Cactus League Vendors Sit Anxiously in ‘Strike Zone’ : Baseball: Civic leaders in Angels’ spring training home of Tempe, Ariz., are wary. So are team officials.

What if they held spring training and nobody bothered to watch?

As the major league baseball strike marches relentlessly onward, officials in Tempe, Ariz., spring training home of the Angels, wait and worry about what will happen if there is no resolution by the time camp is scheduled to open next Thursday. Angel officials are wary too.

After all, there are millions of dollars at stake.

“I’ll absolutely concede spring training won’t be the same,” said Lanny Van Eman, director of the Arizona office of sports development.

“But spring training has gone on for so long. . . . A lot of folks make their hotel reservations a year in advance.”

This spring training--if it’s stocked with no-names, has-beens and wanna-bes--would be far different from any others, however.

The difference could show in half-empty cash registers at Tempe Diablo Stadium and other ballparks. Fearful local officials say canceled hotel reservations could cause a near-economic disaster during the high tourist season. But they have worked quickly to put a positive spin on whatever form spring training might take this year.

Major league teams, including the Angels, have done their best to cope, expecting the worst while hoping it doesn’t come to pass.

The Angels don’t begin ticket sales until Monday, but President Richard Brown said advance sales are off considerably. At this time last year, the Angels had sold 10,000 tickets, but this year are only at 7,000.

“We’ve fallen behind,” Brown said. “Without major league players the gate at spring training is going to suffer, no doubt about it. (But) we haven’t hurt as badly as we feared.”

*

Arizona rakes in more tourist dollars--close to $270 million from about 800,000 visitors--during the six-week spring training period than at any other time during the year. Sunburned baseball fans, crowding area hotels and restaurants, chomping on hot dogs and buyingmemorabilia at ballparks mean an economic bounty for Tempe and other spring training cities in Arizona and Florida.

At first, Arizona officials were terrified that spring training would be called off, that millions of dollars would simply vanish. After all, $270 million represents a sizable chunk of the state’s $10.5-billion tourist trade. After major league owners decided to go ahead with plans to use replacement players, Arizona officials heaved a sigh of relief.

“We’ve been trying to sell to the public that in the early part of the spring you don’t see Bo Jackson or Ken Griffey Jr., anyway,” said Ron Pies, commissioner of the eight-team, Arizona-based Cactus League.

“You’ll be seeing some of the same guys who would be there anyway. You don’t see the premier players in the best of times.”

Indeed, superstars often play less than an inning or two in the early spring games. But Pies also knows that’s a tough sell to a baseball-starved public. Even if the big names aren’t playing, they’re at least at the ballpark. For a fan, seeing a star or getting an autograph can rival watching a home run sail out of sight.

Morning workouts, including batting practice, are free, and the average ticket for Angel home games is about $5. Many fans will watch a morning practice at one stadium, catch an afternoon game at another, then take in a night game at a third.

With seven of the eight Cactus League teams clustered in the Phoenix area, it can be a great day of baseball gluttony.

*

The central question facing civic and team officials is whether snowbirds from the Midwest or weekend visitors from California will come to Arizona in the same numbers as before.

“It’s an awful letdown, and I blame the players as much as the management,” said Milwaukee Brewer fan Roger Brandt of Appleton, Wis. “But I won’t even go to see what it (games with replacement players) looks like.”

Business has already suffered at sports card and memorabilia shops such as the Shoebox in Phoenix, and a further letdown is expected if spring training games are staffed by replacements.

“We typically order a lot of 8 x 10 pictures of players who are here for spring training,” said Rodney Johnson, who works at the Shoebox. “People come in, buy the pictures, then get them signed by the players. We order American and National League baseballs too. But we’ve stopped ordering them. We’re figuring that part of our business will be lost if the real players aren’t here.

“We’re hoping the (National Basketball Assn.’s Phoenix) Suns will carry us if they go all the way. The (NBA) finals don’t end until June, so we’re riding that wave right now.”

Arizona officials stress that tourists will always visit their state--with or without spring training. After all, there is the Grand Canyon and Sedona in the northern part of the state, the Phoenix-area resorts and historic Tombstone near Tucson.

But spring training is a tremendous lure.

“We’ve done studies,” Van Eman said. “Out of nine or 10 choices, visitors landing at Sky Harbor (airport in Phoenix) were polled, and 91% picked baseball as one of their choices for things to do here. And 60% polled from March 1 to April 1 said it was their primary reason for coming.”

Will the labor dispute be resolved when workouts begin next week? Will anyone want to watch Bob the butcher or Carl the car salesman play when games begin March 3?

So far, economic indicators are more encouraging than Arizona officials at first thought they would be. According to Van Eman, hotel reservations in the Phoenix area are off by only 2%, down from the usual 94% capacity in the spring. “My suspicion is stays might be shorter by a day or two,” he said.

Advance ticket sales for the Cactus League are off 20%, Pies said.

Tempe, a Phoenix suburb that is home to Arizona State University and the National Football League’s Arizona Cardinals, had played host to spring training since the Seattle Pilots played there in 1969.

But when the Mariners made known their plans to move to a new, state-of-the-art facility in Peoria, northwest of Phoenix, Tempe officials, with help from Maricopa County, refurbished Tempe Diablo Stadium.

The county paid two-thirds and the city one-third of the $5.8-million face lift, and the Angels were signed to a contract through 2017. Until 1993, the Angels had been spring training nomads, splitting time between Mesa, Ariz., and Palm Springs.

Their new complex includes the 9,785-seat stadium, two practice fields and an extra infield, plus roomy locker room and weight room facilities.

*

Kansas City-based HOK Sports Facilities, which designed the new Comiskey Park in Chicago and Camden Yards in Baltimore, was enlisted to renovate Tempe Diablo. The results were spectacular for fans: a grass picnic area beyond the left-field fence, new seating areas between the foul poles, new concession stands and a team store located along the first-base side.

Last season, the Angels attracted 90,800 fans to 14 home games, similar figures to ’93.

In order to keep the fans coming, Van Eman said, there are plans to increase national advertising. Locally, he has other ideas. “First, we’d like to say to local fans, ‘If you couldn’t get tickets before, you’ll be able to now,’ ” he said. “Second, ‘It’s your civic responsibility.’ ”

Pies remains upbeat, hopeful of a last-minute resolution, but nevertheless resigned to weathering a difficult time.

“My feeling is that spring training will happen,” Pies said. “There will be an impact, but there will be games. This might be the low point. There will be a settlement. It will stabilize. There will always be major league baseball.”