Effect of starting game time on attendance

cheo25 · 05-12-2021, 07:36 PM

Is the attendance for an OOTP game affected by the time of day the game starts. In other words, would a Wednesday night game have bigger attendance than a Wednesday day game?

RchW · 05-12-2021, 08:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheo25

Is the attendance for an OOTP game affected by the time of day the game starts. In other words, would a Wednesday night game have bigger attendance than a Wednesday day game?

Good question. On the bar graph of attendance in the team home page weekend games typically have higher attendance than weekday games.

cheo25 · 05-12-2021, 08:26 PM

That makes sense. But I'm actually wondering about a midweek day game vs. a midweek night game, and whether there is any difference in attendance for those two. So I'm really looking for a day vs. night comparison, as opposed to a weekday vs. weekend comparison.

joefromchicago · 05-13-2021, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheo25

Is the attendance for an OOTP game affected by the time of day the game starts.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't (that's usually a cue for one of the developers to come along and say that I'm totally wrong). OOTP, after all, really doesn't take game times into consideration. About the only way that game times come into play is when you're playing out a game and have the ticker going in the background.

thegoldengod · 05-13-2021, 02:11 PM

There's absolutely no impact on attendance in terms of what time the game is played. The online league I run has all our games start at something like 12:15am because of live sim things, and there's been no impact at all.

cheo25 · 05-13-2021, 02:12 PM

So start times are just cosmetic. Makes sense. Thanks for the information, everyone.

Matt Arnold · 05-13-2021, 02:38 PM

Weekends have more than weekdays, but yeah, I remember looking back at actual stats, and it actually came out relatively even between day and night. As much as you think that more people go to evening games, afternoon games often end up on holidays, or have school groups show up. Or everything gets murkier, where in Texas people don't want to show up to afternoon games outside, but in Toronto you definitely want to enjoy the sun and have lower attendance for cold evenings.

In the end, it all essentially evened out, so it wasn't worth factoring in.

Pelican · 05-13-2021, 02:42 PM

True. I for one look for the weekday afternoon games each year when the schedule comes out. And those games are prefect for the office bus trip. Anything to bag a day of work. (The only issue is that teams that share parking capacity with major employer lots - thinking of you, Orioles - will have less capacity on weekday afternoons when the commuter lots are full.). But I would expect weekday afternoon games to draw as well as night games, in most places.

cheo25 · 05-13-2021, 07:16 PM

Thanks for the reply, Matt. I'm thinking of changing some Braves games to twilight start times of 5:40 p.m. like they did in the 1980s. I just wanted to see if that would have an effect on attendance and financials before I decided whether I would do it.

05-12-2021, 07:36 PM	#1
cheo25 All Star Starter Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Louisiana Posts: 1,328	Effect of starting game time on attendance Is the attendance for an OOTP game affected by the time of day the game starts. In other words, would a Wednesday night game have bigger attendance than a Wednesday day game?

05-12-2021, 08:26 PM	#3
cheo25 All Star Starter Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Louisiana Posts: 1,328	That makes sense. But I'm actually wondering about a midweek day game vs. a midweek night game, and whether there is any difference in attendance for those two. So I'm really looking for a day vs. night comparison, as opposed to a weekday vs. weekend comparison.

05-13-2021, 02:11 PM	#5
thegoldengod Minors (Double A) Join Date: Sep 2018 Posts: 110	There's absolutely no impact on attendance in terms of what time the game is played. The online league I run has all our games start at something like 12:15am because of live sim things, and there's been no impact at all.

05-13-2021, 02:12 PM	#6
cheo25 All Star Starter Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Louisiana Posts: 1,328	So start times are just cosmetic. Makes sense. Thanks for the information, everyone.

05-13-2021, 02:38 PM	#7
Matt Arnold OOTP Developer Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Here and there Posts: 16,216	Weekends have more than weekdays, but yeah, I remember looking back at actual stats, and it actually came out relatively even between day and night. As much as you think that more people go to evening games, afternoon games often end up on holidays, or have school groups show up. Or everything gets murkier, where in Texas people don't want to show up to afternoon games outside, but in Toronto you definitely want to enjoy the sun and have lower attendance for cold evenings. In the end, it all essentially evened out, so it wasn't worth factoring in.

05-13-2021, 02:42 PM	#8
Pelican Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2021 Location: Wilmington, Delaware Posts: 3,175	True. I for one look for the weekday afternoon games each year when the schedule comes out. And those games are prefect for the office bus trip. Anything to bag a day of work. (The only issue is that teams that share parking capacity with major employer lots - thinking of you, Orioles - will have less capacity on weekday afternoons when the commuter lots are full.). But I would expect weekday afternoon games to draw as well as night games, in most places.

05-13-2021, 07:16 PM	#9
cheo25 All Star Starter Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Louisiana Posts: 1,328	Thanks for the reply, Matt. I'm thinking of changing some Braves games to twilight start times of 5:40 p.m. like they did in the 1980s. I just wanted to see if that would have an effect on attendance and financials before I decided whether I would do it.