BaseballReference.com reports that attendance has declined 7,072 per Reds home game at Great American Ball Park since last season. Ticket prices vary, but if every one of those MIA spectators paid $20 to get in, that’s an average gate revenue loss of $141,440 per game ($20 x 7,072).
The potential revenue loss is $2,263,040 over 16 home games played, not including Thursday night ($141,440 x 16).
That gate loss multiplied by 81 home games is a whopping $11,456,640. That’s a whole lot of missing revenue. And it could easily be doubled each game by a low estimate of additional concessions and souvenirs.
Purging high-cost players eases payroll strain. But there are other consequences of doing so that add up, too.
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