As Padres Fade Rapidly Into the West, So Do the Profits : Baseball: Team’s losing stretch translates into slower ticket sales and less money for the stadium and the city.

The San Diego Padres, once favored to win the National League pennant, have been falling faster than a teen-ager with a crush. And the baseball team’s collapse affects more than just players and standings.

Bill Wilson, manager of San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, points out that lower Padre ticket sales mean less money for the stadium and for the city that owns it.

“It bothers me,” Wilson said of the Padres’ slide. “It’s difficult to be here all day long and sit through another crushing defeat and go home depressed. The city and the stadium are dependent on the tenants. When they do well, we do well. When they don’t. . . .”

Last year, for the first time since it opened in 1967, the stadium made money, Wilson said. Its $200,000-plus profit went into the city’s general fund and provided a boost at a time when San Diego’s projected deficit for the current fiscal year was in excess of $60 million.

Wilson credits the surplus to the Padres’ furious finish in the second half of last season. He worries that this season’s second-half tumble may cast a pall over 1991.

“When teams lose, and attendance falls, we lose--no question about it,” he said. “We get 10% of ticket sales and all of the parking (revenue). If the stadium loses money, that means, for certain, no stadium improvements, and we always need those.

“It also means we have to pull money from the city’s Sports Arena land lease, which represents our fallback. We made more than $200,000 last year and would have done better had the Padres made the playoffs. A lot better.”

So far in 1990, the Padres have not performed poorly at the gate. Average attendance through Tuesday’s 10-0 victory over Cincinnati was 26,095, only slightly below the best-ever mark notched during the 1985 season (27,288 per game), which was fueled by the pennant-winning season of 1984.

Andy Strasberg, the Padres’ director of marketing, said this season’s special pro motional nights have been among the best ever. Most occurred, however, before July’s fall from grace. Cap Night on April 21 drew the largest crowd of the year--56,147. Sports Bag Night on June 2 drew 55,564. Towel Night on July 7 drew 52,922.

Strasberg hopes that upcoming promotions--Saturday’s Old-Timers’ Game and the KGB Sky Show on Sept. 21--will help salvage the second half. He said he hoped that Wednesday night’s appearance by comedienne Roseanne Barr, who sang the national anthem before the second game of the double-header, has the same effect at the box office.

There were 25,744 people at the doubleheader, which the Padres won--leaving them 18 games out of first place.

Strasberg said he tries to offer “a complete entertainment package,” one that isn’t dependent on the success of a team. However, in his words, “Winning presents opportunities like nothing else can.”

Two local banks saw opportunities in the team’s predicted first-place finish and decided to launch special Padres promotions, neither of which has been a rousing success.

Milt Kistler, first vice president of San Diego Trust & Savings Bank, said a new Padres’ credit card--bearing the team insignia and offering gifts and tickets to Padre games--has clearly been affected by the plummet.

“It’s running below target, and sure, if they were on top, the card would be doing much better,” Kistler said. “Even so, we’re not overly concerned. We think that ultimately the product will meet its goals. After all, it is a credit card, and people like to have credit cards, no matter what they have on them.”

On July 2, just before losing tightened its grip on the Padres, HomeFed Bank began a Padres checking account. Each check bears the team logo and, like the San Diego Trust credit card, offers special Padre “incentives,” such as tickets and souvenirs.

“It’s not something we’re trying to drive in a lot of business, but no, it hasn’t done as well as we’d hoped,” said Maura Grimes of HomeFed Bank. “Still, we like our relationship with the Padres and want to continue it. Winning makes it better, though, no question about it.”

Kevin Allen, assistant manager of the San Diego Padres Clubhouse Shop, said he had noticed a pronounced drop-off in sales at his store at North County Fair in Escondido.

“We also have a TeleSeat outlet here in the store,” Allen said. “I’ve noticed a definite decrease in ticket sales. I’ve noticed a particular drop-off in last-second impulse buying. You know, little things like Padre key chains by the cash register. People don’t pick those up as readily as they used to.

“We had a flood of interest in Padre stuff at the start of the season, and no doubt about it, it’s dropped off, while interest in other teams has picked up. That’s the way fans are. But it’s hardly enough to cripple the store. We do real, real well.”

Stadium Authority Board member Mike Gotch said a prolonged slump often has a “domino effect” on ticket sales from one season to the next.

Stadium manager Wilson said slumps make it more incumbent on him to try to compensate for lost revenue by booking other events, such as rock concerts.

The Rolling Stones’ 1981 show was the stadium’s biggest one-day moneymaker, netting more than $250,000, Wilson said. Last year’s appearance by the Who netted about $190,000.

Wilson notices another consequence when a team that’s expected to play well just doesn’t.

“I get complaints,” he said. “Do I ever get complaints. That’s when people complain about parking, restrooms, or like we’ve heard recently, our need to conserve water. It must be because people are irritated. When our teams are winning, I don’t hear a word.”