Baseball attendence up last weekend

[RecycleMichael]

I went to the Driller games this past weekend and they were packed. Friday night was a sellout with 8,213 people at the park, Saturday had 6,714 fans and Sunday had 5,106 fans at OneOk Field.

Baseball is having a good year. If they hadn't had such bad weather in April and May, I would bet that almost every club would be setting attendence records.

I saw this story at MLB.com

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110620&content_id=20771206&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb&partnerId=rss_mlb

MLB enjoys best weekend attendance since '08

More than 1.6 million visit ballparks; Sunday best day of year

By Mark Newman / MLB.com | 06/20/11 Major League Baseball drew 1,646,000 fans for this weekend's 45 games -- the largest attendance weekend for 45 games since the final weekend of the 2008 season, when 1,683,763 fans attended games from September 26-28. Led by a record crowd for a three-game Interleague Play series at Wrigley Field and uncommonly tight division races across the board, it went into the books as the most-attended weekend since July 21-24, 2009, when 1,684,095 fans attended 46 games.

"Fans coming out in these remarkable numbers demonstrate the popularity of Interleague Play, especially given that many of our intra-city rivalries did not occur this weekend," Commissioner Bud Selig said. "I remain optimistic that our attendance numbers will continue to climb with summer beginning tomorrow and five of the six divisions separated by 1.5 games or less."  Sunday was big for fathers and for everyone who went to the ballpark. Those games drew 572,446 for 15 games, the largest attendance day since 577,583 fans attended games on Aug. 14, 2010. There were only two other dates in 2010 that drew more than Sunday: July 17 (582,906 for 16 games) and July 3 (573,215).

MLB.com sold nearly 400,000 tickets, the largest one-week total online since Opening Week.

The Cubs welcomed 126,283 fans to Wrigley Field during their three-game set against the Yankees. That broke the Friendly Confines' three-game series record of 124,810 vs. Milwaukee on June 29-July 1, 2007. Also, Saturday's 42,236 was the largest Wrigley attendance since the 1978 home opener. The Indians drew 30,023 fans to Progressive Field on Sunday and totaled 100,437 for their three-game series against the Pirates. It marked the first time Cleveland has drawn more than 100,000 for a three-game series since Sept. 19-21, 2008, vs. Detroit.

The Red Sox sold out all three games last weekend against the Brewers and drew 38,175 fans on Saturday, their largest paid attendance of the season. They have now sold out 666 straight games at Fenway Park. The Rockies sold out both Saturday and Sunday against the Tigers, marking the second and third sellouts of 2011, following Opening Day.

The Mariners drew 115,636 fans, including a sellout of 45,462 fans for Sunday's Father's Day series finale. It was the largest three-game series since May 15-17, 2009, against Boston (118,380). In Oakland, the A's sold out each of their three games against the Giants, marking the first time they have sold out each game of a three-game series since May 18-20, 2007, against their Bay Area neighbors.

[Renaissance]

Going to be interesting to see how OneOk Field does this year and next year.  There's no way it's going to hit last year's numbers--looks to be off by about 10%.  But it would be a good measure of interest if 2012 exceeds 2011. 

MLB is rocking right now.