With the combination of a lousy economy and an extremely disappointing second half of the season, you would expect attendance to be a bit of an issue at Tigers games. After all, if the first-place Rays have to give away 20,000 tickets just to fill up Tropicana Field, what's that say for a team like Detroit? Well, actually the Tigers experienced no such problems like the Rays have been dealing with and actually closed out the home slate last week with some very impressive attendance numbers.
↵↵↵After Saturday's 13-inning battle between the Tigers and Twins drew an announced crowd of 34,129 -- the biggest draw at Comerica Park in over a month -- Sunday's home finale drew 32,021. It was the Tigers' third straight game topping 30,000 in attendance.
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For the season, the Tigers' numbers were even more impressive.
↵↵↵Sunday's attendance was expected to push the Tigers to 2,461,237, giving them more than 2.4 million for the fifth straight season. Their home average of 30,386 fans per game ranks sixth in the American League, trailing the Yankees, Angels and Red Sox, along with the Twins in new Target Field and the division-leading Rangers.
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With such strong crowd support, it's no wonder that the Tigers won 52 home games this season, which is a new Comerica Park record. Detroit won 15 of its final 20 home games, and one can't help but imagine where this team would be if they could have replicated that play on the road.