Royals win, Kansas City yawns

Attendance is hard to figure.

Seems like there are three ways -- absent a new ballpark -- to goose attendance:

1. Make some big (or biggish) personnel moves;

2. Win; or

3. Win a lot.

This year, the Royals have done two of those things. They don’t have a new ballpark, but they did trade for James Shields and Ervin Santana last winter. Oh, and Sunday they locked up their first winning season since the Truman administration. They still have a very small chance to win a lot, but two out of three ain’t bad. You might assume, as I have, that the Royals’ attendance is up significantly.

It’s not up. It’s not up at all:

The Royals’ final home attendance was 1,750,754, an average of 21,614 for 81 games. The Royals averaged 21,748 for 80 home dates last year.

I guess they’ll just have to win a lot.

Update: A reader cannily points out that attendance in 2012 was goosed by the All-Star Game, so perhaps the better baseline is 2011, when the Royals drew ... 21,289 per game. Oddly, they seem to have plateaued at roughly 21.5 per game, no matter what else is happening. Honestly, I don’t know what would help. Maybe this is just as good as it gets for this market. Although a few hitting stars might help.