NEW YORK — Major League Baseball averaged 30,517 fans at games this season, up slightly from the previous two years and the sport’s seventh-highest mark.
The average was up from last year’s 30,454 and was the most since 30,985 in 2012, the commissioner’s office said Monday. The average peaked at 32,785 in 2007, before the Great Recession.
Total attendance was 74.76 million, an increase of 30,000; there were four fewer dates this season.
The Los Angeles Dodgers drew 3.76 million and led in home attendance for the third straight season. The New York Yankees drew 3.4 million and topped the AL for the 13th consecutive year.
The Toronto Blue Jays drew 2.79 million, good for fourth in the AL and eighth in the majors, and averaged 34,504 fans a game. That number was inflated by Toronto’s exceptional play after the all-star break that carried the Jays to the AL East title. The team says it sold out 20 of its 21 home games.
The Blue Jays and Kansas City Royals, the top two teams in the AL, were the lowest road draws in the majors in 2015. Toronto drew an average of 27,762 fans in its away games, just ahead of Kansas City’s league-worst road average of 27,681.
Tampa Bay drew a big league-low 1.25 million and Cleveland was 29th at 1.39 million.
