In remarks on Thursday, Shohei Ohtani praised the atmosphere during Los Angeles Angels home games over his six years playing in the city. But Ohtani wasn't talking about Halos fans, but rather, the presence of Los Angeles Dodgers fans.

Reminiscing about home games in which the Dodgers were the visiting team, Ohtani remarked that Angel Stadium was “half blue,” according to NBC LA's Michael Duarte. To Ohtani, it was a sign of the passion of Dodgers fans, and played a role in his eventually signing with the team.

In the six years that Ohtani played for the Angels (2018-2023, excluding 2020 because of COVID), the Dodgers ranked first in attendance in MLB in every season.

Angels attendance figures have suffered during this stretch. The team ranked sixth in 2018 and slid up to fifth in 2019. But it fell to 16th in 2021, 13th in 2022, and 13th again last season.

Winning cures all for Ohtani?

Of course, these seasons also saw the L.A. teams on two different trajectories. By 2018, the Dodgers were in the middle of a booming stretch that has seen them win the NL West in 10 of the last 11 seasons.

Meanwhile, the Angels, who finished 2017 in second in the AL West, kicked off a run of six straight losing seasons (and counting) in 2018.

Shohei Ohtani in a Dodgers uniform

Of course, teams will also draw better when they are winning, and see attendance suffer when they slog through a hopeless season.

For Ohtani, clearly the draw of playing for a winning organization in front of adoring fans was too much to turn down. Ohtani is said to love living on the West Coast, so making a switch from Angels red to Dodgers blue while remaining in his preferred city has to be about as good as it gets.