Marlins president David Samson admits team lied about season ticket sales

The pathetic attendance at Florida Marlins games has always been a subject of ridicule for the franchise, but at least they’ve finally admitted how bad the situation was. Marlins president David Samson recently conceded that the team lied about its amount of season ticket holders.

From an April 9 New Yorker story about Ozzie Guillen:

The team typically claimed season-ticket sales of five thousand in recent years, although David Samson, the Marlins’ president, and Loria’s stepson by a former marriage, freely concedes that was a lie. “It was always two thousand,” he told me, and later estimated that, by this standard, the Marlins not only were the least popular baseball team (“by three standard deviations”) but ranked a hundred and twenty-fifth among pro sports franchises nationally, below all the hockey teams, and below even a handful of minor-league teams.

The actual crowds at Marlins games has always been significantly less than the announced attendance at games (as is the case at many other venues), but at least they’re finally telling us that the amount of season ticket holders was always far less than they said. Now the next step is for them to admit the actual attendance at games.

The good news for the franchise is that moving into a new stadium has paid off so far. The Marlins are ranked 15th in home attendance and averaging 30,174 tickets sold per game — 80.6% of their capacity, according to ESPN’s stats. That’s not bad compared to where they used to be.

H/T Palm Beach Post via Adam Kosnitzky