Houston Astros: How Attendance Spike Could Improve Performance of the Team

2011 featured a number of disappointments when it came to the Houston Astros.

At 56-106, the team compiled the worst record in franchise history. Fan favorites such as Hunter Pence and Michael Bourn left the team just as Roy Oswalt and Lance Berkman had done the year before via trade.

Ownership was in the process of changing hands as Drayton McLane was finalizing the sale of the team to Jim Crane. With new ownership would soon come a multitude of changes to the front office, which would change up the entire make-up of the entire organization.  But what was the most important change among all of this?

Somewhere in the process of loss after loss, fans stopped attending the games.

I raised the idea on my twitter page (link to my account is at the bottom of this article) that if fans attended the games in larger numbers, could it possibly help the players improve their skills at a faster pace? I'm not saying that cheering louder at a game can somehow cause J.D. Martinez to hit more home runs, or suddenly cause J.A. Happ to rocket 100 MPH fastballs through the zone. But I do believe it would be a huge motivation for a young team to have a larger crowd to play in front of.

On Easter, the Astros set a record low in attendance with only 14,195 paying admission to watch their home game against the Colorado Rockies. This shattered the old attendance low by more than 4,000 people. Many people say that they will begin attending games once again when "The Astros finally get good again," and are perfectly fine with leaving this young team with little support until they can "prove themselves worthy" of watching.

What many fans don't realize is the "investment" into a baseball team doesn't just start and stop with ownership. Take the Marlins for example. They built a brand new stadium and spent well out of their normal range to acquire big name players with hopes of filling up the stadium. To this point, it doesn't appear as if it is working too well. But I do see the idea behind it all.

As I said, it's an investment. The Marlins—in my opinion—did the process in reverse. If a team has a boost in attendance, they will have a boost in revenue. With a revenue boost, they are able to go after higher level free agents because they have the money available to offer them.

Teams like the Red Sox, Yankees and Angels are able to offer huge contracts not only because they have ownership who invest tons of money into the team, but they also have a full stadium every night.

The Astros are Houston's team. They deserve to have fan support every night they take the field. After all, it is a job, but any and all success is related to the city. In front of more fans cheering them on, players become more motivated to work harder. With hard work comes success. And the more success the Astros have, the more wins that they are able to secure.

Fans in the Houston area, when it is Friday night and you are just sitting around the house. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to ride up to Minute Maid Park and root for your Houston Astros.

Follow Brandon Wheeland on Twitter @BrandonWheeland for the perfect mix of sports news, analysis and satire.