Average Attendance in Stephen Strasburg Starts

There is no doubt that a great pitcher can draw a crowd. When a top level pitcher is pitching you almost always see an attendance spike. Roy Halladay, Ubaldo Jimenez, Felix Hernandez, CC Sabathia, Tim Lincecum… they always pack the fans in.

Stephen Strasburg is the same. When he pitches fans are coming out in droves to catch a glimpse of this phenom.  They want to say they were there when this outstanding pitcher was a rookie and want stories to tell their grandkids.  Let’s look at some numbers:

Average attendance for the Washington Nationals when Strasburg doesn’t start:  21,734

Average attendance for the Washington Nationals when Strasburg starts: 37,298

That is an increase of 15,564 fans whenever Stephen Strasburg is on the mound. With an average Fan Cost Index (price of a ticket, beer, softdrink, hotdog, parking, programs, and caps) of around $53.75 that means every time Stephen Strasburg pitches he generates an extra $836,565 in gross revenue for the Washington Nationals.

It isn’t just at home where we see this Stephen Strasburg effect.  The Florida Marlins average around 17,000 fans per game. When Stephen Strasburg pitched there: Over 27,000 fans. The Atlanta Braves average around 30,500 fans a game. For a Stephen Strasburg game they drew nearly 42,900. The Cleveland Indians? Average attendance of just 16,636. When Stephen Strasburg pitched his second major league game he drew almost double that at 32,876.

All in all Stephen Strasburg has drawn 116,460 fans above the average draw in the stadiums he has started in. If you figure out that based on the MLB average Fan Cost Index you are looking at around $5,676,842 that Stephen Strasburg has pumped into MLB and the clubs. Not too bad for only 8 starts.