The holy grail is upon them.
For the first time in franchise history, and in the year after a global superstar led them to a World Series championship, the Dodgers will hit 4 million in attendance this season.
The Dodgers have led the major league in attendance every year since 2013, the first full season under the Guggenheim ownership group chaired by Mark Walter. In press releases, the Dodgers regularly note the team has “the highest cumulative fan attendance in Major League Baseball history.”
Yet the 4 million barrier has been an elusive milestone. Lon Rosen, the Dodgers’ executive vice president and chief marketing officer, said the team would officially pass 4 million tickets sold on Sunday, in the regular season finale.
“We’re proud of the accomplishment,” Rosen said.
No major league team has hit 4 million since the New York Mets and Yankees in 2008, the final season of Shea Stadium and the old Yankee Stadium, respectively. The Yankees also sold 4 million in 2005-07. The only other teams to do it: the Toronto Blue Jays (1991-93) and Colorado Rockies (1993).
No team besides the Dodgers can hit 4 million any more. The Mets, Yankees and Rockies all moved into smaller stadiums; the Blue Jays downsized theirs.
A team that hits 4 million must average 49,383 tickets sold per game. The Arizona Diamondbacks play in the stadium with the second-largest capacity in the majors: 48,330. The Dodgers’ average entering play Thursday: 49,589.
The Dodgers sold 3.97 million tickets in 2019, coming off back-to-back World Series appearances, and 3.94 million last year. They have not sold fewer than 3.7 million under Guggenheim ownership, aside from the two seasons with pandemic-related attendance restrictions.
“We’re a very successful franchise, and I attribute it all to the players,” Rosen said. “We have incredible players. We have very popular players.”
Technically, the Dodgers sold 4 million tickets in 1982, former Dodgers vice president of marketing Barry Stockhamer told The Times in 2010. Under National League rules at the time, teams were required to announce how many fans actually showed up, not how many tickets were sold. The Dodgers’ attendance that year was reported as 3.6 million.
The Dodgers’ dominance on the field under Walter and his partners — two World Series titles, four World Series appearances and 13 consecutive playoff berths — has been accompanied by dominance on the business side.
In essence, at a time when cable and satellite revenues are collapsing, the Dodgers can finance their player payroll either from ticket revenue or from local television revenue. The Dodgers’ payroll is about $340 million this season.
The Dodgers’ SportsNet LA contract with Charter Communications, the parent company of Spectrum, pays an average of $334 million per season. However, the contract started in 2014 and extends through 2038, with the annual payment rising each year — to more than $500 million by the end of the deal, according to people familiar with the deal but not authorized to disclose its terms.
The Dodgers generated $4.29 million in ticket revenue last season for each regular-season home game, according to an internal league document first reported by Sportico and confirmed by The Times. That totaled $343.2 million for 80 home games last season, at an average ticket price of about $80.
As the Dodgers compete with the San Diego Padres for the National League West title, the Dodgers’ SportsNet LA contract exacerbates the financial disparity. The Padres have sold out 66 of 75 home games this season and have sold more tickets than any team besides the Dodgers and Yankees, but the Padres have cut payroll over the past two years, following the bankruptcy and subsequent implosion of the parent company of what was then called Bally Sports.
In August, the Padres told season ticket holders their average price increase for 2026 would be 7% — the fifth consecutive season with an increase, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. The Padres raised prices by an average of 20% for the 2022 season and 18% for the 2023 season, the Union-Tribune reported.
Rosen declined to discuss how much the Dodgers had raised the price of season tickets for 2026, although several fans told The Times their seats had increased in the range of 20%. Rosen said the Dodgers’ renewals were “going well.”
The Dodgers still have bills to pay beyond player payroll, of course: a robust staff in both baseball operations and business operations, Dodger Stadium operations and maintenance, minor league operations, revenue sharing, and more than $100 millon in luxury taxes among them.
They also make money in ways besides tickets and SportsNet LA, among them national broadcast revenue, national and local merchandise revenue, corporate sponsorships, and stadium parking and concessions.
“We put the money back into the team,” Rosen said. “Our owners have done that from day one.”
With Clayton Kershaw, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, the Dodgers already had a star-studded roster. The addition of Shohei Ohtani, and the tourists that follow him from Japan, supercharged the Dodgers’ business and finally vaulted the team over the magic 4 million mark.
It is not just that the fans come out to see a winner, Kershaw said. It is that the fans provide an edge that helps keep the team a winner.
“Without question,” Kershaw said. Any time you play in front of a packed house at home, it’s important. We play every day. It’s hard to create energy sometimes, just because you play so much. I think having the fans behind us every day and seeing that packed house gives you that little bit of added energy.
“You play a day game on the road somewhere, and there’s nobody there, it’s hard to mimic. Even though it is a big league game, there are levels to this. Playing at home in front of our fans is definitely a home-field advantage.”
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