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Right now, one man stands alone at the top of the Houston sports world. A man named Justin, or simply know to you and I as “JJ”, JJ Watt. Now before you go, “why are we talking about a defensive end for the Houston Texans in the baseball section?” Well it’s because, JJ Watt and his charity softball game this past Saturday, at Minute Maid Park home of the Astros. Did better attendance than 13 Astros’ games have this season! The JJ Watt charity softball game drew 30,013 people. Guess what? That was also more than five major league teams drew on Saturday. Milwaukee, Washington, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and right here in Tampa Bay.
I don’t mean to write this as a knock on the major leagues, but it’s a pretty crazy stat that shouldn’t be ignored. Maybe it should actually bring up the debate AGAIN of “Are we playing too many games?”.
I can’t get too crazy and say “One game seasons and they’ll all be sellouts” but maybe if we close the opportunity to see games people will look at them more like hot commodities. Now I know that’s not the only reason people don’t go, but hey it might help putting people in the seats.
JJ Watt’s event in all reality is just a one off game where Houston celebrities are playing for a good cause on a Saturday, compared to 81 home games spread out throughout the week. When you look at who, they outdrew in attendance it is pretty surprising as well three of the five teams are either 1st or 2nd in their divisions. So it’s not like people are skipping bad games, but I guess you can’t beat the man at the top of the Houston sports world. You can only applaud him, I mean he did raise almost two million dollars in one day.
