Now that the Florida State League has adjourned for the 2026 season, fans of the Clearwater Threshers and the Dunedin Blue Jays have turned their attention to the playoff fortunes of parent clubs, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Phillies have been chasing the Atlanta Braves all summer long and, barring a cold snap, seemed poised to make the playoffs as long as former Threshers like outfielder Justin Crawford and pitcher Andrew Painter carry their weight for the duration.
The Blue Jays, whose remarkable 2025 season ended in a Game 7 extra innings World Series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers, have been unremarkable until recently. They have been tantalizingly close to a playoff spot in the last few weeks of the season but will need slugger Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., to find the home run stroke that made him such a terror since his arrival in 2019.
Vladdy has hit a mere nine home runs this year, which is as curious as Isaiah Kiner-Falefa’s failure to take a bigger lead at third base with a chance to win Game 7. IKF’s close out at the plate would have given the Jays the World Series title, but LA went on to win 5-4 in extra innings and Toronto fans were left with one of baseball’s most haunting “what-if’s” in recent history.
Toronto’s birds will have to make their playoff push without injured Dunedin alum Addison Barger, but they will have Nathan Lukes, who slugged a homer for Dunedin as a guest star during a rehabilitation assignment in May. Vladdy, of course, made a rehab appearance in Clearwater in a Dunedin uniform this past August, but as in most Major League parks he did not hit dinger at the Threshers’ BayCare Ballpark either.
Back in the FSL, the 2026 season concluded with Clearwater going 74-55 and Dunedin sliding in at 62-66. The other-worldly Jupiter Hammerheads reminded the world that Miami has a Major League presence in the Marlins as their Single A team defeated the New York Yankees’ affiliate Tampa Tarpons two games to one.
And so it goes. Or went.
Attendance at the stadia of all 10 FSL teams this year was 703,121, according to Baseball Reference, with an average of 1,090 fans braving what seems to have been a hotter season than those of the past few years.
Of course, aggregate attendance figures might have been higher had Major League Commissioner Rob Manfred not decided to deny baseball to 40 minor league venues in 2021 by cutting those teams from their Major League affiliations.
Minor league attendance figures were down slightly from 2025, when 712,595, or 1,109 enthusiasts beeped the turnstiles with their electronic tickets. Various reports indicate that temps in Florida were indeed steamier than recent years, which could have accounted for the slight dip in the number of butts in seats.
Baseball America, a must-read for fans of the former National Pastime, reported that 76 fewer fans showed up at minor league baseball parks, which is part of a trend. The minors attracted 32 million fans in 2023, and final figures for 2026 could drop below 30 million.
In the FSL, Tampa, which had been kicked out of Steinbrenner Field as the Tampa Bay Rays occupied the elysian field while the dreadful Tropicana Field was being repaired, saw an additional 741 fans at the park from 2025 as of August.
Perhaps more Tarpons fans flocked to see Yankees shortstop prospect Dax Kilby, whose very name suggests baseball immortality.
Final FSL attendance figures are not yet available, but anyone who turned out at Dunedin’s TD Ballpark saw lots of life in the grandstands that had previously been somewhat moribund. The Blue Jays averaged 870 fans a game in 2025, a total of 52,180, and in 2026 the stands seemed fuller and livelier than recent campaigns.
Clearwater, with a hardy band of loyal, diehard fans, averaged 2,628 each game for a total of 168,199 in 2025. There was no reason to think figures lagged this year, especially given the Threshers’ winning record.
It remains to be seen if Major League players and owners will come to a collective bargaining agreement in December and avert a stoppage of play in 2027. But minor league players have their own collective bargaining agreement which expires in December 2027.
That means the minors will play no matter what the Major League billionaires and millionaires do or don’t do. Unless minor league players are on a Major League 40-man roster, they will be allowed to play whether or not there is a Major League lockout or strike.
Clearwater and Dunedin will indeed have baseball next spring.
If the Major Leaguers don’t play in 2027, you’ll have to assume that fans will pour into minor league ballparks.
And it won’t just be to see Dax Kilby.