With Major League Baseball attendance set to fall nearly seven percent from last season in a struggling economy, clubs have already started announcing ticket price cuts for 2010.
With teams set to conclude 162-game seasons on Sunday, attendance is off by 6.9 percent from last year to its lowest mark since 2003, an average crowd of 30,276. Crowds in 2008 were down 0.8 percent from a record 32,785 in 2007.
The New York Mets, set for their worst season in six years after barely missing the 2007 and 2008 playoffs, suffered a 24-percent drop in crowds in the first year at a smaller new stadium and will slash ticket prices 10 to 20 percent.
"The economy is still a challenge and we just wanted to be as aggressive as we could in reducing the pricing," Mets executive vice president Dave Howard said.
The New York Yankees, down 13 percent in a new stadium with 7,000 fewer seats a game, will trim top season ticket prices by 75 to 90 dollars to no more than 250 dollars with another 3,400 seats taking a price cut as well.
Washington crowds are off 22 percent for the worst team in baseball, so the Nationals are cutting the price on more than 3,300 seats and not raising the price of others for most games in 2010.
Toronto has suffered the same percentage drop with San Diego and Detroit each off 20 percent, the latter club despite being in a playoff fight into the weekend, as 22 of 30 major league clubs suffer attendance dips.
San Diego will trim ticket prices on 60 percent of stadium seats while the Oakland A's will cut prices by an average of 10 percent.
"Getting out early, so that they can make accurate assessment of season ticket renewals for budgeting purposes given the economy, is prudent," said Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer.
"Clubs are sensitive to fans' budgeting needs and are trying to be responsive."
Copyright 2009  AFP American Edition
