Not true in one case. The Tacoma Rainiers are the Seattle Mariners AAA team and are located just 30 miles south. They draw very well. You can see some of the same players and pay just a fraction of the price for admission and snacks. A game in Seattle will cost my wife and I over $200, we can see the Rainiers for about $25.
To support what racer72 said, if the Buffalo Bisons were not across an international border and were just on this side of the border in Fort Erie, I have no doubt whatsoever we’d go to more Bisons games than Blue Jays games. If the farm team was close, like in Hamilton, we’d go to 20 games a year. The cost to take my family to see the Blue Jays is staggering if you want decent seats and princely if you want GOOD seats. racer72’s approximation of cost is fairly close - I think an AAA game would cost more than $25 once you figure in parking and beer, but it’s not even going to be close. To take my wife to a ballgame and sit well down the first base line would cost $140 CDN just for tickets (at least, I assume Ticketmaster would screw us for more) plus you have to figure no less than $20 in parking or train fare, and the beer and snacks are outrageous. To take our kids too, well, you’re into a ridiculous amount of money or you’re sitting in the nosebleeds with the drunks.
My love of baseball is legendary but I have not seen a game live this year and have no plans to unless the Jays make the playoffs, in which case I might splurge. It’s just too much money. A few years back it was much cheaper because you could buy from scalpers for less than face value but those days quickly end once the team wins.
AAA baseball is indistinguishable from the major league product to most fans and is a fraction of the cost. It’s a very attractive option for a family.
I went to two MLB games last year. A Yankees game, because I got seats for $5; but the train (for me and my daughter) cost close to $60, and the food and drink was priced as sky-high as the seats. And a Mets game, because I got free tickets for donating blood; I drove, and the cost to park was at least $20, plus gas, and probably $15 in tolls, and the concessions were very pricey as well. Even spending virtually no money on tickets, I can’t do that very often. Plus which, it’s a four-hour round trip exclusive of the game time.
The last time I attended a minor league game, I drove for 20 minutes, no tolls, paid $5 to park, bought a ticket for $6 for a seat that was infinitely closer to the field than my seat in either NYC stadium, paid semi-reasonable concession prices, and was home 20 minutes after the end of the game.
True, there were seven errors in the game, not to mention two wild pitches, a passed ball, and a balk. But hey!
Let’s take a look at the Quad Cities team, which I noted upthread, is in the heart of Cardinals-Cubs rivalry.
2015 attendence (as a Houston Astros affiliate): 250,004
2014 (Astros): 237,005
2013 (first year as an Astros affiliate): 226,112
2012 (last year as a Cardinals affiliate): 240,008
2011 (Cardinals): 223,025
2010 (Cardinals): 224,128
Losing an affiliation with a team 200 miles away in exchange for one 850 miles away didn’t seem to hurt them.
Bumping this to say that the Staten Island Yankees, one of the two remaining teams in the 14-team New York Penn League to use the nickname of the affiliated MLB team, just released the name of the five finalists for the team’s new name (as of 2017):
Killer Bees
Bridge Trolls
Pizza Rats
Rock Pigeons
Heroes
I don’t “get” Killer Bees (then again I’m not a Staten Islander myself), and I think Heroes is pretty awful. I do kind of like the other choices. (I suggested the Staten Island Ferries, but for some strange reason that name did not make the final cut. Blatant bias on the part of the judges, for what says “Staten Island” more unambiguously than a reference to a ferry?)
Anyway, it’s [nearly] official–13 of the 14 teams in the league will have their own branding next year.