The Post-Gazette reports that the Pirates' home attendance in 2010 was at its highest point since 2007:
↵↵↵The crowd of 23,208 for the home finale Sunday raised the total attendance at PNC Park to 1,613,399 - highest at the stadium since 2007 and the 17th highest in the franchise's 124-year history. The average crowd of 19,919 was an increase over the 19,479 of last year, and seven games were sellouts.
↵Although that average crowd is the fourth smallest in Major League Baseball, it also represented what is expected to be one of the few increases. And the National League, as a whole, is expected to show a decrease.
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Y'know, last week an interviewer asked me what I thought about the risk that the Bucs' fanbase would dry up further if the team kept losing, and I said that the fairweather fans had already left, and the hardcore fans weren't going anywhere (although they always threaten to). This news appears to bear that out - the Pirates are having the worst season they've had since the 1980s, and fans (a mix of hardcores and more casual types who just like being able to see a game in a beautiful ballpark) keep turning out. Not a lot of them, certainly, but enough that the fanbase remains stable despite one of the leanest years in decades.