Colorado Rockies Next Step Is Getting Fans Back on Board After Brutal Season

Coors Field is one of the more beautiful ballparks in all of baseball. Year in and year out, they have one of the best attendance records in baseball because of that. Even in a down year this season, they are 15th in baseball in attendance at 2,404,613. This season, though, it's been less Rockies fans and more fans of the opposing team.

"It has gotten to a point -- especially me being from here -- where it's something I don't enjoy seeing in my home ballpark. Inside our own ballpark, when we have 60/40, sometimes 70/30 split of fans from the other side, it eats at you a little bit," Kyle Freeland said to ESPN's Buster Olney and Jesse Rogers.

This hasn't always been the case, though. Just going back to 2018 when they last made the playoffs, the Rockies were seventh in all of baseball in attendance with over three million. That was higher than the Houston Astros, Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets.

"Despite where they are in the standings, it's still a sleeping giant of a franchise. Whoever can win there will have massive fan support," a rival executive told ESPN.

That's just the thing, they haven't had a winning team. And it hasn't been particularly close.

Colorado has just two players who qualify with an OPS+ higher than 100. According to fWAR, they are last in both batting (-3.3) and pitching (1.5). Their team ERA of 6.01 is the worst since 2016 and their 75 wRC+ is tied with the 2024 Chicago White Sox for the worst during a full season in that same span.

According to ESPN, some in the organization believe that this season will be "an eye-opening moment" for the franchise. That is already going on from an outside perspective, too.

"I think you have to look in the mirror at three 100-loss seasons in a row... We have all seen what the city can look like as far as the baseball town goes and what the fan base looks like when you're playing well and the buzz it creates in that city," franchise legend Matt Holliday said.

The atmospheres at Coors Field can be electric and has been before. In an environment that creates a lot of offense, the Rockies have historically done a good job of getting monster offensive talent in the building. That is something they have not done since the departure of both Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story.

It might take a while, but a competitive Rockies team brings with it some of the best fans in baseball. If they want any hope of getting back to the playoffs soon, they're going to need to get the fans to buy in -- and quickly.