Fans Will Finish Out of the Money

With everyone gathered around a conference table, it looked less like an announcement and more like a board meeting.

There were nice, colorful charts and information neatly arranged in folders. Team President Tony Tavares used a light pen to illustrate points.

No getting around it, though. The Angels had some bad news.

Not shocking, not unexpected, just bad.

Ticket prices are up.

“We don’t expect people to be happy with it,” Tavares said.

When fans pay $15 for a Terrace Box seat after spending $9 the year before, it gets a little tougher to root, root, root for the home team.

And don’t expect the money to go to the Darryl Kile Fund or some other worthy free-agent destination.

“It’ll be dedicated to hopefully not losing as much [money] as we’ve lost in the past,” Tavares said.

Instead of free agents this year, the Angels decided to spend their money--in addition to some of the city of Anaheim’s--on a stadium. It’s kind of the Chicago Cubs’ method of operations: if your ballpark is nice enough, the fans will come out no matter how the team does.

The new Anaheim Stadium, er, Edison Field, will feature nicer landscaping, better interior decorating and what the Angels are calling an “extravaganza” of geysers and water flowing over rocks in the outfield.

Even with the price increases, if you really want to go to the ballpark just for the experience (and with the new food choices and interactive games, it will be an experience) you can get in for as little as $4 and bring your kid along for only $2 more to sit in the outfield.

You just can’t count on seeing the best team the Angels could produce.

This postseason, when four of the five highest-paid teams in baseball squared off in league championship series, showed there is a direct correlation between payroll and results.

Of course, the scary side effect was that the owner of the World Series champion Florida Marlins decided he couldn’t afford it anymore and put the team up for sale.

Disney doesn’t want to get caught in the game. Sports economics are screwy and Disney CEO Michael Eisner’s philosophy is to not make it any worse, according to Tavares. That means no spending beyond their means.

Tavares is quick to tell anyone who’ll listen that his industry is out of control. He provided a classic illustration of his stance by unknowingly tapping his finger on a fire alarm while he warned of the looming crisis in sports.

The Angels want to follow sound business policies, not the insanity of baseball. And they’re not generating enough revenue at the gate to justify free-wheeling expenditures in the free-agent market.

There’s another common thread among the league championship teams this year: Baltimore and Cleveland ranked 1-2 in the American League in attendance. Atlanta was second in the National League, and all three teams drew more than 3.4 million fans. Only the Marlins, with 2.36 million fans, couldn’t measure up. That’s why Huizenga wants out.

The Angels drew only 1,767,234 fans, ninth in the American League. That was a drop-off of almost 54,000 even though the team improved from last place to pennant contender.

Tavares is baffled by the fan apathy, although he suspects it could be due to the ongoing renovations. The Angels hope that when the renovations are finished and the new ballpark debuts next year it will draw people back.

But after awhile chicken dinners and fake rocks won’t cut it. The novelty of a new building only lasts so long. When the Toronto Blue Jays moved into the futuristic SkyDome in 1989, their attendance jumped by almost 700,000, or 10,000 per game. The Blue Jays drew more than 4 million fans a season in 1991 and their back-to-back world championship years of ’92 and ’93.

Now SkyDome isn’t so new anymore, the Blue Jays aren’t that good anymore and attendance this year was actually lower than 1988, their last full season at Exhibition Stadium.

Except for the Cubs, whose charming Wrigley Field draws fans regardless of the team’s performance, the best way for teams to bring people to the stadium is to win. And the Angels will not commit all of their resources to winning.

They’re asking the fans to take a leap of faith. Tavares indicated that if attendance increases, the checkbook might open.

It’s a classic chicken-or-egg. The fans want to see a championship-caliber team before they pay for tickets. But they won’t get the best team money can buy unless they fill the stands. Who will commit first, Disney or Joe Public?

Tavares and the rest of the folks in the front office wouldn’t be doing their jobs if they didn’t try to make the team profitable. The Angels have sustained what he called “substantial losses” over the last couple of years and they say it can’t continue.

However, it’s hard to view sports in the same light as other businesses. Teams serve more of a civic purpose, especially when there’s public money involved--as is the case with the new stadium. The Angels have a budget, but so do the fans being asked to pay the higher ticket prices. It seems like the mega-corporation should be the one to swallow the bill in this case.

That won’t happen, so you might as well count your blessings: at least the price of parking stayed the same.