Behind in Count

The Angels are expecting three sellout crowds for this weekend’s series against the Dodgers, after the Dodgers sold out two of three games against the Angels last weekend.

Pacific Bell Park will be packed for this weekend’s San Francisco-Oakland series after the Giants and A’s drew a three-game franchise record 155,375 fans in Oakland last weekend.

New York’s Yankee Stadium will be jammed for this weekend’s Met-Yankee series, and Chicago’s U.S. Cellular Field will attract huge crowds for the Cub-White Sox series.

But a short-term spike in attendance spurred by several attractive interleague matchups belies a disturbing trend in stadiums across America: Baseball is scuffling at the gate like the Dodgers at the plate.

Average attendance is down about 5% this season after a 6% decrease in 2002. In 1994, baseball’s average attendance was 31,612; before Thursday’s games, the 2003 average was 26,520.

While teams in Southern California, Chicago, New York and the Bay Area played to full houses last weekend, Tampa Bay and Florida drew 38,303 -- total -- for three games in Pro Player Stadium. Average attendance figures for the Devil Rays (12,252), Marlins (13,020) and Montreal Expos (12,239) are staggering.

An even more sobering development: Turnstiles in many of baseball’s shiniest new parks are no longer spinning like wheels of fortune.

The Baltimore Orioles sold out 67 consecutive games after moving into Camden Yards in 1992 and led baseball in attendance from 1995 to ‘99, peaking at 3.7 million in 1997. Attendance has dropped in each of the last five years, hitting 2.7 million in 2002, and the Orioles are on pace for 2.2 million this season, averaging 27,398.

The Colorado Rockies sold out 203 consecutive games after moving into Coors Field in 1995, and the Cleveland Indians sold out 455 consecutive games after moving into Jacobs Field in 1994.

But the Rockies, with a 27,926 average, are on pace for 2.2 million, and the Indians, with a 19,958 average, are on pace for 1.6 million, after surpassing 3 million for six years from 1996 to 2001.

The Milwaukee Brewers drew 2.8 million in 2001, the year Miller Park opened, but fell to 1.9 million in 2002 and are on pace for 1.5 million this year. The Detroit Tigers, after drawing 2.5 million to new Comerica Park in 2000, fell to 1.5 million in 2002 and are on pace for 1.4 million this year.

Season-ticket sales in Pittsburgh jumped from 9,000 in 2000 to 17,000 in 2001, the year PNC Park opened, but they’re back to 9,000 this season. Four teams -- Cleveland, Houston, Baltimore and Colorado -- already have had their smallest crowds ever this season in stadiums that were attendance magnets.

“New stadiums are no longer the panacea they once were,” said Mike Veeck, senior vice president of marketing and communications for the Tigers and son of the late legendary White Sox owner Bill Veeck. “But I think that’s good in a way; it’s a great wake-up call.

“Ballparks are about feeling and passion, not about bricks and mortar. And the idea that this game is going to be passed down through anything other than blood and veins is ludicrous. So, a lot of the things we thought over the last 10-15 years have proven not to be true, and that forces us to change our approach.”

Baseball officials are alarmed but not panicked about the downward trend. They point to a sluggish economy, horrible weather in the East and Midwest and lingering effects from last season’s labor dispute as contributing factors, acknowledging they didn’t expect to set attendance records year after year.

Commissioner Bud Selig called this spring’s weather “the worst I can remember in all the years I’ve been in baseball,” and the statistics back him up. It rained in New York on 28 of 51 days from May to late June, and Baltimore had rain or the threat of rain for 31 of 34 home dates through June 15. During one three-game stretch this month, the Orioles had six hours of rain delays, killing walk-up ticket sales.

“We’re in mid-June now and [the bad weather] hasn’t stopped,” Selig said in a recent interview. “We’re losing sold-out games, and at this point of the season we’re losing games that become more difficult to make up. I hate to put it in these terms, but we’re really getting killed.”

Attendance dropped considerably after a strike wiped out the 1994 World Series, falling from a 31,612 average in 1994 to 25,260 in 1995, but baseball surged past 30,000 a game in 2000 and 2001. The last two seasons, that trend has reversed.

“We’re concerned because we draw a significant portion of revenues from attendance, but we’re definitely not overly concerned,” MLB spokesman Rich Levin said. “Given the weather and the economy, we think attendance is pretty good.”

The Brewers had their worst season in franchise history in 2002, going 56-106, and their season-ticket base, not surprisingly, dropped from 11,000 to 8,000.

When the Brewers spoke to season-ticket holders about renewals, they expected cancellations because of team performance, “but most canceled because of economics,” said Rick Schlesinger, Milwaukee’s executive vice president of business operations. “Small business owners were laying off people, and people decided to cut back discretionary entertainment spending.”

