Next Dodger Act Needs Audience Participation

The number to watch for the Dodgers next season will have nothing to do with batting averages or earned-run averages.

It’s about attendance. Will they reach the 3-million mark again, the way they did last season and in six of the eight non-strike seasons before that?

Or will 2000 be the year Dodger fans finally say they’ve had enough? Will they call an end to the unspoken covenant that brought them out to Chavez Ravine in good faith no matter what?

In an era of rising ticket prices across the sports world, with elaborate home theater systems able to provide almost every aspect of the ballpark experience but the vendors walking down the aisles, why should they go?

Dodger fans’ good faith has been put to the test.

After the Mike Piazza fiasco in 1998, the Fox regime tried to make amends by sparing no expense in the off-season and made bold promises.

When that didn’t work we got an update: half splurging, half penny-pinching, a lot of wait-and-see.

“I believe that the team will be better than last year,” Dodger Chairman Bob Daly said.

That wouldn’t take much. And it wouldn’t be much of an accomplishment for a town accustomed to National League playoff races.

The more relevant matter is, do you believe?

The first test went out along with the season-ticket renewal forms the Dodgers mailed last week. The next will come from the walk-up crowds at the 81 home games next year.

For tickets in some sections of the ballpark the Dodgers are asking more than ever for a team that has as many question marks as any Dodger club in recent memory.

Ticket prices for regular seats top out at $40 apiece for the field level (yellow) seats between the dugouts. That’s a $5 increase from last season, but those seats are held by the season-ticket holders with the longest tenure. Any seats given up will be quickly snatched by people waiting to improve their seat locations.

The outfield pavilion seats and the red top-deck seats remain the same price they were in 1992: $6.

The blue-level seats between the dugouts have increased slightly to $13 a game for season tickets and $15 a game on an individual basis.

Dodger Stadium is also going upscale with the installation of 30 luxury suites and 565 seats in the newly created Dugout Club, where packages of four seats and access to the Dugout Club Lounge can cost up to $100,000.

The fear is that the stadium will turn into another corporate hangout, like Staples Center, and it won’t matter what the fans think. The cost of Dodger games will just be something to write off the taxes or put on the expense account. With guaranteed money the team won’t be held responsible for performance at all.

For now, two months into the job, Daly cares very much about performance and perception. His accessibility to the media (he returned a phone call within 30 seconds Wednesday) is one way he demonstrates his accountability to the fans.

He’s irked by the notion the Dodgers put the bottom line first in their most recent trade of pitcher Ismael Valdes and second baseman Eric Young to the Chicago Cubs for pitcher Terry Adams and two minor leaguers after trading Raul Mondesi to Toronto for Shawn Green and signing Green to a contract that averages $14 million a year.

An effort to rid themselves of the $9 million owed to Young for the next two seasons was the most obvious motive, but Daly said it wasn’t the first sign of a fire sale.

“We’re not cutting our payroll,” Daly said. “We’re not Florida. We’re not San Diego. We’re not cutting the payroll down and telling fans to wait five years.”

The Dodgers aren’t the Marlins? That used to go without saying. Now you can’t assume anything.

Everyone understood why Mondesi had to go after his profanity-laced comments about Davey Johnson and Kevin Malone last season. And given the circumstances, they did quite well to land a player of Green’s caliber--while gaining their long-desired left-handed power hitter to boot.

But if the hidden cost was also Valdes and Young, that’s not so cool.

Daly insists that the two trades weren’t related, and that the huge contract the Dodgers gave Green won’t affect the 2000 season payroll. While Green’s average salary is $14 million, the $8.75 million he will make in salary next season is actually less than the $9.5 million owed to Mondesi for 2000. (Green’s figure doesn’t include his $4-million signing bonus).

The Dodgers would have made the Valdes/Young trade even if Mondesi went off on a retreat with Johnson and Malone and they all came back holding hands and singing folk songs.

Daly said the perception of the Valdes/Young trade was all about timing. “As far as I’m concerned, we’re right on schedule,” Daly said. “If we made the Valdes/Young trade first, then we made the Green trade, everybody would be very happy.”

He’s probably right. But again, the Dodgers have lost that benefit of the doubt after all of those big moves and little results.

Dodger administrator Tommy Hawkins probably spends a good portion of his time among the people, making appearances and giving speeches, and his handle on the mood of the populace is as good as anyone’s.

“There has been major frustration on the part of Dodger fans,” Hawkins said. “They still have not adjusted to the transition.

“If you want to equate it to a social situation, it’s like leaving home for the first time and not having the comfort zone that you’re used to.”

That’s the alienation the Dodgers have to overcome now to get fans to leave home in the first place.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com.