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White Sox Attendance Down With Rebuilding Team On 121-Loss Pace

White Sox attendance has dipped with the team not making the playoffs since the '08 seasonGETTY IMAGES

The White Sox are averaging 15,486 fans per game at Guaranteed Rate Field this season, joining the Rays (14,710) and Marlins (10,675) at the "bottom of the attendance standings," according to Rick Morrissey of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. With their loss to the Pirates on Wednesday, the 10-29 White Sox are "on pace for a 41-121 record." The "modern-era record for losses in a season is 120" by the '62 Mets. Morrissey: "Kudos to Sox fans for not paying for the current slop." The "concept of a rebuild is one thing." The reality "is another, so when the brand of baseball the Sox are offering seems to have been bought at a dollar store, patience is a tough sell for fans." The White Sox lost 95 games last season and "will likely lose more than that this season." Morrissey: "Can their fans sit through another season of it?" There "certainly is hope that all the young talent the team has amassed through trades and draft will do what Kris Bryant et al did for the Cubs." But much of that young talent is "still toiling at the minor-league level." While the Cubs' ballpark revenues were "tank-proof" during the team's three-year rebuild from '12-15, the White Sox' "aren't." In the last 25 years, the "only time they drew more than 2.8 million fans" was in '06, the year after they won the World Series. However, do not "feel too bad" for White Sox Chair Jerry Reinsdorf, as Forbes magazine valuates the team at $1.5B. Reinsdorf makes "gobs of money off revenue sharing." But any person who "knows what good baseball is supposed to look like experiences gastrointestinal issues when watching the Sox" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 5/17).

ROOM TO IMPROVE: In Cleveland, Kevin Kleps noted a "frigid spring, combined with a slow start, has resulted in only five Indians games producing home crowds of at least 20,000 this season." Through 21 home games, the Indians' average attendance, despite a "season-ticket base that is the club's best" since '08, is "down 19% year-over-year." The team's "gate norm of 17,533 ranks 25th in MLB, and is a drop of 4,150 from the Indians' 21,683 average for the first 21 home dates" of the '17 season. But the Indians, as was the case last year, "should get an additional boost as the on-field play gets better." Meanwhile, what the Indians can "bank on is their expanded season-ticket base providing a sizable cushion the rest of the way." As of last weekend, the Indians had 13,750 full-season equivalents, which is a "60% jump" from the club's '16 total of 8,700 and 1,450 ahead of '17 (CRAINSCLEVELAND.com, 5/17).

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