Data Biography for Spring 2023 Data Storytelling Final Project

As a loyal fan of the the Kansas City Royals for all my life, the issue of waning attendance has interested me. To conduct my research, I used many databases to collect information on attendance numbers and stadium statistics. I then utilized Microsoft Excel to organize all of my data in a way that could easily be read. I analyzed the data through correlations and pivot tables. I also used Tableau to create visualizations for my data.

Through my analysis, I was able to find that the issue of attendance for the Kansas City Royals lies within the stadium — as in fan experience — as well as with the performance of the team. It also revealed that some methods MLB teams have used to draw in fans, including the Royals, don’t have a noticeable impact on attendance.

Data Biography

(Based on the data life cycle from Where are the Fans? — A Dive Into the Kansas City Royals Attendance Problem)

Origin

• Kauffman Stadium Attendance Totals and Records
• List of Current Major League Baseball Stadiums
• Lahman Baseball Database

The above are the databases that I aggregated all of my data. I know that they are credible because they came from established organizations and reports. Most of my data came from the Lahman Baseball Database, as it was a very extensive database with almost everything I needed.

Spreadsheet

The excel sheet used for my project can be found here. There are 31 rows and 40 columns. The include every team in the MLB and information on them and their stadiums. As well as attendance statistics. There are many different cases and variables that are used in my dataset to help shape the story of this project.

Transformations & Analysis

After I compiled all of my data, I had to clean it up to make it easier to read. Before this excel sheet that I used, I had a master sheet in the same workbook that had thousands or rows and hundreds of columns. I picked the necessary information from that sheet to make my main excel sheet.

I then used pivot tables to help give myself an idea of what my possible insights could be. From there, I used Tableau to create visualizations to help move along my story. In order to get Tableau to read my spreadsheet, I had to reorganize some of the data and split it into different sheets.

Playing around with these visualizations, I was able to see different ways to read the data. This lead me to use filtering and sorting to help compare different teams. I.e. reorganizing the data to show from highest winning percentage to lower winning percentage.

Insights

1. New ballparks don’t necessarily lead to higher attendance numbers. If the attendance numbers went up following the opening of the new stadium, then typically saw a sharp decline in attendance over the following years.
2. Downtown ballparks also don’t lead to an increased attendance average. Meaning, does the distance from the city center effect the attendance of a ballpark during regular season.
3. Lastly, a team’s performance does have an effect on the average attendance. However, some teams are immune to this idea.