The MLB Rangers last night for the second consecutive game "had a smaller tickets-paid crowd than in any date last season," according to Gerry Fraley of the DALLAS MORNING NEWS. Last night’s game had a turnout of 21,805; on Monday, the gate was 18,401, the lowest for the club since July '10. Fraley: "There are explanations. It is April. The kids are in school. The weather is drab." Still, the last two games "indicate the task they face in rebuilding the all-important fan base." Rangers manager Jeff Banister: "You’d love to play well enough that everybody wants to come to the ballpark. Creating an environment in which your fan base can identify with your team and the way it plays is extremely important." Based on season-ticket sales, the Rangers "are likely to finish with their third consecutive decline in attendance" since the club-record average of 42,720 in '12. Attendance "could drop below 30,000 per game" for the first time since '09. The question "is what effect will shrinking attendance have on the product." Ownership has so far "stayed the course." Attendance in '14 dropped by 459,540, but "payroll rose" by about $8M to $141.7M this season. The payroll "has risen five consecutive seasons." Rangers Exec VP/Business Operations Rob Matwick said of attendance, "We don’t have details across the industry yet, but we believe we will still be in the top third of all clubs" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 4/15). In Ft. Worth, Gil LeBreton writes this Rangers season, there "are going to be lots of 'lowest crowd since …' nights." It is not the first time that "bluebonnets and empty seats have flowered in early spring here, and it won’t be the last." The Rangers "are back to pre-World Series attendance levels." The people "at Rangers, Inc., are not blaming the empty seats on anybody but themselves." No one "was whining Tuesday about parents and kids not showing up Monday on a cloudy, somewhat chilly, school night in April." But the club "ought to know how the attendance game is played." If you "give them something good to see, they will come" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 4/15).
