco Giants).

Because of the economy, this year's total is 6.6 percent less than last year's total, but is actually only 5.2 percent lower when accounting for the reduced capacities of the two new ballparks in New York. The total number of seats available at Citi Field and Yankee Stadium is approximately 1.5 million fewer than at the old ballparks.

As household spending decreased and national unemployment figures across the United States reached a 26-year high of 9.7 percent in August, many of the clubs that saw the largest decreases in attendance played in markets that suffered unemployment rates that exceeded the national average.

"Major League Baseball is grateful to all of its fans for their remarkable enthusiasm for the national pastime this season," said Baseball Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig. "Given these challenging economic times, I am exceedingly proud of the manner in which our Clubs have responded, demonstrating a deep commitment to maintain baseball's stature as the most affordable and the most family-friendly sport. The 2009 attendance being among the five highest figures of all-time reflects the vibrancy and resiliency of our game."

In addition, Minor League Baseball drew 41,644,518 fans this season. When combined with MLB's total, more than 115,000,000 fans attended a Major League or Minor League game in more than 200 cities.

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