This season's attendance drop comes after the Tigers four times in the past 12 years have drawn 3 millionGETTY IMAGES
The Tigers are on pace to "fall short of 2 million" in attendance for the first time since '04, when they drew 1.917 million fans, according to Lynn Henning of the DETROIT NEWS. Attendance at Comerica Park so far this season is at 1,411,464 with only 19 home games remaining for the 50-72 Tigers. This comes after the team "four times in the past 12 years has drawn 3 million." It is "not as sobering when past Tigers history is recalled and it's remembered that only seven times in Tiger Stadium history did the Tigers so much as reach 2 million -- at a ballpark that had 10,000 additional seats." But business life for the Tigers "changed when Comerica Park opened" in '00 and now the Tigers are "wrestling with a rebuild." It could be "just as tough, if not tougher," in '19, which "shapes up as another year when the Tigers will be under reconstruction." In fact, this "could be the pattern for the next few seasons, although attendance can rise in a hurry if there's a sudden phenom." The Tigers are "21st among 30 teams" in '18 home attendance, and the team will "need to put up with some slow-moving turnstiles the next couple of years." By '20, the roster "will be more intriguing and it's a reasonable guess that tickets will begin to take an upturn toward sales more in line with the past decade's numbers" (DETROIT NEWS, 8/17).
