Was Red Sox Season Entertaining Enough Despite Not Winning Games?

Even though the 2023 Boston Red Sox finished in the cellar of the American League East for the second straight season, the organization saw a slight increase in attendance at Fenway Park.

“First of all, the attendance numbers across the league are incredibly impressive. Great sign for baseball,” Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy said at the end-of-season press conference on Monday. “… We actually are incredibly appreciative of the fan support that we have this year.

“Our attendance was slightly up, which is somewhat remarkable if you consider coming off of last place in 2022 and obviously we know where we are in 2023. So, we’re incredibly grateful for the support that we had night in and night out. … For a team that fell short of our own expectations is something we’re incredibly grateful for.”

The Red Sox won their season finale against the Baltimore Orioles, but the overall season was disappointing, finishing six games below .500 for the second consecutive season.

Kennedy said that he is concerned that if the team continues to falter as it has in the past two seasons, attendance could be affected and the easiest way is to win ball games — because when the team is winning, fans are entertained and they are more likely to fill the stadium seats.

“Entertaining baseball is winning baseball,” Kennedy said. “I don’t care what anybody says. … If you win, somehow magically people say ‘the team is likable’ or ‘this team’s entertaining.’ I think that’s nonsense. Winning baseball is what matters. That’s what entertains people. We know that. … Winning and playing competitive baseball is entertaining.”

The Red Sox understand that more fans in the seats help the team itself by reinvesting the funds into the organization, but still haven’t hiked up ticket prices across the board.

“We’ve had a very modest, low single-digit increase on season ticket prices,” Kennedy explained. “Then we priced the rest of our ticket inventory based upon market conditions over the course of the year. So we don’t set prices as we enter the year other than the season ticket packages.”