WASHINGTON -- More than a quarter-million fewer people have come to Nationals games this season.

Let that sink in for a minute. Through 59 games, attendance is down year-over-year 252,373 patrons. That’s a big, brutish number, the kind PR flacks try to skew viewpoints with. So, let’s boil it down some. Attendance is down 4,278 people per game on South Capitol Street. It’s a steady, if not egregious, decline on its own. However, it becomes more glaring when compared to other teams and years past.

And it’s notable in this market because 2019 is the first season of an experiment: Will a reduction in star power stall out in-stadium viewership of a winning team?

There are caveats here. Several. This discussion has to rise from a foundation of understanding: game attendance is costly, the weather from last June to this July was the wettest segment in Washington history, parking is a pain, Metro is Metro, babysitters, $10 beer, and a stumbling start this season. However, all those things were built into last season, too.

One of the curiosities, before the season began, was how this team would be received. Would Bryce Harper’s departure, and the accompanying reduction in youngsters tugging at their parents for a chance to see him, result in a reduction in attendance? Would a scrappy team with less star power win over the middle-of-the-road fan? The answers so far have been yes and no, respectively.

“Expensive, we got off to such a bad start, we’ve had some weather difficulties once or twice a series. If you’re on the fence, and it’s raining in the afternoon, are you going to put that money down before you come to the game?” Sean Doolittle told NBC Sports Washington. “It is expensive. Some of these places, public transportation is not great or it’s not an option -- you have to pay for parking. I can empathize with that. It gets expensive.

“But we’re hoping that we continue to play well and down the stretch run, fans will come out and support us.”

Whether measured league-wide or against past years, this year’s dip in attendance is eye-opening. Washington is one of five winning teams (the Yankees, Cubs, Astros, and Indians are the others) with a year-over-year attendance decline -- but the Nationals easily own the highest average reduction among those teams. Attendance at Wrigley Field is down just 873 on average, a nearly negligible number which could flip by year’s end. At Minute Maid Park in Houston, the decline is 1,325 per game, almost a third of the drop off at Nationals Park.

“As we continue our race for the pennant, we know our players notice and appreciate when Nats Park is filled with enthusiastic and committed Nats fans,” Jake Burns, executive vice president, business operations, said in a statement. “We have some extremely exciting match-ups ahead and promotions like Sunday’s kids Teddy squeezable giveaway and another fireworks Friday that we hope will make the decision to come and cheer on the team an easy one.”

Even viewership for Max Scherzer’s starts has dwindled. An average of 31,261 tickets were sold when Scherzer started last season. This year, that’s down to 28,454, a slight improvement on the average dip for games this season.

The change in attendance lurches the Nationals back to a spot in the league they have not seen since 2011 when Jim Riggleman quit and the organization was surfacing from the abyss. Washington finished 20th then in average attendance. It is 16th this season. In between it was most often 11th (four times), 12th once, and 14th twice.

Any way it’s sliced, slippage is occurring in the stands at Nationals Park this year. Without Harper, there is no massive positional star. And without Harper, it’s easy to argue the Lerner family can look at this math and realize what it would mean if Anthony Rendon left, too.

“This is such a fun team,” Doolittle said. “I hope that fans see that and it resonates with them and down the stretch, they want to come out and watch the team play. We got guys dancing in the dugouts, Juan Soto’s one of the best players in the game. Max’s starts...but the other starting pitchers have done great. Come out and do the Baby Shark. Every game’s going to be interesting, too. We play a lot of close games. So there’s high drama. Sometimes we make it more interesting than we intended to, but it probably makes for eventful viewing.

“And I didn’t really notice [the decline]. But, that [sold-out] series in New York was really cool. And that environment was really, really cool to play in. We’re hoping for some of that here down the stretch. We’re aware it’s not easy for every fan to just pick up and come to a game.”

The remainder of the season is flooded with big series. Milwaukee arrives Friday to start a three-game set while just 2 ½ games behind the Nationals. The Mets are in town for three in early September. The Braves visit for three, too. Philadelphia and you-know-who follow not long after for five in four days. The season’s heat is up. Will it repopulate the park? It hasn’t thus far.

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