losses hurting ticket sales

[Providence A's]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseba...54_mari17.html

PEORIA, Ariz. -- The Mariners have fallen on tough times on the field with back-to-back 90-loss seasons, and that lack of success is being reflected at the box office.

According to figures compiled by the club, halfway through spring training there is a decline of about 2,000 season tickets from 2005. After coming in at just more than 17,000 season tickets sold a year ago, with just less than three weeks before Opening Day season ticket sales are sitting at just over 15,000.

The good news for Mariners organization is that individual game sales and group ticket sales are either holding steady or are down only marginally from a year ago.

And last month's first weekend of ticket sales came in at the fourth-best in club history.

"Realistically, this is about where we expected to be," Randy Adamack, the club's vice president of communications, said. "Season ticket sales are reflective of where we've been."

The Mariners' home attendance peaked in 2002, when 3.54 million fans took in games at Safeco Field one year after the Mariners set an all-time single-season record with 116 wins.

But attendance has slipped in each year since, down to 3.27 million in 2003, 2.94 million in 2004 and 2.73 million last year.

Why aren't you guys going to the games? Seriously, I think they'll do better this year, but I still think they're fighting for 3rd place with the Rangers.

[Element]

And how has Oakland's attendence been in recent years?

[Providence A's]

it hasn't been declining because of losing. They've been in the middle with a payroll in the 20's while the Mariners payroll is in the top 10. The total attendance was 2,689,529:2,109,298 (580,231 difference)...12th vs. 19th. The Mariners have a new stadium and the attendance has dropped by almost 1 million compared to 2002 while the A's has been about the same.

[Element]

When you pull in 116 wins, you are bound to bring in some fair weather fans no matter what team/city it is. This year and last year, we will/have seen the true fans we have here.

[Porter]

I think ticket sales will be just fine. Its still the boss in Seattle (although the Seachickens finally are taking some of that luster).