Royals have seen increase in ticket sales for this weekend’s games. You can guess why

Royals vice president of publicity Toby Cook checks the tickets sales for home games almost daily, and something jumped out at him this week.

After the Royals were eliminated from playoff contention on Tuesday, ticket sales increased for this weekend’s games.

“This week, both Saturday and Sunday picked up nicely,” Cook said. “(It’s) nothing like would happen right in the middle of the summer and in middle of the pennant race, but it was movement that we haven’t been seeing up until this week.”

A number of players that helped the Royals to consecutive American League pennants and the 2015 World Series championship may be playing their final game in white and blue this weekend. First baseman Eric Hosmer, center fielder Lorenzo Cain, third baseman Mike Moustakas, shortstop Alcides Escobar and pitcher Jason Vargas will all be free agents after the end of the season.

Some fans are hoping to get one more chance to watch this group play together. The good news is that tickets are available for all three games. Friday’s game projects to fall short of 30,000 in attendance, but Saturday and Sunday should eclipse that mark.

Saturday is Fan Appreciation Day, and that game is expected to draw a bigger crowd.

“We are going to have a better crowd this weekend than you would expect for a team that got eliminated on Tuesday, because of the circumstances of the players,” Cook said.

“I would guess that if somebody wants to come to a game this weekend, they would be able to get in no problem. It’s just going to be a nicer, bigger crowd on Saturday and Sunday than what might be the case normally.”

The Royals are averaging roughly 4,000 fewer fans per game at Kauffman Stadium this season (31,758 to 27,687) than a year ago. They are on pace to finish with just over 2.2 million in attendance this season, which will mark a decline from 2016 (2,557,622). The Royals’ record of 2,708,549 was set in 2015.

This story was originally published September 29, 2017 at 12:02 PM with the headline "Royals have seen increase in ticket sales for this weekend’s games. You can guess why."