The 2028 Amsterdam Lions drew just over 1.2 million fans over the course of the season.  This was the lowest that the franchise had ever seen attendance go, dating back to their days in Connecticut and the start of PEBA play in 2007.  Never before had the team drawn lower than even 1.7 million.  In other words, in one year alone, the team drew half a million fans fewer than at any other time.  That season was the culmination of 4 consecutive 100 loss seasons.

Ryan Vail was let go as GM of the club after having righted the ship somewhat, but owner Paul Woodward was still unsatisfied.  He wanted to see the team’s attendance continue to grow to over 44,000 per game.  That would put the season figures at upwards of 3.5 million, numbers the team has only ever seen from 2021-2024 during the end of their playoff run and the couple of seasons thereafter.  To be blunt, the franchise has never drawn particularly well.

Previous GM Frank Esselink returned to Amsterdam to continue the work that Vail had started.  The first two things that he did was lower ticket prices and begin a huge marketing campaign.  The masterstroke of that campaign wasn’t print ads or a witty television commercial promising a renewed commitment to winning.  No, it was Christmas.

What’s the one thing every fan wants under their tree for Christmas?  A superstar signing.  Esselink delivered the news that the team had signed SP John Turner on Christmas day.  The former All-Star signaled a new direction for a team that hadn’t been above .500 in 7 seasons.  To hammer it home, slugging first baseman Dave Petersen signed on Tweede Kerstdag.  Suddenly fans were starting to take notice.  When Guillermo Justavo signed on in February, the message was already clear: this team was going to commit to their fans a new approach to competitiveness.

The results… weren’t quite in line with those expectations.  The fans showed up in April but the results didn’t match.  The team struggled to even reach .500.  A .600 record in June left them a game under, and from a contention standpoint, the Lions kept falling farther and farther behind Havana and San Juan.  Overall, though, fans seemed to recognize a change in how the team was going to operate, and when all was said and done, Woodward’s goal of 44,000 fans a game was met.

The result of that improvement was that Woodward committed to adding 5,000 seats to Stadium Urbanus.  That might seem like a strange thing to do given that the ballpark was already at 55,000 capacity and a good 20% of that was empty most games.  However, the owner stated that he wanted to see as many people as possible with an opportunity to attend a game in person.

So how did 2032 play out after all of that?  Well, the most obvious thing that happened in 2032 was that the team was finally good again.  In fact, the team was good enough to finish 2nd in the Trans Atlantic, ahead of last year’s champion San Juan.  It was the first time that Amsterdam would be in the playoffs in 10 seasons.  You’d expect fans would turn out for that, and they did.  The team drew over 4.2 million fans on the year.  Actually, taking that to 4.28 million reveals that it just edged out 2022’s 4.24 million as the most in franchise history.  Mission accomplished.

Or was it?  Word has it however, that Woodward was not entirely happy.  He had apparently set a goal to average 53,000 fans per game.  The Lions drew 52,879.  It was close, but Woodward isn’t about close.