Bad weather and a bad economy probably aren’t the biggest reasons attendance is declining. Blame bad baseball too.

New stadiums in Cleveland and Baltimore coincided with the resurgence of the Orioles and Indians -- Baltimore reached the American League championship series in 1996 and ‘97, and Cleveland made the playoffs six times and reached two World Series from 1995 to 2001.

But the Orioles have had five consecutive losing seasons, and the Indians are in a total rebuilding mode, having traded away several veterans and allowing others, such as sluggers Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome, to leave as free agents.

“It’s rather simple in Cleveland,” said Bob DiBiasio, the Indians’ vice president of public relations. “The 2002 season was our first in Jacobs Field when we were under .500 and had no chance of going to the postseason, and that directly affected our season-ticket base.”

After peaking at 25,000 season tickets in 1998, the Indians fell to 21,000 in 2002 and 15,000 this season. That’s still almost twice as large as Milwaukee’s season-ticket base.

“Everyone was hoping for the Camden Yards/Jacobs Field effect, and you hope the lives of a stadium are broader than what we’ve seen in Detroit, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh,” the Brewers’ Schlesinger said. “But the difference between them and us is the Orioles and Indians were doing it on the field when their new parks opened, and you can’t underestimate that, because performance drives attendance.”

The novelty of new parks seems to be wearing off quicker. Camden Yards and Jacobs Field were one-of-a-kind stadiums, cozy and clean, combining modern amenities with the charm and feel of an older park. Fans came as much for the stadium as they did for the baseball.

But of the 12 teams that have built new stadiums in the last 10 years, 10 are averaging fewer fans now than they did in the last seasons at their old parks.

Cincinnati is a perfect example. The Reds sold out their first game in 42,000-seat Great American Ball Park on March 31 but have averaged about 25,000 since.

Some cities with publicly funded stadiums might be experiencing a fan backlash. Detroit used $250 million in public financing for $395-million Comerica Park, and the state of Wisconsin contributed $160 million through sales-tax increases for $322-million Miller Park.

“I get about 20-30 e-mails a week from fans, and that subject comes up a lot,” Schlesinger said. “They say we funded the park; we should have a better team on the field. I don’t sense they’re purposely staying away because they funded it, but they had expectations that the ballpark would usher in a new era in which the team would be consistently competitive.”

Veeck believes poor marketing, not poor weather and a poor economy, has driven fans away.

“I think we believed in our own press,” he said. “There are more kids playing baseball than ever before, but that’s participatory. The NBA picked our pocket. While we were sleeping, talking about tradition and being America’s pastime, [NBA Commissioner] David Stern forged marketing relationships that were brilliant.”

Veeck’s solution: “Hire more people from the minor leagues who are used to scuffling and hustling; find marketing guys who are passionate about the game.”

Minor league baseball drew 12.5 million fans through May, up 2% over last year and the third-highest total through that date in the 101 years statistics have been kept.

In the majors, teams are responding to diminishing gate receipts with a renewed focus on marketing, reducing ticket prices, increasing giveaway dates and fireworks nights, enhancing in-game entertainment, adding concierge services for fans and encouraging players to sign more autographs and make more public appearances.

The Padres have cut ticket prices on 22,000 seats in Qualcomm Stadium, and even the Angels, who rank third in the AL with a 36,257 average, are focusing on their 7,000 empty seats, reducing ticket prices in several sections.

“Every ballpark has to become what every minor league park already is, experts in customer service,” said Veeck, author of many wacky minor league promotions. “We’ve lost a generation and a half of kids. Kids just don’t get up and read the box scores like I did, and players aren’t connecting with the fans. The more we separate the players from the fans, the more we isolate both of them.”

And the lonelier America’s ballparks will become.

Staff writer Ross Newhan contributed to this report.

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*--* Source: Major League Baseball Filling the Seats Average major league attendance and average seating capacity from 1990 through 2003 (2003 attendance through Wednesday’s games): Year Teams Avg. Att Avg. Seat. Cap % of Cap 1990 26 26,575 53,583 50% 1991 26 27,367 53,009 52% 1992 26 26,978 51,939 52% 1993 28 31,337 53,367 59% 1994 28 31,612 52,063 61% 1995 28 25,260 51,113 49% 1996 28 26,889 50,325 53% 1997 28 28,288 49,719 57% 1998 30 29,285 49,425 59% 1999 30 29,152 49,221 59% 2000 30 30,099 47,705 63% 2001 30 30,012 46,645 64% 2002 30 28,135 46,529 60% 2003 30 26,520 46,670 57%

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