Very good article. I believe it is a combination of many reasons, but for myself, it mainly comes down to ticket prices vs. value. Sorry, but with 162 games and no one game (or even a series) mattering much, it's just not worthwhile to shell out $50+ for two people on a consistent basis.

Furthermore, you go to the games, see half the stadium empty, many good seats sitting empty while you paid your $50 for crappy ones, it kinda dissuades you from further investment.

I've actually been amazed the past several years at how many people were going to the games, in spite of the recession and rising prices and all. I guess things are finally normalizing.

The Yankees have been doing the $5 days for a while now, since at least 2003. Probably even further back. They never advertised them because they'd always sell out quickly.

But the point still holds, they're selling many sections at discounts through the e-savers on yankees.com. Plus they made a deal with Modell's in Manhattan to sell all tickets at 50% off day of game.

Though the Yankees are interesting because they don't seem to care about the attendance drop. They've priced the stadium to where season ticket & partial season ticket holders are giving them their target revenue before a game is even played. Any walkups are gravy to them.

With gasoline at $4/gallon and rising, how many fans are willing to drive to the stadia to spend $20+ to park there?

(anyone have info on # of parking spaces around each stadium, broken out by team-owned/privately-owned)

I'll tell you why I stay away from the major-league ballpark--time. The games (which I watch every last pitch of when in attendance, come hell or high water) sometimes reach three hours and twenty minutes for a 4-3 contest. Add in having to leave for the park an hour before the game (even though I live pretty close to the Twins stadium), plus an hour after the game to battle out of the stadium and the downtown area, and I now have spent five to six hours to attend the game. On a weeknight one doesn't get home until 11:00-ish, and had to leave for the park at 6:00 for a 7:00 game.

Then I begin thinking about the parking costs and hassles, and $7.50 for someone to open and pour a 12-oz. bottle of Summit craft beer (which had to come all of eight miles from St.Paul brewery to the stadium) for me, and I say, "forget it."

It really amazes me that more marketing study has apparently NOT been done by MLB teams on this. For me, it's all pretty simple. I would go to more MLB games if they cost less, period. Most of us just cannot afford to regularly buy $30+ tickets, pay $20 to park, pay $7 for a dog and $7 more for a beer...and that's just for YOU. If I want to bring my wife and 4 kids....forget it. One MLB game a year is all the family gets as a whole.

A fantastic example for why MLB is just screaming for a salary cap. If I'm an MLB owner, I see immediately that I can fill my stadium if the ballpark experience is more affordable. For an example, 40,000 fans a night at $10 a head is still far better for the team than 20K at $20 a head, because of concessions, merchandise sales, general team interest, and it all just snowballs from there with local business, media, etc. The more people a team has for fans, the better, in every way.

So, work backwards, MLB. Find out where your price point is to regularly fill the ballpark, and from THAT figure out what you can pay players and run the franchise and still turn an acceptable profit. Of course, this just scratches the surface of the situation, but the bottom line is the system needs work.

You want MLB to again be the Great American Pastime? Get the fans to the games.

Two years ago the Orioles had dollar weekend for nearly the entire upper deck. One dollar. The stands were empty. You can bring your own food, and park for $10 (or take transit for a fraction of that). For many teams and many fans, the real 'cost' of attendance isn't the ticket; it's the opportunity cost of giving up an entire evening of doing something else to watch a crappy baseball team.

That said, this is the first time I've noticed that Oriole games have gotten expensive. Prime games now cost $95 for field box tickets (lowest level between the bases), and even lower level left field seats run $30 for non-prime games. There are still a few sections where you can get decent value, but the most recent price hikes changed the equation significantly.

I'm soured on going to the A's games mostly due to the draconian security searches just to get into the game. I can't bring in a bag with my scorebook and stuff because the bag is too big. Its not even as big as a shopping bag. But I get hassled about it every time. Funny, in the California and Pacific Coast Leagues, they don't care about the bag.
My other primary beef is that the radio broadcast is delayed. I like to listen to the game while at the game and MLB is so terrified that a four letter word may slip out onto the air that they ruin it for fans at the game.
I guess too the obstructed view seats in center field since the Coliseum caved to the Raiders and built Mt Davis doesn't brighten up my A's fan experience either.
Bluntly, I'd rather drive to Stockton or Sacramento and watch the Ports and Rivercats. They seem to want my business more than the A's do.

