The Yankees' regular-season attendance was down 1.6% in 2026. Could the Knicks' NBA title run have been a factor?

The Yankees in 2026 saw their first non-COVID drop in regular-season home attendance since 2019. They might have the NBA champion Knicks to blame.

Yankees regular-season attendance in 2026 was down an average of 1.6% as the team drew 41,736 fans per game after drawing 42,408 in 2025.

The Knicks fever that swept the tri-state area during the team’s thrilling run to its first NBA title since 1973 may have impacted the Yankees’ attendance totals.

The Yankees hosted seven games on the same dates as a Knicks postseason game, including Games 1 and 2 of the NBA Finals, when Knicks fever was in full bloom. Those seven Yankees games averaged 39,714 in attendance, which is 4.8% lower than the full-season average.

Seven games is, as they say in baseball, a small sample size. But there’s little doubt the Knicks were the talk of the town from late April to mid-June.

It also was an exceptionally busy sports spring and summer in the New York area with MetLife Stadium hosting World Cup matches in June and July and golf’s U.S. Open being played at Long Island’s Shinnecock Hills Golf Club the week of June 18.

Sports fans only have so much time — and money — to devote to their teams and to big events. The Yankees' decrease was slight, but the Knicks’ success and the overall busy sports spring and summer could have been just enough to nudge the Yankees into negative territory.

“I think that's fair,” said Robert Boland, a sports law professor at Seton Hall who also concentrates on gaming, hospitality and entertainment. “As a professor, I'd be happy to say that I think there was a bit of an effect of attention and time on this. … If I'm looking for cause and effect here, I don't know if I have enough to say, ‘Hey, this is directly causally connected to the Yankees’ drop. It’s totally because of the Knicks.’ But I would say that it's probably one of the biggest factors when you think about it, and particularly given the timing.”

Mark Conrad, a professor of law and ethics at Fordham and the director of its sports business concentration, said: “It was a slight decline. It could be a little of the up and down season. Could be a lot of things. I don’t know how significant that [the Knicks’ success] is statistically. I don’t know how much I’d read into that, to be honest. It could just be a blip statistically . . . It’s seven games out of [79]. Maybe that may have had a bit of an effect.”

Yankees total regular-season attendance was down 2.8% (they had one fewer home game in 2026 because of rainouts). In 2025, Yankees total attendance was 3,392,659, which ranked third in MLB. They had 20 sellouts in 80 dates. In 2026, the total was 3,297,154 (fourth in MLB) with 12 sellouts in 79 dates, which included one rainout and a single-admission doubleheader on the final weekend of the season.

“I think the bigger issue when I kind of look at it is not so much the conflict or the idea that they're choosing one or the other — I think there are enough sports fans in New York to go around on that — but I think just the draw of cash, the economic outlay that Knicks tickets were for businesses and others, probably made people postpone baseball a bit," Boland said.

Jodi Balsam, a sports law professor at Brooklyn Law School and a Knicks and Yankees fan, said: “Everybody was watching the Knicks. You can count me in on that. I really never got to Yankee Stadium in the first half of the season. Very much Knicks-focused.”

The Yankees hosted three sold-out postseason games in 2026, two against Boston and one against Tampa Bay. Those games averaged 48,769.

League-wide, MLB regular-season attendance was up 0.5% in 2026. MLB teams report tickets sold, not an actual turnstile count.

The Yankees, in a statement provided to Newsday, said: “Our passionate fans — game after game and year after year — show up in overwhelming numbers. They brought Yankee Stadium to life again in 2026, which marked a Major League-record 26th consecutive full season with more than 3 million fans in attendance. Their vibrant and enthusiastic support truly provides the foundation for our world-renowned atmosphere, and the Yankees organization remains committed to providing Championship-caliber teams and an exciting in-Stadium experience that reflect their devotion."

PT Tierney, a Port Washington native who lives in Minnesota but makes it out to a Yankees game or two with his children when he visits family on Long Island, said he relegated the Yankees to his phone on conflict days and watched the Knicks on his main TV.

“Even though I’m 10 times more of a Yankees fan than a Knicks fan, I was able to recognize how special that was and definitely watched that pretty closely,” he said. “Definitely, the Yankees took a little bit of a backseat.”

Brian Polivy, a Yankees and Knicks fan who lives in Dix Hills, said he “was definitely swept up in the Knicks. I’m a lifelong Knicks diehard fan. Yankees and Knicks are 1-2 for me. I definitely think my level of interest in the Yankees was maybe a little bit muted because of how good the Knicks were.”

Of course, not every Yankees fan was swept up in Knicks mania.

Will Pesek of Malverne, who went to about a dozen Yankees games this past season, said: “I had no Knick fever. I’m a diehard baseball or hockey fan. I was full Yankees during that Knicks run.”

Pesek attended a Yankees game in May on the same night the Knicks were playing Cleveland in the Eastern Conference Finals. The atmosphere inside Yankee Stadium was more like a Knicks watch party.

“They made it very clear that the Knicks were playing,” he said. “They had it on the Jumbotron. Everybody was engaged. I, unfortunately, was one of those that was not engaged.”