According to attendance figures alone, MLB’s inaugural rivalry weekend was a huge success.
According to MLB Communications, the first edition of rivalry weekend drew 1,608,475 fans across 45 games, the highest weekend total and per-game average (35,744) attendance before Memorial Day Weekend since May 18-20, 2012.
MLB’s inaugural Rivalry Weekend (May 16-18), highlighted by Juan Soto’s return to the Bronx, featured 15 different geographical matchups, including the New York Mets-New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox-Chicago Cubs, and Los Angeles Dodgers-Los Angeles Angels.
Thursday, a day before Rivalry Weekend began, MLB announced that Wednesday’s 17 games averaged 31,350 fans, for a total attendance of 501,596, the highest ever for a Wednesday before June.
“INCREDIBLE! Excellent idea for the Rivalry Weekend games. “I hope it becomes an MLB staple for many years to come,” one fan wrote on ‘X.’
“Baseball is on the upswing,” another said.
“What a brilliant move!” Someone wrote, “There will be more buildup year after year.”
While the majority of the matchups were interstate rivalries, others were throwbacks to previous rivalries or even new ones, which disappointed some fans.
“I’m sorry, but you can’t call Tigers vs Jays a rivalry,” someone wrote.
“I love the rivalry weekend idea. It had some truly great rivalries, but there were some misses. The Braves and Red Sox are not rivals, nor are they geographically close. “It appears that some matchups were just leftovers,” another said.
To be fair, before 1952, the Red Sox and Braves shared the city of Boston.
Whether you agree with the matchups or not, attendance figures indicate that MLB hit a home run with Rivalry Weekend.
