The Strasburg Effect in Cleveland

Cleveland was a HUGE beneficiary of the Stephen Strasburg Effect. Hosting the second game of Strasburg’s rookie season they had almost double their average attendnace. They were seeing around 16,600 per game and in this game they had an attendance of 32,876.

Remember this is the Cleveland team that sold out 455 straight games from June, 1995 through April, 2001. The bump of 16,000 fans was a huge jump for the Indians who have been struggling to draw fans for the past few years. With a Fan Cost Index (ticket, beer, soda, parking, souviners, etc) of around $45 that is around $720,000 in additional revenue generated by Stephen Strasburg.

We will see if Strasburg can keep it up and keep generating this kind of revenue at the visiting ballparks.