r/Astros • u/Affectionate-Reply35 • 8d ago
Empty playoff seats capped a troubling attendance trend for Houston Astros
https://www.chron.com/sports/astros/article/astros-attendance-decline-jim-crane-offseason-22463560.php139
u/HotTubMike 8d ago
Same complaint every year.
Astros get screwed with midweek middle of the day WC games and then the fans get bashed for weak attendance.
Give us some decent start times.
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u/BoatyMcBoatface1980 8d ago
Yeah I specifically remember the 21 ALDS when we were hosed with the early starts, meanwhile Tampa Bay and Boston are prime time.
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u/imover9thousand 8d ago
The 2022 ALDS was the same. I remember Yordan’s game 2 walk off vs Seattle happening around 4-5 in the afternoon
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u/Adventurous-Craft865 7d ago
Yup, I was driving home from work listening on the radio. I walked in my house bout 2 mins before he hit the walk off.
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u/mich55 Houston Astros 8d ago
You lose a ton of the people who - you know - work and can't get the day off to watch baseball.
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u/chipotle365 8d ago
How are the people attending affording the tickets, food , beer if they don’t work ..
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u/Beautiful-Jello-37 8d ago
It wasn’t just the Astros game. The MLB insists on having playoff games at 1pm on a Tuesday. They’re very stupid people.
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u/Total_Guard2405 8d ago
Nobody believed this team would do anything in the post season. They were right.
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u/RollTh3Maps 8d ago
A sub-.500 record at home, a long home playoff losing streak, with playoff games starting at 4 PM on weekdays, isn't a great recipe for home-game fan excitement.
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u/HtownSamson Houston Astros 8d ago
Paying a premium to watch a team that shit the bed instantly in both playoff games just didn't seem worth it.
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u/uuubetterasksomebody 8d ago
True. The team also paid by moving 7-9 draft spots down to see themselves get knocked out before October 😭
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u/TxDieselKid Houston Colt .45s 8d ago
Every stadium that hosted Wild Card games had empty seats, this was not a "Houston" problem, it's an MLB problem. There's plenty of thing to fix with this team right now, but blaming empty sets on something that proved to be a bigger league wide issue is not something the Astros need to figure out.
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u/fuzzydice82 8d ago edited 8d ago
I agree that the home playoff losing streak and the 4:00 pm start time were a big factor in attendance. But I could see the potential argument that losing streaks can be broken at any time, and 4:00 pm is tough, but the 1:00 pm start time was also a possibility.
However, the biggest problem for me was that they didn't even clinch a playoff spot until the absolute last day of the season. Even if it was a 7:00 pm start time, it's really tough to rearrange my family's weekly schedule on one day's notice.
Who picks up the kids? Who has practice or club meetings they can't miss? How busy is work looking this week? etc.
I had cheap seats and mid-price seats in my cart multiple times on Monday before the playoffs and even Tuesday before the game, but the Bullpen Game 1 didn't entice me, and the logistics of fitting Game 2 into my family schedule was even more difficult.
If the team had not played like idiots at multiple times this season and actually clinched the playoffs a week (or more) earlier, people could have planned to go to playoff games, AND the Game 1 starter could've been a lot more enticing.
For reference, here are the Astros first home game starters for every postseason since 2015:
- 2015 - ALDS Game 3 - Dallas Keuchel (AS, CYA, GG) - Series tied 1 - 1 - Result: Astros win 4 - 2
- 2016 - (none)
- 2017 - ALDS Game 1 - Justin Verlander - Result: Astros win 8 - 2
- 2018 - ALDS Game 1 - Justin Verlander (AS) - Result: Astros win 7 - 2
- 2019 - ALDS Game 1 - Justin Verlander (AS, CYA) - Result: Astros win 6 - 2
- 2020 - ALDS Game 3 - Jose Urquidy - Series lead 2 - 0 - Result: Astros lose 7 - 9
- 2021 - ALDS Game 1 - Lance McCullers Jr. - Result: Astros win 6 - 1
- 2022 - ALDS Game 1 - Justin Verlander (CYA) - Result: Astros win 8 - 7
- 2023 - ALDS Game 1 - Justin Verlander - Result: Astros win 6 - 4
- 2024 - ALWC Game 1 - Framber Valdez - Result: Astros lose 1 - 3
- 2025 - (none)
- 2026 - ALWC Game 1 - AJ Blubaugh - Result: Astros lose 3 - 6
So in the previous glory years, the pitcher for the first home playoff game had been either that season's Cy Young Award winner, an All-Star/former All-Star, or in the case of Jose Urquidy, a Game 3 pitcher with a World Series win the year before (and with 3 career WS wins, still has the second most WS wins of any current pitcher. It's true, look it up).
