Houston Astros: 6 Creative Ways to Improve Attendance, Aside from Winning

The Houston Astros are having serious issues with attendance. There are a variety of creative ways the team could improve attendance if it took the time to consider them.

The Astros attempted before the season to introduce a few ways to increase attendance such as lowering beer prices and allowing fans to bring food into the ballpark. That’s fine, except doing things the rest of the MLB has been doing for years isn’t creative and it won’t increase attendance.

Had the Astros’ brass been more creative in its attempts to draw fans to the stadium, the organization may not be the joke of the league in terms of attendance. Opening Weekend at Minute Maid Park in April saw one game draw a pathetic 14,195 fans, which was the lowest in the park’s history.

That trend of pathetic attendance numbers hasn’t deterred as the season continues to drag on. Winning is, of course, a fantastic way to improve attendance. But it doesn’t appear as if that is going to be a viable option for the club.

With winning out of the picture, creativity is the way to go. Here are six creative ways the Astros could improve attendance.

Reduce Concession Prices

This is a no-brainer for the Astros. It’s nice if tickets can be found cheap by fans, but it’s null and void if they have to spend $30 for a hamburger and a drink. That’s just for one fan looking to buy food.

Baseball games can be long and tedious for fans, especially during a hot summer game. Hydration is key, but if bottles of water are too expensive why would fans come to the ballpark when they can sit in their air-conditioned home and have free beverages?

Making games more affordable for fans is easy; the Astros' organization just needs to want to do so.

Extend Dynamic Ticket Pricing

This season, the Astros introduced “Dynamic Pricing,” which allows certain seats to fluctuate in price based on demand.

That’s all well and good except it only applies to certain seats. Opening up this form of pricing to every seat in the ballpark would go a long way toward improving attendance.

The demand for tickets isn’t exactly high right now, so extending the program would make games more affordable and attractive to fans.

Better Utilize Massive HD Screen

The Astros are touting a new HD screen that is simply beautiful for replays and commercials. The problem is the ballpark doesn’t use the screen properly.

Instead of showing a ridiculous amount of advertising and music throughout the game, the screen would be better used by showing even more replays in the crisp HD format. Cutting out the filler like fan quizzes and showing more statistics would help as well.

Increasing fan involvement is one thing, but too much filler on the screen will simply irritate fans. They didn’t come to the ballpark to see commercials they would see at home on television, so don’t subject them to it. Simple.

Announce a Name Change

The Astros are moving to the American League next season and revealing new jerseys to accompany the change.

A name change at this juncture could increase attendance. Announcing it now instead of later would be a smart move because it could entice fans to see final season when the club is known as the Astros.

There are a variety of ways to draw interest to a ballclub, but a name change is among the best. It makes perfect sense to go along with changing leagues and jerseys.

Extend Reduced Beer Prices

As part of the offseason plan to lure more fans to the ballpark, the Astros announced that beer will be reduced to $5 at all permanent concession stands. For a 14-ounce cup of beer, $5 isn’t a horrible deal by any means.

The key here is the word permanent. That means that the vendors walking around the stadium aren’t subject to this reduction. That’s a huge inconvenience for the fans that actually show up.

No fan wants to wait in a long concession stand line for a beer when there are vendors walking around. The name of the game is convenience. Make the experience more convenient and cheap by applying the reduction to the vendors serving the fans, and attendance will skyrocket as a result.

Cheerleaders

If there is one sure thing in life, it’s that sex sells. There’s no way around it. Why not have a cheerleading squad in the same mold as the Miami Marlins?

Cheerleaders are a rarity in baseball, so adding them could potentially up attendance. The Astros are about out of options. Having cheerleaders couldn’t hurt, right?

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