The History of Oriole Attendance

I read this entry over at MLB Trade Rumors with the following:

"With this city, with this country, with our market, we should be a city that can have $140 or $150MM in the way of salaries," team president Paul Beeston said at the State of the Franchise even in Toronto last night. "We should be able to support that and that's the direction that we're headed to."

It reminded me of what Ruben Amaro Jr., GM of the Phillies, said after signing Cliff Lee.  I cannot find the direct quote, but to paraphrase: That the Phillies would not be able to lock Cliff Lee, Ryan Howard, and Roy Halladay into those contracts without the fan base dedicating themselves by buying season tickets.  Toronto and Philadelphia most likely have similar money to draw from as the Orioles.  Of course, it all comes down to securing the fan base.  Not only do the Orioles (and Jays) need to sell out every game, they need to up their tickets by 50-100%.  Here are the Orioles' attendance over the years:

 What the above graph tells us is that Baltimore is capable of bring in over 40,000 per game.  Tickets then (like now) are cheap as MLB tickets go.  However, it is difficult to tell immediately what these numbers mean.  Oriole fans have always been thought as strong supporters of the team, but those early numbers appear slight.  After the jump, I'll introduce a statistic I call Attendance Plus.

Orioles Promotional Wish List

The Orioles today published their preliminary promotional calendar.  For those who love bobbleheads, you will get a shot at Buck and Matusz.  However, I am not one of those people.  Of the initial list, I am rather indifferent and unimpressed in comparison to what the Pirates have in store for their fans.

So, it is one thing to complain and it is another to offer suggestions, so the following are my top ten suggestions after the jump.  Let me know if you have any to add.

2011: Win Projections v1.0

Each year, I run projections for how well the Orioles will do.  Since I began doing this in 2007, they have underperformed every single year.  The players just do not seem to uphold any of the standards set by the projection systems, so I tend to be pessimistic when I look at these simple season win projections for how well the team will do.

As I always do, I am using ZiPS which can be found at Baseball Think Factory and at some point will show up on FanGraphs.  For the Orioles, I assumed the following roster.
C Matt Wieters
C Craig Tatum
1B Derek Lee
2B Brian Roberts
3B Matt Reynolds
SS JJ Hardy
INF Cesar Izturis
INF Brandon Harris
OF Felix Pie
CF Adam Jones
RF Nick Markakis
DH Luke Scott
DH Nolan Reimold
I assume significant missed time for Roberts, Hardy, and Jones (about ~200 PA each) with replacement level production assuming a backup role.

S Jeremy Guthrie
S Brian Matusz
S Jake Arrieta
S Brad Bergesen
S Chris Tillman
S Zach Britton (assumed he will get about 100 IP this year)
C Koji Uehara
R Kevin Gregg
R Mike Gonzalez
R Jeremy Accardo
R Jim Johnson
R Rick Vanden Hurk
R Misc

Predictions and some thoughts as to how this team will get to the playoffs after the jump.