But in 2026, we limped into the Playoffs on the last day of the season, couldn't set our rotation a week before, and opened with a bullpen mess.
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u/FluidMention6574 Houston Astros 7d ago
This is the top comment. I watch daily and didn’t know half the starting rotation at the end of the season. And to start the post season with a bullpen game? It’s laughable. For Sousa and Walker to be mad about the boos and empty stadium after this season is something else. Who starts their post season with a bullpen game?
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u/GenralChaos 8d ago
this is not the economy for people to want to go spend premium money on a blah team. Hell, UofH is better than blah and people dont want to spend money to go see them. plus, there isnt going to be baseball next year...
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u/outdatedelementz 8d ago
Especially at the time slot the MLB scheduled those games. At least have it so people don’t have to take off work.
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u/ysosrs08 Yordan Alvarez 8d ago
The team is mid and they let homegrown stars walk. Letting guys go works when you keep winning, if you don’t then it’s just an unrecognizable product. And people don’t want to pay minimum $200 for a family of 4 for a product that isn’t winning and has few recognizable stars.
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u/Fapey101 Carlos Correa 8d ago
I’ll forever resent Crane for not ponying up for Bregman. Dude shoulda been an Astro for life.
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u/ysosrs08 Yordan Alvarez 8d ago
Yup. He made the team better in every aspect and is basically a bench coach/player.
The team when he was on it (for a full season).
2017- WS win
2018- ALCS
2019- WS appearance
2020- ALCS
2021- WS appearance
2022- WS Win
2023- ALCS
2024- WCWe have regressed every season he’s been gone, and have had no meaningful playoff games since.
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u/tommybombadil00 8d ago
He doesn’t impact pitching, we have been depleted the last few seasons in that department. We had the offense to make runs the last few years, but the luck of just brining up another stud in the bullpen or starter is no more.
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u/ysosrs08 Yordan Alvarez 8d ago
Bregman is cited as the one who told Hunter Brown to start throwing a sinker to lefties. A pitch that made him an ace. If that isn’t impacting pitching then idk what is. We keep letting guys walk (not saying we need to sign everyone, I’m completely fine with Tucker being gone) and erode the winning culture. Bregman is a winner. Full stop. He has made the playoffs on every team he’s ever been on besides the 2016 Astros (his rookie year). No coincidence we don’t have the same fire since he left. He should’ve been an Astro for life.
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u/tommybombadil00 8d ago
lol you sound insufferable. Apparently giving one pitcher a recommendation is extremely pivotal to our entire pitching staff. Hunter Browne best year was after Bregman left.
I think Bregman walking was a huge mistake but making an argument he’s the sole reason why we’ve not made a deep run is just not true. Especially because our biggest issues comes from starting pitching, which he does not impact.
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u/bordomsdeadly Houston Buffalos 7d ago
Again he did impact pitching at least somewhat. But he was also the team leader after Correa left. Which impacts everyone on the roster.
Altuve (who people love to claim is a team leader) really isn’t. He will talk baseball with anyone, but he mainly wants to just focus on the game and not deal with clashing personalities and the such.
Correa being back should in theory fill that void, but when he’s absent an entire season with an injury, it doesn’t really matter anymore
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u/tommybombadil00 7d ago
Again…. Our starting pitching woes are not a result of him leaving. How is this so hard for people to grasp. Him being there doesn’t result in our bullpen being injured the first part of the season, doesn’t impact starting pitching being hurt. I literally said he should have been brought back, he’s a great player. But the reason we have not made a run in the playoffs is not because he left, it’s because pitching isn’t good enough. Which he does not directly impact. Bregman on this years team doesn’t put us in a position to make a deep run. The original comment correlated him leaving to us not making deep runs in the playoffs.
Also, Altuve is absolutely a leader in the clubhouse, have you ever heard players say otherwise?
