A crowd of 38,278 for Wednesday's Cardinals-Cubs game
pushed the Cubs to a club-record attendance of 2,669,153 for
74 dates, according to Mike Kiley of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES.
The figure surpasses the team's previous high of 2,653,753
for 80 dates set in '93 (SUN-TIMES, 9/23). In Chicago, Ron
Rapoport writes that the Cubs are averaging over 36,000 fans
per game and will be nearing the three million mark "by the
time the home schedule ends this weekend." Rapoport: "That
works out to almost 100,000 fans per home victory this
season, or, to put it another way, 100,000 per Wrigley Field
homer for Sosa" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 9/23). Season-ticket
holders accounted for 1.2 million tickets this season, a 20%
increase from last season (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 9/23).
FROM N.Y.: With a crowd of 27,549 for last night's game
against the White Sox, the Yankees have now established a
new record for single-season attendance by any N.Y. sports
team with 3,072,609 (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 9/23). Also in N.Y.,
Neal Travis writes to look for former MSG President Bob
Gutkowski "to play a key role in George Steinbrenner's grand
plan to develop his own" RSN, as Gutkowski has the "inside
track to buy the underachieving" Islanders, which would fit
in with the Yankees and Nets (N.Y. POST, 9/23).