Went to three stadiums last year for games and basically sat in the same general location. I personally wanted to sit in the OF at all three games, close to the wall.

Seattle- RF, three seats behind Ichiro against KC. $20/per.

Texas, left center bleachers next to the visiting pen against Tor in April. 6 rows off the field $10/per.

Philadelphia- 13 rows off LF behind Raul, $85. I guess that helped sign Cliff Lee?

With last year's run to the World Series, Texas really has de-coupled from what is going on elsewhere at the moment. The secondary market has been very tight. With only a few hundred tickets left by game day there is never a point at which supply so outnumbers demand that the market crashes. Instead the trend in the days approaching games has been for prices to increase. That may not continue throughout the season, but for right now the smart move if you want nice seats to a weekday Rangers game is to buy well in advance.

I know the early numbers are similar to last season, in runs per game, but could a decline in offense, and by extension, home runs, be a factor as well?

I went to a Braves game earlier this year and got caught up in really bad traffic that really dampened my enthusiasm for going to another game, at least for the near term.

To get from home to exit on interstate took about an hour and half due to a repaving project on the interstates going into town. Then once I got off it took me a half hour to go from the state capital to the Stadium, a distance that isn't more than a mile or so. They had the police directing traffic, but something was fouled up and the lane I was in just wouldn't move. Got to the game in 5th inning. The bad part is that while the nice dugout level tickets I had were free, courtesy of a relative, I had to drive two hours round trip to pick them up. Essentially what happened is that I had to drive one hour in crappy Atlanta traffic for every inning of baseball that I watched.

I almost hate to say it, but watching the game on TV provides all kinds of luxuries that you don't get at the stadium: convenience, instant replay, 'free' food and drinks, perfect 'weather', commentary*, etc.

*Some of you probably mute the TV because you don't like your announcers, but I personally think that announcers provide an overall net benefit to the telecast.

I've long had a thought that in a similar way to how winning tends to lead to higher attendance, the same may be true - to an extent - in reverse. If teams could find a way to fill seats, they would put themselves in a greater position to spend revenue and develop a team worth supporting. Not yet sure of how I would test that though.

Attendence is down even in the NFL so it's obviously not just a baseball issue. It's a host of factors--the economy, the cost/time involved in going to a game, the perceived quality or lack thereof of the product, and the lousy weather early in the season--who wants to sit out in 30 degree weather to watch a baseball game? Also, some of the drop may simply be returning to more historically normal levels after years of bumps caused by new stadiums. The idea that a salary cap will cause owners to lower ticket prices is silly--sports teams are essentially monopolies and they are able to set their prices above their marginal costs, ie, their ticket prices are not based on their costs but on the level that is most profitable. Even if you went back to the reserve clause, ticket prices would not revert back to 1960s levels.

Let's face it, too, it is often a pain to go to games. Most stadiums are far away, require driving through traffic or taking crowded public transportation. It takes a real effort to go to games. And, unlike basketball or hockey arenas, some baseball stadiums are in areas where there is nothing else to do. For example, here in Washington, the basketball/hockey arena is in a vibrant part of town, with restaurants, bars, etc. so that you can really enjoy the evening. The Nats' stadium is in the middle of nowhere; all you can do is get on the subway and get the hell out of there.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the actual change in the game. Last year teams averaged 4.4 runs per game, that was the lowest production in the last 10 years. Since 2007 the totals have dropped each year. Albeit cold weather, teams are off to a 4.2 average right now. Now to casual fans they certainly don't want to go to a game and watch a 2-1 pitchers duel.

Take a look at the superstars in the league now, they are all pretty much pitchers. I mean if you ask a fan who the best batter was on the WS Champion Giants, do you think they would actually say Aubrey Huff? The best known player from the Giants right now is a Closer?

Obviously the economy has played a factor, but to what degree? I live in the Boston area and can't touch bleacher seats for less than $30. I watch a ton of games from around the leagues on MLB TV and I would kill for a $12 ticket with all you can eat hot dogs :)