Attendance Figures for NPB

I didn't realize that I hadn't posted these figures this year. So, without any further ado:

               P a c i f i c   L e a g u e

Team       Games  Attend     Avg.      2008   Change
Softbank     72  2,245,969  31,194  2,250,044  -0.2%
Nippon  Ham  72  1,992,172  27,699  1,873,931  +6.3
Seibu        72  1,515,045  21,042  1,413,583  +7.2
Lotte        72  1,465,189  20,350  1,601,632  -8.5
Orix         72  1,285,907  17,860  1,266,765  +1.5
Rakuten      72  1,203,169  16,711  1,149,061  +4.7
=========== === ========== ======= ========== =====
Overall     432  9,707,451  22,471  9,555,016  +1.6


               C e n t r a l   L e a g u e

Team       Games  Attend     Avg.      2008   Change
Hanshin      72  3,007,074  41,765  2,976,754 + 1.0%
Giants       72  2,934,370  40,755  2,876,274 + 2.0
Chunichi     72  2,298,405  31,922  2,427,805 - 5.3
Hiroshima    72  1,873,046  26,015  1,390,680 +34.7
Yakult       72  1,332,366  18,505  1,281,714 + 4.0
Yokohama     72  1,246,967  17,319  1,129,954 +10.4
=========== === ========== ======= ========== =====
Overall     432 12,692,228  29,380 12,083,181 + 5.0

The huge jump for Hiroshima was the draw of their new stadium.

The above tables were extracted and translated from Nikkan Sports October 12 (Pacific League) and October 13 (Central League), 2009 paper editions, pages 6 and 5 respectively. Nikkan Sports, in turn, cites NPB-BIS as their data source.

Hope this helps.

I thought clubs were supposed to be coming clean with regards to attendance figures. I went to about half a dozen Orix games this year and I can tell you the crowd usually looked around 8,000 or 10,0000 judging it as a percentage of the capacity. Kyocera Dome's capacity is officially put at 36,477. So, what Orix is saying is that on average they half fill the dome for games. That's complete nonsense. Even anyone watching the highlights this year could see that was not the case.

Even one Saturday night when they were giving free shirts away, I would say the place would have been a third full, ie around 12,000 and that's really stretching it.

I didn't go to any Seibu games this year but judging from TV broadcasts, I would say their figure is artificial too. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who goes to Seibu games about that figure.

Allow me to tell you that Orix figures are lies and this is not the first year. This is not close.

Thanks for swift and detailed information.
Great service.
Nick