If you picked the Twins, you're correct, according to statistics compiled by the website baseball-reference.com.
Through the first 35 home games of this season, attendance at Target Field is down by 4,449 fans per game --from 39,083, which pretty much made for a sellout, to 34,634, which explains a lot of the empty seats that you see when you're at the park or watching on TV. (Keep in mind that attendance figures are "tickets sold," not to be confused with the number of people who come to a game.
Keep in mind that some kind of drop would be expected now that Target Field is no longer a novelty. But don't discount the damage done by a 99-loss season followed by being in last place in the American League Central.
The chart show that 19 of 30 MLB teams are ahead of last season, led by Miami, which opened its new ballpark, and Detroit, which sold the promise of a title by signing huge Prince Fielder to a huge contract.
And in case you're wondering, the second largest attendance drop is in Houston at 2,734 fans per game.
You can make the chart's columns dance and find out that the Twins are still 12th in attendance per game and that the two teams at the top of the AL Central, the White Sox and Cleveland, are both in the bottom five in MLB attendance and drawing fewer fans per game than at this time in 2011.
Here's the full chart. Have fun.
