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White Sox Pulling Out All Stops To Attract Casual Fans To Increasing Season-Ticket Base

The White Sox this season are trying to "reverse an eight-year slide that has seen their average attendance decrease" by 42.7%, according to Jon Greenberg of ESPN CHICAGO. The White Sox averaged 36,511 fans in '06, the year after they won the World Series, but that dropped to 20,896 in '14, the "third-worst number" in MLB. Since '06, the club has "drawn fewer people compared to the year before." But White Sox Senior VP/Sales & Marketing Brooks Boyer "promises that trend will end this season." Boyer: "As we stand right now, our season-ticket base is higher than it was at the end of last year." The early ticket sales jump for this season "came in part from the excitement" of adding Ps Jeff Samardzija and David Robertson, 1B Adam LaRoche and LF Melky Cabrera. With "little demand for seats" in recent years, there has been an "abundant supply and little need to buy tickets in advance." The White Sox have "tried cutting ticket prices, and adding variable pricing, in recent years, but it hasn't made much of a difference." That means the club has to be "aggressive in the way they market" the '15 team. Once season tickets are sold, the White Sox "have to attract casual fans" because they "don't get the tourists who flock to Wrigley Field" like the Cubs do. The club has made "Free T-shirt Mondays" a "regular giveaway this season, and seem to be pushing most of their marketing dollars to weekend games." The team also has "beefed up its sales staff, hiring more full-time workers instead of interns." Group sales are "pushing hard in areas like Northwest Indiana, where Samardzija is from" (ESPNCHICAGO.com, 1/26).

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