Down and out baseball clubs try gimmicks to attract fans

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Mar 25, 1999 by Scott Newman

MINNEAPOLIS -- The biggest race in baseball so far isn't for the most home runs, it's how little franchises can charge for season tickets.

Oakland, Florida and Minnesota are all offering bargain-basement prices for ticket packages. The Twins are even selling a $99 season pass that gives fans a chance to a profit: The tickets come with a bat autographed by Kirby Puckett, a collectible that the team said is worth between $100 and $400.

"We can only hope that people aren't buying for that reason," said Minnesota Twins President Jerry Bell. It's a distinct possibility. The Twins finished 70-92 last season, have no stars, and are 100-1 in Las Vegas to win the American League. They're among a group of cash-poor or non-competitive teams forced to woo fans with low prices and such gimmicks as new-car giveaways, aging rock stars and an office-secretaries Olympics. "We can't sit here with a straight face and tell our fans we're going to win the World Series," said Lou DePaoli, director of ticket and group sales for Florida Marlins, a 300-1 choice to win a world championship. "You need to do everything you can to draw people." Baseball's economy has left some teams little choice but to resort to promotions once reserved for the minor leagues. Big-spenders like the New York Yankees and corporate-backed teams like News Corp.'s Los Angeles Dodgers have made it necessary for teams to spend at least $50 million a year on payroll to contend for a championship. Since most ballclubs won't spend that much, as many as 18 teams -- or 60 percent of baseball franchises -- will start the season with no chance of making the playoffs, baseball executives said. "`A lot of clubs are going to give up before April 1," said John Moores, a majority owner of the San Diego Padres. The lack of competition is chasing fans away from the ballpark in some places. While baseball's overall attendance jumped 17 percent last year from 1997, crowds declined as much as 39 percent at parks in Montreal, Minnesota and Kansas City, where player payrolls are among the game's lowest. Some of the new marketing ploys harken back to the 1950s when St. Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck resorted to offbeat promotions such as putting a bat in the hands of a midget and sending him to the plate. The Kansas City Royals, for example, wouldn't spend millions to sign high-priced free agents in the offseason, so they're spending thousands on performances by former Eagles singer Joe Walsh and the mascot known as The Famous Chicken. The team is betting that they will help boost attendance that fell to 1.52 million last year from 2.48 million in 1989. That's not all. At four games, the Royals will give away 13,000 compact discs to play on a car's stereo at a local car dealership. Four discs will tell fans that they've won two-year leases on a Ford Explorer or Mustang. In Oakland, the Athletics are offering a 17-game bleacher-seat package for $68 and poking fun at their inexperience. In one television commercial, 1998 American League Rookie of the Year Ben Grieve bounces on a bed like a child with Stomper, the team's elephant mascot. In Tampa Bay, the Devil Rays had enough money to sign free agent Jose Canseco for $3 million in the offseason. Still, the two-year-old franchise doesn't think the team is good enough to attract enough fans just with the quality of its play. Tampa Bay's payroll ranked 24th among baseball's 30 teams last season. Over the winter the Devil Rays brought back from exile the son of baseball's most famous promoter by hiring Mike Veeck as senior vice president for sales and marketing. Veeck couldn't land a major-league job for almost 20 years after his Disco Demolition Night promotion at the Chicago White Sox's old Comiskey Park caused a riot in 1979. Now, he's planning "Disco Demolition 20 Years Later Night," at Tropicana Field later this season. Then there's Lawyer Appreciation Night, scheduled for July 19 and the Office Secretaries Olympics on April 21. He hopes the antics will boost the Devil Rays' season-ticket base 26 percent to 19,000 from 15,000. "A year ago or three years ago, I wouldn't even have gotten an invite to the big leagues," Veeck said. Across the state, the Marlins -- who were world champions two years before selling off its best players to cut payroll -- are relying on a more mainstream approaching: lowering ticket prices. Florida is offering Miami Dolphins and Florida Panthers' season ticket holders a $243 seat -- $3 a contest -- to all Marlins' home games. Still, that price pales compared with the Twins' cheapest seats. It'll cost fans less this season to sit in the upper deck for 81 games at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome than to buy two box seats for one game at Yankee Stadium. It's working, too. The Twins are selling about 100 $99 season tickets a day and could sell as many as 2,500 by Opening Day. Other teams are already making similar plans for next season. "There's not much of anything we `have nots' won't do -- as long as it sells tickets," said Mike Levy, vice president of marketing for the Royals. "We're desperate."