Baseball 'renaissance' still on hold

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

For six weeks, Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig has been telling anyone who will listen about the sport's recovery at the turnstiles this summer.

It is true that after a horrendous start to the season, MLB will finish with an average attendance of about 27,900 a game, not far behind 2002's figure of 28,168. Following a springtime that included some brutal weather on the East Coast, the war in Iraq and a decidedly uneven economy, Selig is absolutely entitled to feel good about baseball's short-term rise off the mat.

A closer look at the numbers, however, shows the baseball "renaissance" Selig so often trumpets still remains very much a work in progress. Among the key trends:

• Depending on how the final numbers for the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays turn out, as many as 16 teams will show declines from their 2002 attendance. That would mark the fourth straight year that at least as many teams posted falling totals as those who stayed flat or grew.

• Nine stadiums posted the lowest single-game crowds in their histories this season, including such showplaces as Camden Yards, Jacobs Field, PNC Park and Turner Field.

• Only five teams reached the coveted 3 million mark in home attendance, the lowest such number since 1996.

• Though baseball's average attendance is staying essentially the same, the median figure has dropped about 4 percent. That means MLB is relying more than ever on attendance leaders such as the Yankees, Seattle Mariners, San Francisco Giants and Boston Red Sox to prop up the entire sport.

It also means an expanding middle and lower-middle class for baseball. Once proud teams like Baltimore, Cleveland, the New York Mets and Texas -- each in the recent past a top-10 team in attendance -- now all rank 11th or worse. The Indians, in particular, have sunk to a lowly 24th.

The Toronto Blue Jays, the first team to draw 4 million fans, have not attracted half that figure since 1999.