A Million Can't Be Wrong

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY • The Louisville Redbirds became the first minor league baseball team in history to draw more than a million fans on this date in 1983. Louisville, the St. Louis Cardinals' triple-A team, reached 1,006,103 with a crowd of more than 31,000. Not long before that, a million in attendance was considered good for a major league team. Louisivlle outdrew three major league teams in '83 - the Cleveland Indians (768,941), Seattle Mariners (813,537) and Minnesota Twins (858,939).

It's been during more recent years however, that minor league baseball has experienced a renaissance. According milb.com, the official website of minor league baseball, minor league baseball draws more fans than the NBA or the NFL.

Total attendance has gone up 20 out of the last 24 seasons. A record was set for total attendance in 2004 with 39,887,755 fans, breaking the old record of 39,640,443 set in 1949. The record has been broken several times since '04, reaching 43.2 million in 2008.

Total attendance has continued to increase despite there being fewer minor leagues and teams than years ago. When the 1949 record was set there were 448 teams in 59 leagues. In 2004 there were 176 teams in 15 leagues .

[Minor league baseball does not include the attendance figures of numerous independent leagues around the country that are not associated with major league teams.]

Sources:
Minor League Baseball history
Major League Baseball attendance
More Major League attendance
The Hardball Times

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