Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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Friday, July 04, 2008
Pittsburgh Pirates' Nate McLouth gets a base hit off Cincinnati Reds pitcher David Weathers to drive in a run in the 11th inning of a baseball game, Tuesday, July 1, 2008, in Cincinnati. David Ross catches at right. Pittsburgh won 6-5 in 11 innings.(AP Photo/Al Behrman)
The end result of 15 consecutive losing seasons while playing in one of the smallest metropolitan areas in Major League Baseball is declining attendance, which, in the case of the Pirates, has gone from among the worst in the sport to just about the worst. There's no disgrace in not supporting a bad product, and no one should feel bad that the Pirates can't lure more people to PNC Park. It's not the civic stigma some would have you believe.
Still, there's no more important barometer of interest than ticket sales. If they decline, other areas will follow, and the combined effect can be economically harmful to a franchise. The Pirates aren't headed to bankruptcy and probably not even toward failing to turn a profit. But lower revenues can affect all areas of the franchise. Only the Florida Marlins, playing in a football stadium that's ill-suited for baseball, draw less fans than the Pirates. The Tampa Bay Rays and the Kansas City Royals, which also had been behind the Pirates in recent years, are now ahead.
The Pirates are averaging 18,528 tickets sold per game. That number will improve in the traditionally best-drawing days of July and August, but will recede in September. The Pirates could be on a path to their worst attendance season at PNC Park, which was 2003, when they averaged 20,983 tickets sold.
You can fool some of the people most of the time, but not even bobbleheads and fireworks enable the slickest marketer to fool them all the time. Those promotions, which once were almost guaranteed to bring crowds of 30,000 to PNC Park on the weekend, are no longer sure things.
With rain an almost constant threat, the Pirates drew disappointing crowds last weekend for a visit by the Tampa Bay Rays. The total tickets sold for the three games against a young, exciting team that was having surprising success was 53,786. A Dave Parker bobblehead promotion resulted in only 19,970 tickets being sold Friday, which was the best of the weekend. Not too long ago, Friday and Saturday home games in late June would attract more than 60,000.
Attendance isn't all that is declining because of losing seasons. Lack of interest means luxury suites are harder to sell, lucrative sponsorships more difficult to obtain.
The stunning success of the Penguins is another threat to the Pirates. In these difficult economic times, corporations have only so much money to spend. The Penguins with their exciting, young and successful team are going to have an easier time drawing corporate dollars. When the new arena opens, they will pull luxury suite money away from the Pirates.
This economic downturn has been slower in coming because of the 2006 All-Star Game -- a gift from MLB to former owner Kevin McClatchy. That the Pirates have been host to two All-Star games in 12 years -- when every 31 would be the norm -- speaks to just how urgent MLB saw the plight of the franchise. This generous move makes almost laughable the complaints of people who were bitter that the New York Yankees were so late in coming to PNC Park. The second All-Star Game was worth 10 visits by the Yankees.
Tim Schuldt was the marketing director of the Pirates from 2004-06, when he returned to his roots in motor sports. He still follows the franchise, on and off the field, closely.
"The Pirates did an incredibly good job of not just executing the event of the All-Star Game but of extending sponsorship agreements early and getting new sponsorships," he said in a phone interview yesterday. "I'm talking about tens of millions of dollars that were secured that would not have been secured without the All-Star Game."
Schuldt has nothing but praise for the Pirates attempts to sell tickets. "I log on to pirates.com every day to see how the team is doing. From what I can tell, they're doing everything they can. They have a lot of programs aimed at a lot of different demographics. They're throwing the kitchen sink at it."
But as every marketing director knows, the best promotion is a winning team. "The Pirates have to hope the performance on the field improves and becomes a catalyst for growing ticket sales," Schuldt said.
Nothing else is going to do it. Which is why no one should expect any kind of fire sale of high-priced players as the trading deadline approaches later this month. The Pirates can't afford to totally rebuild. They have to win games. They have to put a representative team on the field, not a team of prospects. They don't have to win a championship, but they have to be competitive. They have to make people think they have a chance at success. The fans are weary of losing and that affects not just them but the franchise and the product it puts on the field.
Bob Smizik can be reached at bsmizik@post-gazette.com.
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First published on July 4, 2008 at 12:00 am
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