I have been a long-time admirer and supporter of spring training, an event I have attended for at least the last twenty years, first as a fan then later as a journalist.
Still, I can understand that writing about spring training in August may seem odd. Yet there is a method to my madness.
In my recent electronic travels, I came across a brand new study which assesses the economic impact of spring training on the Florida economy. The Bonn Marketing Research Group, Inc. was contracted by the Florida Sports Foundation to do the work. In addition to financial data, the study team interviewed over 2,100 game attendees this spring.
As the summary says,
‘The study documents demographic and behavioral characteristics of those attendees whose expenditures contributed to the overall economic impact. Included in this economic impact analysis were operating expenditures for teams, stadiums, concessionaires and game attendees expenditures.”
While there is considerable detail on each of the elements noted above, I will quote just the highest-level conclusion:
“During 2009, the total value of MLB Florida spring training upon the Florida economy represented $752.3 million in total spending, which generated $284.2 million in total labor income and supported or created 9,205 part-time and full-time jobs.”
That isn’t why I am posting about the subject here, however. There were several supporting data areas buried in the study detail that I found interesting as a St. Louis Cardinals watcher.
Homes of spring training attendees
I am not alone in my travels as the Cardinals rank fourth of 16 Florida teams in the percentage of out-of-state spring training attendees at 61%. The average is 48%.
| Interviews | FL in-county | FL non-county | Out of state | ||||
| Cardinals | 119 | 19 | 16% | 27 | 23% | 73 | 61% |
| Total | 2110 | 510 | 24% | 586 | 28% | 1014 | 48% |
Spring training attendance
Though the Cardinals ranked seventh in total spring attendance with over 101,000 fans in 2009, their per-game attendance of 5,652 is just ninth. That total is below the Florida average of 6,030 per game.
| Attendance | Rank | Dates | Per game | Rank | |
| Cardinals home | 101,740 | 7/16 | 18 | 5,652 | 9/16 |
| Florida total/average | 1,561,873 | 259 | 6,030 |
Listed capacity of Jupiter’s Roger Dean Stadium is just under 7,000, officially 6,871. On the average, the Cards games are at 82% capacity.
Here I will step away from the study for a moment to show the changes in Cardinals spring training attendance over the last decade.
Attendance at Jupiter’s Roger Dean Stadium for Cardinals games is down 20 percent since 2000 even while overall MLB Florida per game spring attendance (including the Cardinals) grew by ten percent.
| Cards spring home | Attendance | Dates | Per gm | YTY | FL attendance | Per gm | YTY |
| 2009 | 101,740 | 18 | 5,652 | -2.2% | 1,561,873 | 6,030 | -7.4% |
| 2008 | 92,465 | 15 | 5,779 | -18.4% | 1,677,858 | 6,478 | 3.6% |
| 2007 | 102,619 | 15 | 6,841 | 3.5% | 1,716,840 | 6,243 | 6.2% |
| 2006 | 92,070 | 15 | 6,603 | 4.5% | 1,604,393 | 5,855 | -6.6% |
| 2005 | 94,543 | 15 | 6,303 | -1.0% | 1,598,454 | 6,244 | 7.2% |
| 2004 | 95,483 | 15 | 6,366 | 5.4% | 1,557,934 | 5,792 | 9.0% |
| 2003 | 84,336 | 14 | 6,024 | -8.2% | 1,397,144 | 5,272 | 4.6% |
| 2002 | 97,733 | 16 | 6,516 | -4.5% | 1,538,444 | 5,028 | -5.8% |
| 2001 | 95,369 | 14 | 6,812 | -4.5% | 1,500,184 | 5,320 | -2.9% |
| 2000 | 99,655 | 14 | 7,118 | 1,598,255 | 5,473 | ||
| 2009 vs 2000 | -1,466 | -20.6% | 557 | 10.2% |
The rest of the study data is not broken out by team, but here are a few of the top-level spring training demographic tidbits for all clubs:
• “College Graduate” was the most frequently reported level of education for attendees at an average of 40.8%.
• 72.6% of attendees have and average household income of over $50,000, with 37.3% of attendees having an average household income of over $80,000.
• Over 87% of attendees for the 2009 MLB Florida spring training season were Caucasian.
• On average 63.6% of attendees intercepted during the 2009 MLB Florida spring training season were male compared with the 36.4% that were female.
• “Married” was the most frequently reported marital status for attendees at 71.3%.
• The average spring training party is 2.9 individuals and they remain an average of 5.8 nights.
• 36.9% of attendees reported that they were first time attendees of MLB Florida spring training.
• The attendees’ average number of games attended in the past three years was 8.9 games.
• 91.9% of MLB Florida spring training attendees plan to attend MLB Florida spring training in the future.
Reinforcing that last point, I am one of the majority and hope to see you there next spring!
You can read the entire 56-page study document here.
So Cards were above 100% capacity in 2000?
At 82% capacity currently, how does that compare to others?
I remember going to a ST game about 15 years ago against the Blue Jays on the road – half the attendees were wearing Cardinal gear. My guess is that some teams like the Yankees and Red Sox have even higher road attendance, this would seem to distort the individual team numbers.
“attendees intercepted” — that’s a marketing research term I’ve never heard used before.
Apparently they were SRO back in the beginning. I haven’t looked at capacity of other teams, but 82% sounds pretty good to me – until I see the group trending up and the Cards trending down.
In terms of other clubs potentially being good road draws in Jupiter, because of the Cardinals’ location, they play most games against the Orioles, Mets and Marlins. The Red Sox, Braves, Tigers and Phillies each came in for one game this spring, but that was about it.
Yeah, I decided to leave “intercepted” in there. Sounds more like football than baseball…
Just curious, what does a beer cost at Roger Dean? And a ticket?
I think top price was $31 field box for premium games and $27 for others and the prices went down from there. I have no idea what the beer prices are – I was working!
It looks to me like the high water mark since the SRO days was 2007 when the Cards were defending a world title. I would guess the failure to advance to the postseason had an effect on Spring 2008. The economy is the obvious culprit for this year, league wide.
Hardly an excuse, but thanks for the info.
Thinking about it further, 2008 across Florida might have seen a bump up solely due to the final year for the Dodgers at Vero. I know I went out of my way to get there.
What year did the Cardinals switch from St. Petersburg to Jupiter ?
I have a hunch they would have better attendance if they had stayed in St. Pete but the player facilities and practice fields not as good as new compound in Jupiter.
bc, 1998. I liked the overall atmosphere in the St. Pete area far better, but as you say, the baseball facilities are superior in Jupiter.
BTW, I should have mentioned above that the Orioles, the team the Cards played most often this spring, have moved away from Ft. Lauderdale, leaving the Mets and Marlins as the only clubs reasonably close.
Ouch! that was boring enough playing the Orioles all the time last ST,
any idea what the plans are for next spring to fill the sched ?
They are either going to have to travel more or play the same teams over and over. The minor leaguers already have been doing that as the O’s majors and minors were previously on different sides of Florida.
Am I seeing things or does Greene use a really large bat. Looks like Ted Simmons with that huge bat. Very old school. Would explain that unexpected pop when he hits it square.
Cards see large increase in Spring training attendance.
http://www.bizofbaseball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4273:mlb-sees-56-percent-increase-in-spring-training-attendance&catid=56:ticket-watch&Itemid=136
$2 million more to add to the dry powder reserve?
Oops, did my math wrong. Probably only about $300K to the dry powder coffers.