Jerry_Manuel
09-24-2001, 09:21 PM
I can only speak for myself but I'm really getting tired of hearing about this. But read on if you want.
Fans stay away
By Paul Sullivan
Tribune staff reporter
September 24, 2001 9:06 PM CDT
When all is said and done, the White Sox may well finish with the fifth-best record in the American League, an impressive accomplishment after falling 15 games below .500 on May 23.
Despite the recovery on the field, however, the Sox never fully recovered at the box office.
With three home games remaining, beginning Tuesday night against Minnesota, the Sox rank 12th among the 14 American League teams with an average attendance of 22,436. Only Tampa Bay (16,042) and Kansas City (19,843) have had fewer paying customers than the Sox, who had a division title to work with when season tickets went on sale last winter.
Nothing sells tickets like a winner, but the successful 2000 regular season had little or no effect on the team's ability to draw fans this year. An 8-15 April record, culminated by Frank Thomas' season-ending triceps injury, hurt advance sales for the final five months.
After raising attendance by a 45.5 percent in 2000, the Sox will end with about 1.8 million tickets sold this year. That's only a slight drop-off from last year's 1.95 million but significantly below the pre-strike level of 2.6 million in '93, the third season in new Comiskey Park.
The biggest task for the Sox this off-season may not be its personnel decisions but trying to find ways to fill a ballpark that's typically half-empty.
Two years ago White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf told the Tribune, "I talk to fans a lot and they tell me they don't like the ambiance. But what people really want is something better in the uniforms."
The Sox have upgraded the team since Reinsdorf's remark and have several budding stars in Magglio Ordonez, Keith Foulke, Paul Konerko and Mark Buehrle. Yet their presence hasn't affected the gate.
The Sox not only need a winning team to draw, but the organization apparently must find new approaches to reach its fans—the ones they haven't completely lost from the strike, the Terry Bevington era or any other controversies that may have turned them off.
The widespread belief among Sox players is that the organization does a poor job of selling the team.
Two cases in point are David Wells and Jose Canseco.
When Wells was acquired in January, he not only was supposed to lead the staff but also was brought in to provide a boost in attendance and overall buzz.
But the Sox declined to capitalize on Wells' outgoing persona in its early-season ad campaign, even when Wells was healthy and performing relatively well.
Canseco is a larger-than-life character who turned out to be a fan favorite after the Sox signed him in late June. But once again, the Sox decided not to to market their popular DH, who is likely to leave because Thomas is set to return next spring.
In the advertisement that ran during White Sox telecasts over the weekend, there were no players or Sox-related photographs in it.
The ad consisted of a series of written messages, the first of which noted there are 8 million people in Chicago, followed by one that stated there were only 45,000 available seats at Comiskey Park.
It ended with a phone number for tickets and the message, "Better get your tickets. Now."
The humor was unintentional.
The Sox ditched their first ad campaign—"It's Time"—in May because of the team's slow start, stressing the Comiskey Park experience in most of its ads the remainder of the season.
It's no secret many Sox fans don't particularly care for the new Comiskey Park. They'll sit in the lower deck and the bleachers, but have stayed away from the upper deck unless the Cubs or a fireworks display is on the schedule.
The Sox drew crowds in excess of 30,000 only nine times this year: the home opener against Detroit, the three-game series against the Cubs, two fireworks nights against Texas and Baltimore, a fireworks/Elvis Night against Oakland, a half-price Monday night against Minnesota and the final appearance of Cal Ripken Jr. on a Sunday afternoon.
The only crowds better than 40,000 were the opener and the three Cubs games.
The team did average 26,511 on half-price Mondays, an 18 percent increase over their usual attendance. But there were only six half-price Mondays as opposed to nine in 2000.
The Sox knew when the schedule came out last year that there were fewer Monday home games on it. But they stuck with Monday's theme rather than switching to another night, giving their fans fewer opportunities to purchase tickets at a bargain rate.
The first part of rekindling fans' interest might be to admit a problem exists, something Sox management has been loathe to do. Reinsdorf disregards criticism of the upper deck, citing fan surveys the club declines to release.
Still, the upper deck was more than 75 percent empty for the majority of the year, at prices of $18 and $12. Minnesota, which plays in the equally unpopular Metrodome, charges $5 for all of its upper-deck seats.
"We knew that the upper deck would be higher than it is at most stadiums," Reinsdorf said after the '99 season. "But [the architects] told us that was the only way to eliminate all the posts. I still haven't heard anyone say there is anything wrong with the lower deck, and we're not selling that out. No one has to sit in the upper deck until we have 35,000."
The Sox renovated the ballpark last year to "create a greater intimacy," according to a press release. This off-season, the Sox will enter Phase 2 of their renovation plan, which includes plants on the terraced batter's-eye in center field, changes in the looks of the concession stands and air conditioning and heating in the club level concourse.
The park no doubt will look different next year and the team expects to improve with the return of Thomas. But the Sox have a long way to go to make Comiskey Park as alive as it was before the '94 strike and upcoming contract talks with the players' union will not make their task any easier.