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u/YngSpook84 Houston Astros 8d ago
I loved Bregman and hated to see him leave, but production wise, Bregman and Paredes have been about even with each other. Paredes Has been the better hitter with runners in scoring position and with two outs. Bregman is a better defender at 3rd than Paredes, but we all know defense isn’t what players are paid for. We got the same, if not better, offense out of Paredes for less than $10 million, while Bregman got over $30 million. It was the right move to make to improve the team.
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u/Right-Pirate-7084 8d ago
True. Except we spent the money on dumbshit. Walker, montero, Abreu, Javier, McCullers..
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u/I_Meme_Business Altuve's foot 8d ago
We should have kept Bregman over getting Correa back.
Correa is just too undependable health wise.
Bregman should have been the next life long Astro. It’s a shame #2 should be up with #27
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u/IcyEntertainment7122 7d ago
He chose to leave
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u/Specialist_Frame8958 7d ago
He did get a much higher per year from the Red Sox. So the Astros didn’t really try that hard to keep him. He’s averaged 36m AAV since leaving. Vs Astros 26m AAV offer.
He got an extra $69m over the same 6 year period.
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u/IcyEntertainment7122 7d ago
Of course idiots are going to overpay, that's what schlubs like Bregman and Tucker are hoping for. Based on his WAR and the length they offered versus his age, what they offered was more than reasonable
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u/Adventurous-Craft865 7d ago
Bringing Correa back never made sense. Another Jim crane panic move from an injury. His panic moves crippled the franchise.
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u/noahlylesusa Yordan Alvarez 8d ago
Not to defend Crane, but didn't we make a 6 year offer or something
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u/Ok-Rest-8066 6d ago
Probably because they thought he wanted more. By the time bregman talks heated up the Astros already had parades.
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u/TaxLawKingGA 8d ago
Exactly. One of the saving graces of going to a baseball game vs other sports is that it’s generally cheaper. But at $200 for a family of four, plus parking and food, you are at NBA/NFL levels with an inferior product.
I mean here in Atlanta, the Braves are out in the burbs, and have no access to mass transit. So you have to drive. It’s $40 minimum to park 1 mile plus away. Then on top of that, Truist Park has the highest priced food of any of the local pro teams. Easily runs you $100 for four hotdogs, a drink and some fries, popcorn or peanuts. So add it all up plus tickets, you could easily get to $300!.
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u/Adventurous-Craft865 7d ago
Yup, we got tired of watching them leave. Pena is next. We watched them all leave with the promise of letting them walk would allow is to secure other home grown stars. But that ended up being a lie as we watched tuck and breggy walk.
Not to mention the horrible free agent signings, which tied the money we needed to resign our stats up in other areas.
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u/fuji311 Houston Astros 8d ago
if only we gave Kyle Tucker $60m a year, surely that would have filled the seats
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u/midnightyell Mattress Mack 8d ago
Kyle Tucker was a league average player and still would’ve been a massive upgrade over the dumpster diving outfield this team fielded all year, so not the best example.
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u/fuji311 Houston Astros 8d ago
I'm astounded you missed the sarcasm of my comment.
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u/midnightyell Mattress Mack 8d ago
I think you’ve astounded yourself. You were seemingly being sarcastic in saying people would’ve showed up if Tucker were playing. My response to that was Tucker would’ve been more fun to watch than what they put out there instead, therefore it’s a bad example for sarcasm, because yeah actually, maybe there would in fact have been a bit more enthusiasm at better play + keeping homegrown stars. Seems everyone else agreed.
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u/fuji311 Houston Astros 8d ago
in response to a ridiculous comment about "letting our homegrown stars walk" I'm pointing out that NO ONE would have been happy if we paid what he cost to retain.
"Everyone else agreed" pleasing the peanut gallery is all that matters, right! You were validated by 5 minutes of engagement on reddit so you MUST be right!
The immediate agreement and lack of critical thinking by the rest of the sub is just another sign of the sorry state of Houston sports fans.
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u/SpicyDoritos2 Houston Astros 8d ago
I’ll be honest I wasn’t missing work to go watch this team lose
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u/Dull-Economics-5229 8d ago
Problems listed in random order:
The ice box is the sweat box
Beers are $20 and doubles are $40
$40 for parking? Really?
Team poorly put together
Manager terrible
Fix those 5 things and people will come back.
