I mean, we had one-sport fans until like 2018, lol. In fact we still have a lot of one-sport fans, they’re just in a different sport now.
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Most people I see in my section at TDECU also have season tickets for basketball.
I’m sure there are a lot of the older folks who lived through both Guy Lewis and Bill Yeoman.
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I mean yeah, that’s a good point. And also the Florida teams just kind of dont have baseball fans anyways 
There’s probably something to that.
That’s interesting because by St Louis standards their attendance has been really bad lately, kind of by any standards a lot of time. Im sure the rivalry aspect gave them some extra juice
Knowing how the cards crowds were basically the entire time growing up, i thought they’d always be a top draw attendance wise at home.
True, i get that. Ive even seen some of this with basketball crowds in Oklahoma post-thunder, tho the college bball teams have probably not helped their own cause much during that time.
Ironically, you could say the same thing about Iowa State to a relatively universal degree, especially as opposed to like iowa and nebraska. Really all the comps in our actual region.
But i get this is far from an apples to apples comparison for a number of important reasons, just saying for the sake of illumination.
In a nutshell, this is literally the only reason I ever came here in the first place.
I hate that too. So I try to seek out other basketball-appreciating fan bases. It’s the highest compliment in my book.
So kudos to ya’ll for that 1000%
This should be a crime. We don’t need these type of ppl walking the streets.
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What? The Best Fans in Baseball™️ aren’t packing the stadium now that they suck? I guess St. Louis just isn’t a real baseball town, then.
On a more serious note, part of it is probably that Chicago kinda plays the same role for the Midwest as Atlanta does for the South. There are a buttload of people from across the region, and so every midwestern team that comes out to Wrigley/Comiskey also brings with them a strong contingent of fans who don’t get a ton of chances to see their team.
I’ve always gotten the impression that there was a sort of Bama/Auburn or Ole Miss/Miss State divide there that was defined by cultural norms. Iowa is definitely the more popular team there (or at least, it’s who my family in Ankeny and Waukee rooted for, until one of them actually enrolled at ISU) but I’ve never gotten the impression that, like, a ton of people are choosing in a given weekend between going to the Hawks, Huskers, or Clones games such that they have to offer substantially lower prices to get people to even think about that. Is that wrong?
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This is a long piece. If you don’t care about the Cubs or Wrigley field, scroll down the the bottom third
As a Chicagoan born and raised and a lifetime Cubs fan, I feel qualified to discuss the Cubs and Wrigley Field.
Wrigley Field. It is 112 years old. It has been modernized, but it is 112 years old. There is only so much you can do. Yes, there are posts that can block your view and the overhang from the upper deck can block your view. The concourse under the stands is narrow and gets very congested. They have put video boards in like all the other ball parks do. Aesthetically speaking, there is no ballpark more beautiful when you go in the summer and the ivy is in full bloom.
From a game perspective, it is a mile from Lake Michigan. When the wind is blowing out, pop flies end up in the bleachers. When the wind is blowing in, a howitzer shot isn’t going out. The wind is blowing out in the summer months, but tend to blowing in early season and late in the season. I went to a Cubs series against the Tigers earlier this year. Game one balls were flying out. game two, I was sitting in the upper deck and counted six Tigers flyballs that died n the warning track because the wind was blowing in at 15 mph. It has the shortest power alleys in baseball, but is longest in MLB down the lines.
As far as fan support, Cubs fans have always been loyal. I went to my first game in 1966. They always televised their home games on WGN and the kids could come home from school ad see the last couple of innings of the Cubs game. I also remember games where the upper deck was closed because of the number of tickets being sold, or lack thereof. With the advent of cable, the Cubs garnered a national following and that has continued to this day.
Chicago is not entirely a Cubs town as there is also the White Sox. They have a massive inferiority complex about the Cubs, think of A$M and the whorns. But the city does support both teams.
The Cubs made a decision back in the 1950’s and early 1960’s that if the team was not going to be good, sell the stadium instead. Hence, the friendly confines and beautiful Wrigley Field.
Cubs fans hated the lovable losers moniker. They have won a world series in the last 10 years and have made the playoffs in a more regular basis recently. Historically, they are a team that has won about 53% of their games.
