Was watching last night’s game, and I was startled to see a shot of the crowds, and how empty Chase Field was. This wasn’t a case of fans being dressed as empty seats. The official attendance last night was only 16,100. It’s the first time this year attendance has been below twenty thousand, and there was only one all last year with a smaller crowd. That came on August 12, with the woeful Rockies in town for a Monday night contest, which saw 15,525 at the park. Admittedly, the Rays are never much of a draw. But when they came to Chase two years ago, for a comparable Tue-Thu series, they averaged 22,000 per game. This time, they will be lucky to reach twenty thousand.

That’s in line with D-backs attendance generally, which has been down 1,891 per game through the first dozen games of 2025, compared to the same period in 2024. Last year, the visitors for those games were the Rockies, Yankees, Cardinals and Cubs, compared to the Cubs, Orioles, Brewers and Rays this season. Probably a bit of a factor there in favor of 2024: I’d put St. Louis and Milwaukee about the same, as mid-tier draws, and probably the Rockies and Rays too as zero draws. The Yankees would definitely be better than the Orioles, and I suspect most of the deficit is the difference between a Mon-Wed set against NYY, which averaged 37,836 in attendance. Don’t often see that for a week-day series.

So, I think it’s a little too early to draw any particular conclusions from attendance at Chase, woeful though it certainly was last night. The team’s performance will, as ever, be key as to whether people show up at the ol’ ballpark. Right now, it’s probably a bit of a glass half-full or half-empty situation for the more casual fan, depending on whether you look at the record (on pace for 94.5 wins, which would be the most by the Diamondbacks since 2002) or the standings (fourth in the NL West). Hey, I’m already one game up on my attendance last year! Though plans to make it two have gone on the back burner after I looked at the ticket prices for the first Dodgers series…