CPBL Attendance as of May 13, 2019

We are about 64 games into the 2019 CPBL season which is about halfway through the first-half season. Now it is an excellent time to see how the 2019 attendance stack up against the data from the previous three seasons (2016-2018).

Comparing 2019 vs 2018 data, overall speaking, the league’s average attendance is down by 5.21%. The Brothers’ have the most growth with a massive 44.29%, while the Guardians’ attendance is down by 29.92%.

The Monkeys maintain their level with a slight 0.71% down from last year. The Uni-Lions are down 17.03% overall and coming in last in terms of total attendance at 57,841 over 15 home games.

Note: 2019 attendance data is not the full season data. It is only up to May 13, which is about a quarter of the 2019 season.

Day or CityTotalGamesAverage
Tuesday2429464049
Wednesday3457993842
Thursday3095565159
Friday58891124908
Saturday126494167906
Sunday91421156095
Weekday148719334507
Weekend217915317030
Taoyuan130451177674
Xinzhuang85769184765
Taichung5274995861
Tainan41282104128
Kaohsiung3168474526
Tianmu2469938233
Lamigo Monkeys' Yokoso theme nights
Lamigo Monkeys’ 2019 Yokoso theme nights. Photo Credit: (https://vimeo.com/fredlin)

2019 Total Attendance Game-by-Game Chart

2019 cpbl total attendance game by game 1st 64 games

  • Monkeys: 130,451 over 17 games (Total)
  • Brothers: 92,573 over 14 games (Total)
  • Guardians: 85,769 over 18 games (Total)
  • Uni-Lions: 57,841 over 15 games (Total)

2019 Average Attendance Game-by-Game Chart

2019 cpbl average attendance game by game for 1st 64 games

  • Monkeys: 7674 over 17 games (Average)
  • Brothers: 6612 over 14 games (Average)
  • Guardians: 4765 over 18 games (Average)
  • Uni-Lions: 3856 over 15 games (Average)
  • CPBL: 5729 over 64 games (Average)

Lamigo Monkeys 2016-2019 Attendance

Day or CityTotalGamesAverage
Tuesday732423662
Wednesday337813378
Thursday1337126686
Friday2098536995
Saturday55771511154
Sunday2962247406
Weekday4505885632
Weekend8539399488
Taoyuan130451177674

Chinatrust Brothers 2016-2019 Attendance

Day or CityTotalGamesAverage
Tuesday768917689
Wednesday1401534672
Thursday858218582
Friday793323967
Saturday3168247921
Sunday2267237557
Weekday3821975460
Weekend5435477765
Taichung5274995861
Kaohsiung1512527563
Tianmu2469938233

Fubon Guardians 2016-2019 Attendance

Day or CityTotalGamesAverage
Tuesday928133094
Wednesday1097533658
Thursday000
Friday2010545026
Saturday2358445896
Sunday2182445456
Weekday40361104036
Weekend4540885676
Xinzhuang85769184765

Uni-Lions 2016-2019 Attendance

Day or CityTotalGamesAverage
Tuesday000
Wednesday621123106
Thursday900233001
Friday986833289
Saturday1545735152
Sunday1730344326
Weekday2508183135
Weekend3276074680
Tainan41282104128
Kaohsiung1655953312

What I Think: Opinion on 2019 Attendance

Overall speaking, there is a slight dip in Saturday attendance comparing with 2018. There are many theories about it. But for this section, I just want to focus on theme nights.

Theme nights are one of the biggest sources for CPBL teams to boost their overall attendance. Traditionally speaking, one good Saturday night tend to cover at least two or three weekday nights in terms of total attendance.

From a fan’s perspective, my gut feeling for the 2019 theme nights is a lot of teams are just phoning it in with minimum efforts. It is pretty much rinse and repeat from the previous seasons.

Examples of Less Impressive Major Theme Nights

Monkeys’ Yokoso nights and Uni-Lions’ Ultraman nights were nothing special this year. It felt  like both teams watered it down by cutting out a lot of pre-game and mid-game entertainment.

Guardians’ All Grit nights where they wore camouflage uniform, they did not even bother to make the nights more “military” similar to previous years. Come to think of it, I don’t know what’s the theme behind this “All Grit Nights”.

Brothers’ Classic Series throwback nights, given the franchise has such a rich history during its Brother Elephants day, it was nothing unique about it. They did a half-arsed job with the uniform, did not even bother to secure the rights to use the original hat. Lack of pre-game and mid-game entertainment.

In my opinion, the Brothers’ dodged a big bullet that theme nights. If it were not the same weekend as Chen Chiang-Ho’s retirement, the attendance could be a lot worst.

Spotting Early Red Flags

While it is not a big issue right now, the dip in 2019 Saturday nights attendance could developed into a major problem if teams continue to ignore the red flags.

We are living in an age of over-saturation of entertainment. Consumers are smart these days, if there are no innovations in baseball theme nights, why should fans pay extra to go to the game when there are hundreds of entertainment options on Saturday night?

Tianmu stadium 2019
Tianmu Stadium in Taipei City. Photo Credit: (CameraBay Sports)

2 COMMENTS

    • If it is up to me, convert the entire leftfield bleacher into the firework zone. Since the outfield is always empty. Might as well put them into good use.

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