No playoff season, but Kansas City still loved watching the Royals.
The Royals on Fox Sports Kansas City finished with the second-highest local-market television rating among major-league teams, posting an average of 8.46, or 78,000 households per game, in the Kansas City market.
Only Cleveland, which ran away with the American League Central Division championship, owned a higher local rating, at 9.22.
The Royals were baseball’s top local-market draw each of the past two seasons.
Can good numbers translate to a more lucrative television contract, providing additional revenue for payroll? Perhaps, but not before this year’s class of free agents — Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas and Lorenzo Cain, among others — hits the market.