With the completion of this last homestand, the Tigers have now played 40 of their 81 home games this season. While they still rank 23rd in all of baseball in average attendance, they are ticking upwards. Over the last 6 game homestand the Tigers averaged 30,364 fans and were kind enough to treat the fans to 6 exciting games.

The Tigers home attendance for the season is now at 879,640. Projecting that out over the 41 remaining games would give the Tigers 1,781,271 which would be the highest total since they had 1.9 million fans in 2001. However, to the extent the Tigers can keep things interesting, they have a shot to draw close to 2 million fans.

The following table shows the Tigers average attendance in their first 40 games and their last 41 (or 40 games some years) and the won-loss record after 40 home games.

In both 2000 and 2001 attendance climbed significantly in the second half of the season, and in 2002 it ticked up very slightly. Typically, Detroit draws the bulk of it’s fans from mid-June to late-August so this isn’t surprising at all. The exception was 2003’s team which failed to draw anybody all season long.

This year in the second half the Tigers have home weekend series against the Yankees and Red Sox. The Yankees series after the All-Star break has already sold 125,000 and will more than likely sell out 3 of the 4 games. Also, the Tigers have 10 games remaining against the division leading White Sox. To the extent that the Tigers can stay within 8 or so games of the AL Central lead, those 10 games could be pretty meaningful.

To reach 2 million fans for the first time since Comerica opened in 2000 (2.5 million) the Tigers would need to average 27,325 fans the rest of the way. That seems like a very reachable goal given the remaining games and the way the team is playing.

One more note on attendance… The Tigers rank 23rd in the majors in attendance, but third in the AL Central. Of the bottom 11 teams in attendance, five are from the AL Central.