On the final Friday night of summer, 2026, playoff baseball was taking place in all four primary MLB Partner Leagues. In the Atlantic League, Long Island finished a first-round sweep, disappointing the 3,843 fans attending the first-ever Hagerstown home playoff game. Southern Maryland defeated Lexington at home in front of 4,250. Billings took the Pioneer League crown with 4,196 fans cheering them on at Dehler Park.

Over in the Frontier League, Washington stayed alive against Evansville at home with 1,936 looking on. Finally, up in Ottawa, the Titans punched their ticket to the Frontier League Finals in front of a staggering 7,912 fans.

In Franklin, Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Milkmen punched their ticket to the Miles Wolff Cup Finals in front of an intimate gathering of 129. Yes, one hundred and twenty nine people. To prove it’s not a fluke, they drew 162 paying customers the day before.

A Leaguewide Problem

Winnipeg Goldeyes and your fans: you’re all excused. You may continue on with your day, as nothing we’re talking about pertains to you. Why? Well, the one Goldeyes playoff home game drew 5,128 fans—a fantastic number.

The rest of you…Well, let’s let the numbers speak for themselves:

2026 American Association Playoff Attendance by Game

						TOTAL	AVG.
Cleburne*	86					86	86
Fargo-Mhd.	1,378	578	907			2,863	954
Kane County	379	383	400			1,162	387
Kansas City	752	357	772	413	399	2,693	539
Lake Country	358	261				619	310
Milwaukee	256	262	162	129		809	202
Sioux Falls	700					700	700
Winnipeg	5,128					5,128	5,128
TOTALS					20 G	14,060	703
TOTALS	MINUS	WIN			19 G	8,932	470

The numbers are grisly. Only two games out of 20 have topped a modest total of 1,000 fans. 13 of those 20—nearly two-thirds—have failed to even reach the paltry total of 500 fans. And well, the ghastly totals for the five games in Milwaukee (including Cleburne’s “home” game played there) speak for themselves.

Regularly, the American Association brings up the rear out of the four leagues in playoff attendance, drawing 1,030 per game last year, 1,366 in 2023, and 1,285 a night in ’22. 2024 perked up to 2,058 per game, but more than half of the total fans attended five games in Winnipeg. The other seven teams averaged 1,315.

This is a horrible year for the playoff gates, but unfortunately, it’s not that much out of the ordinary for the league.

Why is No One Here?

It’s frustrating as a baseball fan to see the most important games of the minor league season often played in front of oceans of empty seats. I get it, 99% of minor league sports fans (not just baseball) don’t care about wins or losses, just a good time at a reasonable price. Most minor league attendees have a better chance of knowing what next Friday’s theme night is than if their team is over .500 or not.

Consequently, selling playoff tickets, especially on short notice, is a very hard task in most markets. Series stretching out doesn’t help, adding games that can realistically only be sold 24 hours in advance.

But, there are some teams that figure it out better than others. Canada is a different beast, as evidenced by huge crowds in Winnipeg and Ottawa, plus Quebec selling out playoff games annually.

Even on U.S. soil, Long Beach and Billings (two VERY different markets), each drew their largest crowds of the season in the Pioneer League Championship Series. Schaumburg drew 4,442 and Washington 3,214 in Frontier League first-round games.

With front office willpower and creativity (and yes, some scheduling luck), you can move those tickets, even if you only have a few days to do it. Some teams have figured out how to do it.

What’s The Solution?

I’ll admit, I have no magic bullet here. If I did, I’d be running one of these teams, not writing about them. But I’ll take a stab anyways.

First, I think some teams simply need to try harder. Take Kane County for example: they averaged 4,800 a night this year, but averaged less than 400 for their three home playoff tilts this year. With as many people that come through that park, they should’ve been able to mobilize at least a thousand of them to make it out at least once or twice, though that’s someone else’s problem now.

A more direct solution would be to cut down the playoff field. The AA is extremely unique in that 8 of their 12 teams reach the postseason. The Pioneer (12 teams) and Atlantic (10 teams) each send just four teams. The Frontier League also sends eight teams, but that’s in a sprawling 18-team circuit.

Next year, the AA is very likely dropping to 10 teams, which means they pretty much have to shrink the playoff format. From 2006 through 2019, the AA only had four playoff teams (with anywhere from 10-14 teams), which is probably the right number to go with next year.

With eight playoff teams, plus allowing the division champion to pick their first-round opponent, it naturally takes a lot longer to clinch playoff spots and therefore set playoff schedules and sell tickets, which unquestionably hurts first round attendance. If you get fans out to the first round, you probably have a better chance at getting them to come back if you advance. But if they don’t know you’re playing first round playoff games and aren’t coming to them…they probably aren’t coming later on, either.

Also, let’s also be pragmatic here: drawing 300 fans for a playoff game isn’t just sad and embarrassing, it’s a financial drain. Paying their gameday staff (even a skeleton crew) and ballpark utilities will cost a team more than they’ll make from crowds that small. That doesn’t begin to cover the cost of extra playoff road trips either. In an era where the cost of everything is skyrocketing, cutting out an entire money-losing round makes sound business sense.

Playing one less round also can allow the league to better align the playoff schedule to utilize weekend dates better by not trying to just get the games in as soon as possible. This year, each of the last two rounds started on a Monday night (worst night) and therefore wouldn’t even get to Friday (usually best night) if the series was a sweep. Maximizing weekend dates definitely will help crowds in most cases.

Would that allow AA teams to start filling up parks come playoff time? Not necessarily, but the status quo ain’t cutting it, so it’s time for individual teams and the league as a whole to try something different.

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