Chicago supports all of its teams. Bears season tickets are left in wills. The Bulls, for as bad as they have been, still are among league leaders in attendance. Even the Blackhawks draw relatively well, considering how bad they’ve been.
Chicago is a pro sports town. For college football, it’s Notre Dame. South Bend to Chicago is like Houston to College Station.
Houston’s closest parallel is probably Miami. Unless the Hurricanes are playing Florida, Florida State or a Notre Dame, you can walk up to the ticket office on game day and get a good ticket. Houston men’s basketball is a hot ticket because they’re winning. If the football team can achieve similar success, they will achieve similar attendance numbers. However, there will always be a sizable contingent of whorn, A$M, LSU and other school fans due to the makeup of Houston where alumni of other schools migrate to for their jobs
One final reason for poor attendance is cost. I live outside Detroit. Lions tickets are almost $400 a game per ticket for something anywhere near the field. Nosebleeds go for only $150-$200. It’s gotten to the point where you almost have to take out a second mortgage to go to a sporting event. Add to that, EVERY game can be found n TV somewhere. For UH, 11:00 AM kickoffs don’t help either.
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Every year (seemingly) Houston has the chance to beat Tech and turn around our attendance woes. And every year we freaking lose to Tech so no one pays any more attention.
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It can’t help the Cardinals that St Louis (the city) is dying. And the metro isn’t that healthy either. The city’s population was estimated to be just 278,000 last year. In 1950 the city had 860,000 residents.
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Nailed it
Meanwhile, I still hate him for it.
Kinda like Cleveland.
Had 914K residents in 1950, and was the 4th largest city.
Had 368K in 2025.
OTOH, Cleveland has over 2 million in its metro area, which includes Akron, Canton, and a slew of suburbs like Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights, Parma, Strongsville, Lakewood, Pepper Pike, Beachwood, Chagrin Falls, etc.
Still a Top 20 TV market.
Pretty sure St. Louis is the #24 TV market, ahead of San Antonio, Pittsburgh, Cincy, Salt Lake, Austin, Indianapolis, and many others.
That said, the NFL will probably never go back there after the lawsuits between the league and the city surrounding the last relocation.
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Astros playoff game, stadium was half empty. Tickets were going for $8 on StubHub. Maybe we need more dorms downtown.
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One of my favorite things about living in NC… Even little old ladies watch college hoops here.
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You bring up an excellent point. It is about…The voice of the customer.
This is when the ticket office, marketing department, Athletic Director, UH press office get their heads together and start being creative.
Clearly this 11am CT start is on espn. They could care less about the BIG12. They have demonstrated it multiple times. When you have a ranked team vs a conference rival, space city rival it opens up for a great production especially with NASA, Space X in Texas and Florida. espn prefers to have Arkansas vs atm on the time slot. It clearly shows espn’s priority. Saturday’s game was a perfect opportunity for espn to showcase what the BIG12 is all about. espn does not give a ratton’s arse about the BIG12. Yormark and Nunez can’t p…s off espn but clearly the BIG12 has a “media issue” that has to be resolved.
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Or maybe Houston is a hard working town where folks cannot just take off from work for a game in the middle of the work day scheduled by networks who don’t give a damn about people having to work.
I agree with this. Time for the Big 12 to explore shopping the conference TV rights to another network(s) that would treat the conference like a prized commodity. The Big 12 will never get a fair shake from ESPN for prime time slots as long it prioritizes the SEC and Big 10. I can’t watch the ESPN College Football Live show anymore because all they talk about is those two conferences for like 90% of the time. So sick of the ESPN monopoly on college football. It’s time for a change.
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Judging from the number of people who will show up for a mid-day victory parade, I would say that the inability to leave work a little early is not the problem.
People aren’t showing up because the Astros have been in the playoffs for most of a decade and because this team doesn’t have a chance to win the whole thing. Having a”bullpen game” for the first game of a short series didn’t help.
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We all have to keep in mind, Yormark knows this that espn tried to kill the BIG12. Their BIG12 game day production, comments about the BIG12 is undeniable. The BIG12 does not even compare to the acc in their mind.
Yes, yes, and yes
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Astros players showed their disgust with attendance by putting their offense on strike yesterday. Let’s hope the Coogs do not follow suit.
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