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MLB struggling to get attendance back to pre-pandemic levels

FILE - Baseball fans stand during the singing of the National Anthem before the start of a baseball game between the Miami Marlins and the Texas Rangers, Thursday, July 21, 2022, in Miami. Major League Baseball teams head into the final months of the regular season struggling to fill the stands now, even without pandemic-related attendance restrictions. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)
FILE - Baseball fans stand during the singing of the National Anthem before the start of a baseball game between the Miami Marlins and the Texas Rangers, Thursday, July 21, 2022, in Miami. Major League Baseball teams head into the final months of the regular season struggling to fill the stands now, even without pandemic-related attendance restrictions. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File) FILE - Baseball fans stand during the singing of the National Anthem before the start of a baseball game between the Miami Marlins and the Texas Rangers, Thursday, July 21, 2022, in Miami. Major League Baseball teams head into the final months of the regular season struggling to fill the stands now, even without pandemic-related attendance restrictions. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)

By STEVE MEGARGEE / AP Sports Writer 5 min read

MILWAUKEE (AP) – Blame it on lingering effects of the pandemic, resentment over the lockout or economic fears.

Major League Baseball is struggling to fill the stands at pre-COVID levels as the sport heads into the last 2 1/2 months of its first season since 2019 without capacity restrictions.

MLB reached the All-Star break with an average attendance of 26,409. That represents a drop of 5.4% from the All-Star break of 2019 – which was 10 days earlier than this year.

League officials remain encouraged and point to the recovery.

“We have come back to between 94-95% of where we were prior to the pandemic,” MLB chief revenue officer Noah Garden said. “So we feel really good about the progress we have made on the attendance side rebounding strongly from a situation that threatened the very core of how we operate as an industry.”