Last year on the 4th of July, I went to see the Kansas City Royals play baseball. The Tampa Bay Rays were in town, and the team was 48-40 and in hot pursuit of a Wild Card spot. With fireworks after the game, a big crowd showed up: an announced attendance of 28,358, to that point the third-highest attended game of the season.
In line for the security to get into the game, I heard chatter from around me. The folks behind me were talking about how they hadn’t been to a Royals game in years. Some other people next to them mentioned the same—that they hadn’t been to a game since 2016 and were excited that the Royals were good again.