Critics of attendance at Braves’ Wild Card Series are dunderheads

No sooner than the broadcast of the Braves’ Wild Card Series game began Tuesday, showing pockets of empty seats at Truist Park, the social-media geniuses blessed us with their bouquets of wisdom.

Braves should probably split their season with Montreal. Atlanta is not capable of supporting a Major League Baseball franchise.

Pathetic.

Playoff Baseball in Atlanta and once again Rows and Rows of empty seats!

Random Capitalization aside, it was just a silly Topic.

Yes, the Braves drew 30,127 to Game 1 of their Wild Card Series against the Phillies on Tuesday, well below capacity of 41,108.

Guess what?

The game started at just before 2:30 p.m. and the game time was announced two days before the first pitch.

People have jobs and go to school. Not everyone can drop everything to be there.

It’s not about Braves fans and the tired trope that Atlanta sports fans don’t show up. It’s the time slot and the circumstances surrounding it.

MLB moved to its present best-of-three wild card format in 2022, with the first wild card games being played two days after the end of the regular season. The attendance figures for the first game in the early time slot should look familiar:

• 2022 — Rays at Guardians, 2:15 p.m.: 30,741
• 2023 — Rangers at Rays, 3 p.m.: 19,704
• 2024 — Tigers at Astros, 1:30 p.m.: 40,617
• 2025 — Tigers at Guardians, 1 p.m.: 26,186

And here’s a report from the Houston Chronicle from the 2024 wild-card game at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park):

“Game 1 of the series Tuesday was an announced sellout of 40,617 fans, but there were plenty of empty seats spotted down the left-field line and in the deep corners of the upper deck.”

Go figure.

It’s almost like scheduling a game at an inconvenient time less than two full days before the game makes it difficult for fans.