Plenty of Good Seats Available

Chipper Jones has gotten used to playing in front of thousands of empty blue seats at Turner Field.

“I try not to notice,” the Atlanta Braves third baseman said.

He’s not alone. In Cleveland, tickets have gone unsold at Jacobs Field for the first time in six years. In Baltimore, a perennial losing team has taken away from the charm of Camden Yards. In Florida, Tampa Bay and Montreal, there’s talk of relocation or elimination while the crowds dwindle.

Granted, baseball is roughly on pace to equal last year’s attendance, a single-season record of 72.7 million. Officials hail the number as proof the game has a bright future.

But there’s a troubling undercurrent to the attendance column of the box score, which is clearly bolstered by the willingness of city after city to build new ballparks.

This year, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Milwaukee Brewers moved into new stadiums, with the usual surge in crowds. PNC Park and Miller Park are the 12th and 13th stadiums to make their debuts since Chicago’s Comiskey Park opened in 1991.

“We’ve been going full throttle since January selling tickets,” boasted Bob Voight, director of ticket sales for the Brewers, who have doubled attendance at their retractable-roof park.

Cincinnati, Philadelphia and San Diego are planning new parks, as well, but this revenue-boosting tool will eventually run its course.

Besides, the lure of a new stadium often wears off after a year or two. The average attendance through the first nine weeks was 28,501, down 0.3 percent from last year and 9.8 percent below the record average of 31,612 in 1994.

The Detroit Tigers were averaging less than 20,000 a game in just their second season at Comerica Park. In Arizona, fans quickly got over the novelty of the roof opening and closing at Bank One Ballpark. Attendance plunged in Year 2 and the Diamondbacks are on pace to draw about 2.6 million this year -- 1 million less than 1998, their debut season.

The Braves, who play at 5-year-old Turner Field, could be headed for their lowest average attendance in a decade, even as they pursue a 10th straight trip to the postseason.

“Braves fans have become so spoiled over the years,” said Andy Jordan, who recently drove more than three hours from the south Georgia town of Moultrie for a sunny, weekday game that drew less than 28,000. “They’re expecting them to win every game.”

The Braves are averaging 32,412 for their 27 homes games, with only one sellout. If that keeps up, the team will attract fewer than 2.6 million fans this year.

Excluding the 1994-95 strike seasons, Atlanta hasn’t been that low since 1991.

More alarming, the Braves are on pace to fall a whopping 32 percent below the franchise record of nearly 3.9 million, set in 1993 at the old Atlanta Fulton-County Stadium, and continue their annual slide from 1997, when more than 3.4 million turned out for Turner Field’s debut season.

Team president Stan Kasten is concerned about the numbers, particularly since the Braves opened the season with baseball’s sixth-highest payroll at more than $91 million.

“Obviously, we need all the revenue we can get to justify expenses,” he said. “The fans pay for everything.”

No franchise was rejuvenated by a new stadium more than the Indians, who sold out 455 straight games at Jacobs Field beginning 1995. The streak finally ended in April.

“It couldn’t go on forever,” Indians owner Larry Dolan said.

The San Francisco Giants sold out every game a year ago, their first at the waterfront Pac Bell Park. The sellout streak ended this year, though the team still averages more than 40,000 a game.

“The park has been everything we hoped it would be,” Giants owner Peter Magowan said. “Our games are events.”

It used to be that way at Camden Yards, but the Orioles are down nearly 5,000 a game from a year ago and could fall below 3 million for the first time since the strike-shortened 1994 season.

“I appreciate the fans who come. Those who don’t, maybe they don’t understand that we’re playing pretty good baseball out there,” catcher Brook Fordyce said. “Or maybe the (NFL’s Baltimore) Ravens took all their money.”

Kasten said the Braves could be forced to make some hard money decisions next season if attendance doesn’t improve. The team, which has passed from Ted Turner to AOL-Time Warner Inc. through a series of corporate mergers, is now beholden to a strict bottomline.

Some fans are turned off by the rapid surge in ticket prices, concessions and other costs. The average cost of a major league ticket this year is $18.99, an increase of 12.9 percent over a year ago, according to Team Marketing Report.

The Chicago-based group also compiles a “fan cost index,” described as the average cost for a family of four to attend a game. That comes to $145.45, jumping 9.8 percent from 2000.

“Ticket prices keep going up, up, up,” said Atlanta’s Jones, who contributed to the increase by landing a $90 million, six-year contract. “I think the fans are showing some of their displeasure by not coming.”