What's he on about now?

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   Tuesday, April 29, 2003

AND IN OTHER NEWS, WATER IS WET

As seemingly one of the last people left with a fondness for baseball, I found this headline on Salon.com mordantly funny: Baseball's attendance is on the decline. What was the first clue? Years of half-empty stadiums, perhaps? This quote was my favourite:

Paul Adams, the director of ticket sales, admitted being concerned about the slow start at the turnstiles, but he was confident that crowds will improve now that the war in Iraq is essentially over. "People were not concentrating on baseball during the month of March -- when they normally buy tickets in advance -- because of the war," Adams said. "Now that the war has broke, hey, it's time to enjoy themselves and come to a ballgame."

Riiiiiiiiiiight.

Fortunately, the rest of the article covers the main point that Adams has obviously missed: that massive ticket and concession prices are driving away the family audiences that built baseball in the first place. So, baseball owners and players, how about making it a priority to find a way to divvy up profits and create a reasonable price structure for the fans?

It you build it, they will come.