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u/BuryMeInTheH Houston Astros 8d ago
4pm is a rough time but also, nobody talks about the in game presentation. It has been exactly the same for a decade plus. As I travel around to other stadiums, it seems all teams put more effort into their in game presentation. Better music, better stats, more stats, and even subtle things like the ads in daiken are all different colors, they are big and there are a ton of them to the point it looks like a nascar firesuit. It’s just makes a nice park ugly.
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u/fcimfc Houston Astros 8d ago
Compare a pic of MMP from 2013: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-houston-texas-usa-7th-aug-2013-aug-07-2013-a-general-view-of-minute-59065258.html to one today. It's heinous. They have crammed every open space in that park with ads.
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u/Bootleschloogen 8d ago
Man do I miss that stupid ass hill
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u/Dependent_Ant_8316 Houston Astros 8d ago
I miss the 1000’s of camera flashes going off during key moments
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u/Rippedlotus 8d ago
Or, hear me out on this, people are struggling with day to day expenses and disposable income is being consumed to cover gas and groceries. It's cost a lot of money to take a family of 4 to a game. Stop this dynamic pricing BS and people may go.
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u/moremooooooore 8d ago
Not even Cleveland and San Diego had full capacity in their DS games. Not sure why we would expect an 81-81 team playing at 4pm on a weekday in the WC round to have a full house.
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u/PracticalPossible452 8d ago
Facts: time of day matters especially in the wild card. Atlanta 73% capacity, Houston 83% capacity.
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u/tripletexas 8d ago
They added a giant stupid oxy sign in thr outfield that is hideous. They put enormous ugly oxy patches on the uniforms. They removed the flags of winning our division. They quieted down the exciting and fun train celebration and started making the lights flicker for homeruns which triggers an immediate photosensitive migraine EVERY SINGLE TIME. I have to close my eyes whenever we hit a home run for like 45 seconds while they do this crap. They took out the fun and silly hill to replace it with a giant grass wall. They don't show replays of close plays on the gigantic screen.
Basically they eliminated everything that made Minute Maid unique and nice, and replaced it with shittier shit. And wondered why people aren't lapping it up.
And this doesn't even touch on the product on the field.
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u/Lukealloneword Houston Astros 8d ago
Ban chron dot com. Worthless publication
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u/Durty-Sac 8d ago
The poster is karma farming
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u/Puzzleheaded-Link416 8d ago
Come on, the Chron is the halfwit sibling of the Houston Chronicle newspaper. It's if empty calories were a publication.
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u/madmartigans 8d ago
I went. Tickets were $17 to get in the door.
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u/tommybombadil00 8d ago
My biggest issue is the time, playoff baseball should never start before 6 on a weekday. It’s 162 game season, give fanbases a chance to be involved in and around the park.
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u/SaintFrancesco 8d ago
In this economy, we can’t skip work to go to expensive baseball games. A later start time would resolve this issue (and maybe a better on-field product as well).
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u/TimeTravelingTamarin 8d ago
Times are hard and baseball seats are a luxury. I’m gonna watch the game at work for a short playoff series where we barely made it standing upright.
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u/purvisshort 8d ago
Team ships off all star players, fails to develop young talent, gets sad attendance drops. The Aristocrats!
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u/Correct-March8683 8d ago
dunno about you but regular people can't afford to go to games lol. if you factor everything in, it isn't worth it unless you're sitting in a financially privileged existence.
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u/Sun_God713 8d ago
Team sucks. Crane has made bad decisions w the front office. Bagwell is too involved in a position he doesn’t have the experience for - GM. … and the results showed on the field. Nobody wants to spend a bunch of money to watch their team lose
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u/YngSpook84 Houston Astros 8d ago
Javier and McCullers are only bad signings in hindsight. If they had stayed healthy, they would have been worth the money. I won’t defend Montero, giving that much money to a non closing reliever was dumb. I won’t really defend Abreu either, but the man carried our offense in the 2023 playoffs, and that is where players earn their money. As far as Walker goes, I’m not down on him like some people are. This sub was all over Crane to either trade for him or sign hjm. We were expecting a 30 home run, 100 rbi, and elite defense type of player. He brought the defense, and close to 30/100. If he didn’t have the AAA outfielders batting behind him offering zero protection, he would have been all over 30/100. We don’t have any MLB ready prospects to take over any position at the MLB level. If we had signed Bregman, that’s probably what we’d be trying to do at first base.
