I’ve written on this topic previously, but now I’ve got some new information that I wanted to pass along to you.

As you know if you attend Cubs games when there are promotional gate giveaways, the team limits those to the first 10,000 (or “up to” that number, as they generally say) who come to the gates. This has led to many disappointed fans who, for whatever reason, want the giveaway but can’t get to Wrigley Field early enough. In some cases this has produced very long lines to get into the ballpark and some trouble at some gates.

This year, there were at least two occasions when some bleacher fans didn’t get giveaways they should have. For most gate giveaways of 10,000 total, about 1,000 items are sent to the bleachers. Since the bleachers are about 13 percent of the total seating at Wrigley Field, that seems about right.

When the Dansby and Mallory Swanson bobblehead was given away in August, some boxes of bobbleheads were taken away before the gates opened. I witnessed this. The result was that some bleacher season ticket holders didn’t get one. As you can imagine, they weren’t too happy about this — especially when some more boxes of bobbleheads were brought back to the bleachers after all the STH who were there at gate-opening time were already in the ballpark.

There was also a “Cubs Bleacher Bum” T-shirt giveaway that was supposed to go to all bleacher fans. Again, several boxes of these were taken away from the bleachers, so not all bleacher fans got one.

So that’s one thing the Cubs need to fix. But the bigger issue is only 10,000 giveaway items when the team is averaging over 37,000 fans per game.

This is not the way many other teams do giveaways. I have numbers for you! In August I went through the websites of all 29 other teams to see what their policies were for gate giveaways. Many teams, including the Cubs, now have other giveaways that you have to buy a special ticket for, and those are more limited in number. These numbers are only for gate giveaways that are open to all without a special ticket.

Dodgers: 40,000
Padres: 40,000
Angels: 25,000
Brewers: 25,000
Nationals: 20,000
Cardinals: 20,000
Pirates: 20,000
Diamondbacks: 20,000
Guardians: 20,000
Orioles: 20,000 (some 15,000)
Royals: 20,000 (some 10,000 or 15,000)
Twins: 20,000 (some 10,000)
Yankees: 18,000
Tigers: 18,000
Giants: 15,000 (some 20,000)
Mariners: 15,000
Rangers: 15,000
Blue Jays: 15,000
Mets: 15,000
Braves: 15,000
Rockies: 15,000
White Sox: 15,000 (some 7,500)
Astros: 10,000
Marlins: 8,000
Red Sox: 7,500

Four teams did not post specific numbers.

Phillies: “all fans”
Rays: “all fans”
Athletics: “each ticketed guest”
Reds: “while supplies last”

The number that sticks out the most to me in the list above is from the Dodgers. The Dodgers, who lead MLB in attendance every year. The Dodgers, who averaged 49,537 per date in 2025, have 40,000 of every giveaway item, which means that pretty much everyone who wants one would get one.

Oh, except for this special one:

“All fans in attendance with a valid ticket” got a Shohei Ohtani 50/50 bobblehead, which was one of the most desired giveaway items for any team in 2025. That game drew a paid crowd of 49,199 (and they got to see Ohtani pitch that night, too!) and so nearly 50,000 people all got an Ohtani bobblehead.

It should be noted that for some of the teams that have smaller numbers, those come close to matching their average attendance. For example, the Orioles have 20,000 giveaway items, their average in 2025 was 22,267. The Twins, 20,000 items, average crowd this year 21,836. Clearly, for teams like this, promotional giveaways might actually draw larger crowds and bump up their averages. That’s not the case for the Cubs, who played to 89.5 percent of capacity this year and who have most of their bobblehead giveaways — the most popular ones — on Saturdays when they’re likely close to sold out anyway.

And the A’s and Rays gave items to all fans, while both teams averaged below 10,000 in their temporary parks. The Marlins have only 8,000 giveaway items — but their average attendance in 2025 was 14,281 per game.

The only teams that draw well and have as few or fewer giveaway items than the Cubs are the Astros (10,000 giveaways, 33,677 average) and Red Sox (7,500 giveaways, 34,278 average).

But most teams have enough for a large percentage of their fans to get popular giveaway items without having to rush to get to the ballpark early, or be disappointed if they can’t.

Yes, I know the argument — teams want fans in the park early to consume more food and drink. At the same time, enough teams have enough giveaway items for fans that maybe this shouldn’t matter. The Cubs have reduced the number of gate giveaways anyway in recent years, shifting over to the “special ticket” items that have proven to be popular.

The Cubs really should increase the number of gate giveaway items to at least 15,000, or hey, why not match the mighty Yankees at 18,000? That would leave far fewer disappointed Cubs fans, and there’s no additional cost to the team, since the items generally have a sponsor who pays for them.