SAN DIEGO — With weather like San Diego’s, it’s a great opportunity for outdoor sports teams based here to outperform many opponents at the gate.
And that’s how it’s playing out this year.
The Padres are enjoying another small-market-defying season of attendance in the East Village. And over in Mission Valley, the fan support for two professional soccer clubs exceeds the norms for each team’s league.
Excuse several of Major League Baseball’s big-market clubs if they envy Padres attendance.
The club was averaging 42,251 fans per home game entering Saturday, more than that of the Yankees, Phillies, Mets, Cubs and Giants, among others.
Only the Dodgers, at an average of 50,838 fans per game entering Saturday, are busier at the turnstiles.
Never mind that San Diego is one of the country’s least-affordable cities. Weekdays or weeknights, regardless of the opponent, tens of thousands of locals will pay for the Padres’ gameday experience.
The smallest crowd to attend a Padres home game this season numbered 33,885 on a Wednesday afternoon in May.
A crowd that big in some other MLB venues would have the team’s CEO dancing at the turnstiles. Three MLB teams — the Marlins, Rays and A’s — average less than a third of that 33,888 per game. Worth noting: the Rays and A’s are playing in minor-league stadiums this season.
Considering the smallest Padres crowd more than doubles the average of the big-market Chicago White Sox and stands 4,000 above MLB’s average turnout, San Diego belongs on the short list of candidates for Baseball Town USA.
In Mission Valley, the first-year Major League Soccer entry, San Diego FC, and the fourth-year San Diego Wave of the National Women’s Soccer League, stand fourth of 30 teams and fifth of 14 teams, respectively, in home attendance.
San Diego FC, at an announced average of 28,532, trails only MLS leader Atlanta United, which plays in an NFL dome, and two teams housed in NFL outdoor venues, Charlotte FC and the Seattle Sounders.
When Snapdragon Stadium was built in 2022, who expected an MLS team would outdraw LA Galaxy?
SDFC holds an edge of 7,000 fans per match.
San Diegans, meantime, remain great supporters of women’s soccer. Yes, the honeymoon has faded since the Wave’s first match at Snapdragon Stadium, in September 2022, drew a NWSL-record crowd of 32,000, and since the second Wave club led the league with an announced 23,650 fans per game.
Yet despite a dropoff to 18,233, last year’s Wave finished third in the 14-team league in attendance. And despite a slide to 13,181 this year — perhaps unavoidable, due to Alex Morgan’s retirement, the team’s poor 2024 season and the offseason departure of stars Naomi Girma and Jaedyn Shaw — the Wave stand fifth in crowd size.
Wave crowds are double those of the Houston Dash, triple those of Racing Louisville and quadruple those of the Chicago Stars.
Importantly, the three local teams are doing their part to attract and reward paying customers.
The Padres started out 10-0 at home and have put themselves in position to contend for the postseason. SDFC and the Wave have won more than half of their games while also placing among the leaders in goals scored and assists.
Along with enjoying themselves at the games, San Diego’s sports fans may be helping each team challenge for a title this fall.
For SDFC and the Wave, it’s especially helpful financially that home attendance surpasses the league average. Why? Neither MLS nor the NWSL commands huge media rights fees to share among its clubs.
The Padres get a good chunk of their revenue from MLB in return for broadcasting rights, although that amount is less than the team’s regional TV partner provided before it folded. When Padres leaders set the player payroll, they take into account projected ballpark revenues. The Padres finished third, fifth, second and third in home attendance from 2021 to 2024, so it stands to reason that Padres leaders projected top-five attendance from this year’s club when setting the payroll that ranks ninth of 30 MLB teams.
Certainly, they expected attendance to crack 3 million for the third year in a row.
And as Padres leaders mull adding to the payroll this summer, it’s safe to assume any home playoff games would be sold out.
Padres fans — plus the many high-paying Dodgers fans and others who attend Padres home games — are improving the team’s chances of winning a fourth wild card in six years. There are 90 million reasons to believe this. The roster’s payroll stands $90 million greater than that of the Milwaukee Brewers and Cincinnati Reds, winning teams from small markets that are vying for one of the three wild cards.
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