Major League Baseball teams are finding the recession is a tough out.
Seven weeks into the season, more than half of baseball's 30 teams, including the Orioles and particularly the Washington Nationals, are seeing smaller crowds than a year ago. The dips come at a time of year when attendance is relatively low anyway because kids are in school and the weather is iffy.
Through 22 home games this season, the O's have drawn an average of 21,833 fans, a decline of 2,579 compared with their first 22 contests of 2008. The 10.6 percent drop by the Orioles, in last place in the American League East, compares with a loss of between 4 percent and 4.5 percent in overall attendance of the major league clubs so far this season.
The Nationals, who are set to meet the Orioles in a three-game series beginning tonight in Washington for this year's first interleague play, are in worse straits.
Washington's average attendance of 20,041 through 19 home games was about 32 percent off last season's pace. The Nats, still trying to win over Washington's fan base in their fifth season, appear to be struggling for a variety of reasons, including a woeful record, the recession, and the novelty of Nationals Park wearing off. The new, publicly financed, $611 million ballpark opened last season to favorable reviews and middling crowds.
"The new stadium smell wore off pretty fast," said Paul Swangard of the University of Oregon's Warsaw Sports Marketing Center, which says two-thirds of the teams that moved into new stadiums since 1999 have seen a significant attendance declines after the first year. The Nats "were already facing the honeymoon-effect factor wearing off and, combine that with a recessionary period, and it's like [piling] on a problem that already exists."
The Nats reduced season ticket prices from last year on 7,500 seats to try to attract more fans. But it is hard to overcome a record of 11-28 - and losers of nine of 10 games - heading into last night's home contest against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Major League Baseball says it's not alarmed even though Washington has lost two baseball teams in the past.
"It's the second year in a new ballpark and you always see a drop-off," said Robert A. DuPuy, baseball's president and chief operating officer. "They didn't have a particularly good year last year. That didn't help. And they got off to a slow start this year. [Team president] Stan Kasten was quoted as saying if they win some games, attendance will take care of itself. They've got some very good talent."