Fans stay away
By Paul Sullivan
Tribune staff reporter
September 24, 2001 9:06 PM CDT
When all is said and done, the White Sox may well finish with the fifth-best record in the American League, an impressive accomplishment after falling 15 games below .500 on May 23.
Despite the recovery on the field, however, the Sox never fully recovered at the box office.
With three home games remaining, beginning Tuesday night against Minnesota, the Sox rank 12th among the 14 American League teams with an average attendance of 22,436. Only Tampa Bay (16,042) and Kansas City (19,843) have had fewer paying customers than the Sox, who had a division title to work with when season tickets went on sale last winter.
Nothing sells tickets like a winner, but the successful 2000 regular season had little or no effect on the team's ability to draw fans this year. An 8-15 April record, culminated by Frank Thomas' season-ending triceps injury, hurt advance sales for the final five months.
After raising attendance by a 45.5 percent in 2000, the Sox will end with about 1.8 million tickets sold this year. That's only a slight drop-off from last year's 1.95 million but significantly below the pre-strike level of 2.6 million in '93, the third season in new Comiskey Park.
The biggest task for the Sox this off-season may not be its personnel decisions but trying to find ways to fill a ballpark that's typically half-empty.
Two years ago White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf told the Tribune, "I talk to fans a lot and they tell me they don't like the ambiance. But what people really want is something better in the uniforms."
The Sox have upgraded the team since Reinsdorf's remark and have several budding stars in Magglio Ordonez, Keith Foulke, Paul Konerko and Mark Buehrle. Yet their presence hasn't affected the gate.
The Sox not only need a winning team to draw, but the organization apparently must find new approaches to reach its fans—the ones they haven't completely lost from the strike, the Terry Bevington era or any other controversies that may have turned them off.
The widespread belief among Sox players is that the organization does a poor job of selling the team.
Two cases in point are David Wells and Jose Canseco.
When Wells was acquired in January, he not only was supposed to lead the staff but also was brought in to provide a boost in attendance and overall buzz.
But the Sox declined to capitalize on Wells' outgoing persona in its early-season ad campaign, even when Wells was healthy and performing relatively well.
Canseco is a larger-than-life character who turned out to be a fan favorite after the Sox signed him in late June. But once again, the Sox decided not to to market their popular DH, who is likely to leave because Thomas is set to return next spring.
In the advertisement that ran during White Sox telecasts over the weekend, there were no players or Sox-related photographs in it.
The ad consisted of a series of written messages, the first of which noted there are 8 million people in Chicago, followed by one that stated there were only 45,000 available seats at Comiskey Park.
It ended with a phone number for tickets and the message, "Better get your tickets. Now."
The humor was unintentional.
The Sox ditched their first ad campaign—"It's Time"—in May because of the team's slow start, stressing the Comiskey Park experience in most of its ads the remainder of the season.
It's no secret many Sox fans don't particularly care for the new Comiskey Park. They'll sit in the lower deck and the bleachers, but have stayed away from the upper deck unless the Cubs or a fireworks display is on the schedule.
The Sox drew crowds in excess of 30,000 only nine times this year: the home opener against Detroit, the three-game series against the Cubs, two fireworks nights against Texas and Baltimore, a fireworks/Elvis Night against Oakland, a half-price Monday night against Minnesota and the final appearance of Cal Ripken Jr. on a Sunday afternoon.
The only crowds better than 40,000 were the opener and the three Cubs games.
The team did average 26,511 on half-price Mondays, an 18 percent increase over their usual attendance. But there were only six half-price Mondays as opposed to nine in 2000.
The Sox knew when the schedule came out last year that there were fewer Monday home games on it. But they stuck with Monday's theme rather than switching to another night, giving their fans fewer opportunities to purchase tickets at a bargain rate.
The first part of rekindling fans' interest might be to admit a problem exists, something Sox management has been loathe to do. Reinsdorf disregards criticism of the upper deck, citing fan surveys the club declines to release.
Still, the upper deck was more than 75 percent empty for the majority of the year, at prices of $18 and $12. Minnesota, which plays in the equally unpopular Metrodome, charges $5 for all of its upper-deck seats.
"We knew that the upper deck would be higher than it is at most stadiums," Reinsdorf said after the '99 season. "But [the architects] told us that was the only way to eliminate all the posts. I still haven't heard anyone say there is anything wrong with the lower deck, and we're not selling that out. No one has to sit in the upper deck until we have 35,000."
The Sox renovated the ballpark last year to "create a greater intimacy," according to a press release. This off-season, the Sox will enter Phase 2 of their renovation plan, which includes plants on the terraced batter's-eye in center field, changes in the looks of the concession stands and air conditioning and heating in the club level concourse.
The park no doubt will look different next year and the team expects to improve with the return of Thomas. But the Sox have a long way to go to make Comiskey Park as alive as it was before the '94 strike and upcoming contract talks with the players' union will not make their task any easier.