Astros' Home Attendance At Minute Maid Park Continues To Drop
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| Astros' Home Attendance Down 12% From '08 |
The Astros are "in free fall, and in a season when attendance was already on the decline, it could be closing in on embarrassing," according to Richard Justice of the HOUSTON CHRONICLE. Astros Owner Drayton McLane yesterday said, "I think the No. 1 thing is the economy. It's hitting every sport. Baseball attendance overall is down 5-8[%]. Ours is a little more than that. I also think if we were playing better, we'd be drawing better, but we had real good crowds over the weekend against the Brewers." The Astros' home attendance at Minute Maid Park is down 12% from '08, and at the current pace, the team "will draw more than 300,000 fewer fans this season than last." The decline in attendance "translates to a real loss of dollars for the baseball operation." McLane "won't say what his payroll will be in 2010, emphasizing only that the Astros will get younger and have a lower payroll." Justice wrote attendance is "going to get worse before it gets better." The Astros have 22 home games remaining, "including 16 in September when school is back in session and football is underway." Justice: "What the Astros have been doing isn't working. To have a team with a Top 10 payroll and a Bottom 10 record is the kind of embarrassment Drayton simply wouldn't tolerate in his other businesses." McLane is "tolerating it with his baseball team because he doesn't know what he doesn't know" (CHRON.com, 8/11).
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