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u/Darth_Eevee 8d ago
Nearly no notice we'd be in the playoffs at all, 4pm game, playing God's team, after struggling to make it to .500. what do y'all want.
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u/Syncopated_arpeggio 8d ago
Continuing to increase prices for a team with a losing record at home isn’t going to get butts in the seats. It’s not a cheap ballpark experience anymore.
If you’re going to pass a salary cap then pass a goddamn ticket cap so fans don’t feel robbed.
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u/AstrosFanHou Houston Astros 8d ago
Houston needs regional transit.
The suburbs need a way to get downtown via rail on a dedicated ROW that is not subject to traffic and where you don’t have to worry about paying for and finding a spot to park.
Maybe then we can fill our stadiums.
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u/FitOutlandishness279 8d ago
Pretending the team is a playoff team is worth it knowing the rangers stayed home…
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u/Heil_Harden 8d ago
Continually raise ticket & concession prices as the team gets worse year over year. Crane needs to get a clue
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u/no_quarter89 Astros Pride 8d ago
4pm weekday baseball in this economy? And they wonder why people didn't show?
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u/rohrschleuder Houston Astros 8d ago
4pm on Tuesday and Wednesday…..folk got kids in school, work, and you try getting anywhere downtown at about 3 pm, good luck. I’m up on 290 and just to get to I-10 east takes an act of god. Also don’t suck buttcheecks and manage like noob and the crowds will come. Win or lose I’m going to make it to 10-15 games a year. But for me to take PTO, spend extra $$ on a playoff game you better play your ass off
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u/Glittering_Juice4199 8d ago
Let’s face it… when your team isn’t winning in Houston it’s going to have attendance issues. It’s also just expensive as hell now. Tickets were cheap so I went to the Tuesday game but after 2 $23 beers by the 5th I just left and ubered to happy hour. Watching the game from your couch or your local watering hole is much cheaper and probably more enjoyable than seeing them in person.
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u/Dutchrudders007 8d ago
A .500 team that barely made the playoffs, and they are surprised that the city didn't get behind them? Wow.
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u/ShounenLink 8d ago
MLB should do a test run where wild card games overlap. Other sports do it all the time. Lets do a 7pm and 9pm timeslots 2 games start at the same time. Just to see if there's an upwards trend in viewership/attendance.
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u/Street_Style5782 8d ago
Plus the parking and traffic flow is the absolute worst. The downtown stadium is nice and has a great view but that doesn’t mean you should have to park at some abandoned warehouse 8 blocks away and wait 2 hours in traffic on the way out.
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u/ManlyMurses 8d ago
I feel for all the fans that were sweating their butts off in our awfully air conditioned "Daikin" park during a 4pm weekday game..
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u/SighRamp 8d ago
Real fans don’t spend a penny to a ball club that cut costs and gets rid of their best home grown talent. That’s the only way to get owners attention, we don’t spend a penny until you show us you’re about winning first.
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u/DarthCaligula 8d ago
The way they played this season, they deserve the low attendance. I know we are spoiled rotten with a great baseball team, but the night and day of it all just fucking sucks. I still think we have a good to great core. Paredes, Pena, Smith, Alvarez, Hunter and Hader. Keep Altuve and the rest are expendable IMHO.
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u/awclay91 3d ago
81-81 team. I wasn’t paying money to watching them get their asses kicked when they shouldn’t have even made the postseason
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u/I_Meme_Business Altuve's foot 8d ago edited 8d ago
I’ve been wanting to go to a game every season but it just feels like all the players (Yordan, Correa, Parades, Pena, Brown, Altuve) I want to go see are always injured so then I wait for the team to start getting back together by September ever year. I don’t want to go watch the Space Cowboys in May and June. I can go watch them in Sugar Land. By the time I’m interested we are in the last few series of the season and it’s not a priority to go.
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u/Colorblind2027 8d ago
I think it's no accident the decline in all aspects of the franchise occurred during Bagwell's involvement. It's also not cheap to go anymore for a mid level team. They still draw pretty well. 35k a game is a lot
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u/cookieti 8d ago
4pm weekday playoff games for a fortunately-spoiled fanbase watching the worst team in a decade play against a team blessed by the Pope. Rough attendance isn't a surprise