Rochester Red Wings writer Jim Mandelero made the claim on his blog that the International League should not play baseball on Easter Sunday. Mandelero says the IL should have an open date on Easter due to poor attendance numbers. He then lists this Easter's figures for the seven teams who had home dates this year.
The problem with Mandelero's argument is context. He does not figure in weather or even general April averages. That doesn't mean he's wrong, just not thorough. So, I decided to take a look to see if the International League should really not be playing on Easter Sunday.
We looked at the last six years of Sunday home dates in April and compared attendance to weather (all attendance figures according to MiLB official box scores):
Rochester Sunday home dates in April when the weather is under 55 degrees:
April 24, 2005 – 46 degrees – attendance: 3,034
*April 16, 2006 – 52 degrees – attendance: 3,389
April 13, 2008 – 42 degrees – attendance: 2,929
*April 12, 2009 – 41 degrees – attendance: 2,933
April 18, 2010 – 45 degrees – attendance: 3,243
April 10, 2011 – 52 degrees – attendance 3,906
*April 24, 2011 – 43 degrees – attendance: 2,928
Rochester Sunday home dates in April when the weather is over 55 degrees
April 10, 2005 – 64 degrees – attendance: 5,449
April 22, 2007 – 77 degrees – attendance: 5,647
April 26, 2009 – 57 degrees – attendance: 4,551
*Easter Sunday
Notice that in 2006, Easter Sunday outdrew two Sundays that were not held on Easter. Why? Because the temperature was around 10 degrees higher. Maybe suggest moving the team to North Carolina?
Buffalo, NY, is about an hour down the road from Rochester and has nearly identical weather. Here's how their attendance figures shook out for Sunday's in April:
Buffalo Sunday home dates in April when the weather is under 55 degrees:
*April 16, 2006 – 48 degrees – attendance: 5,603
April 13, 2008 – 40 degrees – attendance: 5,540
*April 12, 2009 – 38 degrees – attendance: 4,434
April 18, 2010 – 49 degrees – attendance: 4,613
*April 24, 2011 – 48 degrees – attendance: 4,353
Buffalo Sunday home dates in April when the weather is above 55 degrees
April 30, 2006 – 71 degrees – attendance: 7,219
April 22, 2007 – 66 degrees – attendance: 8,184
April 27, 2008 - 58 degrees – attendance: 6,455
April 26, 2009 – 57 degrees – attendance 5,799
April 10, 2011 – 55 degrees – attendance: 5,149
Again, the Easter attendances for Buffalo when the weather is under 55 degrees do not seem to be lower than non-Easter Sunday games in April. Maybe that's why the International League doesn't have an open date on Easter?
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