Royal Attraction: Kansas City sets franchise attendance record
The Kansas City Royals are back in power in the American League and their fans are responding by giving them the full royal treatment.
With 32,286 fans filling Kauffman Stadium for Wednesday night’s 3-2, 12-inning loss to the Minnesota Twins, the Royals have set a franchise attendance record.
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For the season, 2,506,913 fans have walked through the turnstiles. They’ve all been subjected to baseball’s heightened security measures too, but few are complaining as the Royals have played their way to the AL’s best record and potential home field advantage throughout the entire postseason.
The Royals had been slowly rebuilding their credibility and finally returned to respectability in 2013, posting their first winning season since 2003. In 2014, they returned to relevance, ending a 29-year postseason drought with a remarkable run to the World Series.
To say the fans are buying in would be an understatement.
Kauffman Stadium was the epicenter of baseball for much of October. In fact, it all began there with the Royals thrilling wild-card victory against the Oakland A’s, and ended in the same place with the San Francisco Giants celebrating a Game 7 victory.
During every game in between, Kauffman Stadium was loud, the energy was infectious, and the Royals were relentless in their bid to win a World Series championship. It made for a fun atmosphere, but based on this season’s response seems to have only whet the appetite of Royals fans. The teams is back and the fans are back with them hoping this is only the beginning of a dominant run.
The Royals aren’t short on stars either. Between Lorenzo Cain, Eric Hosmer and Greg Holland, just to name a few, there are plenty of players to be excited about. Based on this year’s early All-Star voting results, the fans have fallen in love with just about everybody on the roster. The lone notable exception might be Johnny Cueto, but he’s still early enough in his tenure to right the ship.
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Some fans are even naming their newborn children after Royals players, many of which were born exactly nine months after October.
Hey, we said then that Royals attendance was poised to rise in the years to come. That arrow is pointing straight up now, and the Royals reign may be just getting started. The Royals are the unquestioned kings of Kansas City.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
