It was a typical night at Oriole Park at Camden Yards these days. The Boston Red Sox were in town for a Friday night game, and the Orioles, having cemented their ninth straight losing season, were playing before tens of thousands of empty seats.
The announced attendance of 22,240 was less than half of the stadium?s capacity.
Most nights, the announced attendance seems significantly larger than the actual attendance. As this season winds down, the Orioles? announced attendance is between 5,000 and 6,000 less than last season?s reported 32,404 a night. In April against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Camden Yards recorded the lowest paid attendance in its 14-year history ? 13,194.
Thanks to September visits by the Red Sox and Yankees, the Orioles have passed the 2 million mark. But even those games only drew 20,000-plus.
The Orioles will draw their smallest average crowd since 1988, a year in which the team started 0-21 and drew 22,442 a game at Memorial Stadium.
The topic of the team?s declining attendance is one that many around the organization, both inside and outside, choose their words carefully. Some go on the record, some off, given their connections to the Orioles. Team officials say that they?re not worried, that they are selling tickets.
“Announced is always tickets sold,” said Spiro Alafassos, the team?s executive director of communications. “It?s nothing shady. When we were selling out, that?s what we were doing.”
Still, back when the park opened in 1992, there was little reason to doubt the Orioles were filling up the 48,000-plus seats at Camden Yards.
It?s a far cry from the booming 1990s that saw the birth of Camden Yards. Attendance at the stadium averaged at least 40,000 fans a game for eight straight seasons after opening. The park was a happening place, where Cal Ripken Jr. tied and broke the all-time consecutive-games-played streak and the Orioles enjoyed back-to-back playoff runs in 1996 and 1997, the team?s first playoff appearances since its 1983 World Series championship.
The stadium, with its retro style that was unique among ballparks in the early 1990s, was the first sight to many visitors as they entered Baltimore from I-95.
“It was the first ballpark of its kind,” ESPN 1300 radio talk-show host Tom Davis said. “It was like the gateway to the city, coming into the town.”
Camden Yards was a tough place to play for an opposing team, even if old-school Baltimoreans bemoaned the business-like atmosphere of the park. Memorial Stadium, many say, reflected the blue-collar attitude of the city with its small but passionate crowds.
Today, it?s a far different story. A once vibrant and packed ballpark has proven hospitable to visiting teams like the Yankees and Red Sox, whose fans routinely outnumber ? or at least yell louder than ? those of the home team.
“When you play in front of [lots of] fans on a daily basis, the energy level in the clubhouseand on the field is a lot better,” said Orioles first baseman Kevin Millar, a former Red Sox player.
Between 1995 and 2000, Baltimore led the American League in attendance and drew 3 million fans in nine of Camden Yards? first 10 years ? the lone exception being the strike-shortened 1994 season. Since 2002, however, the team has drawn less than 3 million each season.
The success of Camden Yards during the early years made it easy to forget how sparsely populated Memorial Stadium was for some of the best Orioles teams. In 1966, the team drew 17, 961 a game. In 1970, it pulled in just 14,094 a night. Both years included World Series championships. Not until 1979 did the team top an average of 20,000 fans a game.
Since Ripken?s retirement in 2001, the Orioles have lacked a major drawing card. Free-agent signings such as Albert Belle failed to produce wins, and hence, failed to put fans in the seats. Even current perennial All-Star Miguel Tejada has had little effect at the gates.
Foot traffic on the upper levels of Camden Yards is often low. Metal sheets are pulled down over once-busy concession stands, giving the top tier an abandoned feeling.
“You hate the look of it,” Alafassos said. “You want all [of the ballpark] to be used.”
So where have all the fans gone? Is this just a product of the Orioles? long losing streak? Is it because of the Nationals? arrival in Washington, D.C., in 2005?
Orioles officials maintain it?s both. They say an estimated 20 percent of the team?s attendance came from Washington suburbs. Outside estimates have been around 13 percent.
Many say it?s a reflection of the region?s restlessness toward owner Peter Angelos, who is seen by many as meddlesome in the team?s decision-making since he bought the club in 1993. One local business owner said attendance would likely “double if [Angelos] sold the team tomorrow.”
Orioles vice president of baseball operations Jim Duquette, a former general manager of the New York Mets, is one of the men charged with turning around the team?s fortunes.
“I believe this is one of the best markets in the game when it comes to fan support, as is New York,” Duquette said. “And when you?re struggling, they let you know by not attending. When you?re winning, they?ll show up and support the club.”
Players such as Millar think it?s only natural that fans will return.
“But we?ve got to win baseball games,” Millar said.
Angelos, who did not return phone calls for this story, has become one in a line of vilified Baltimore sports franchise owners. Some have drawn a comparison between the town?s reaction to Angelos and to that of the early 1980s, when fans turned away from the Baltimore Colts because of late owner Robert Irsay, who moved the team to Indianapolis. The Orioles say there is no chance of the team moving.
“Comparing him to Robert Irsay is absurd,” said Bob Leffler, of the Leffler Advertising and Marketing Agency and the former Colts marketing director. Leffler?s agency, which has ties to The Examiner, also works with the Orioles and Ravens.
“It?s like apples to oranges,” Davis said. “[Angelos] has tried very hard to put a winner on the field and failed.”
Orioles officials sound as if they believe Baltimore won?t be able to support a team without the deep pockets of the Washington area.
“Obviously, there?s a reason why, back in the ?70s, the Orioles started marketing south because the Baltimore base was what it was,” Alafassos said. “?If Baltimore doesn?t come, then we?re forced to go out. If you have seats, you want to try and fill those seats.”
Leffler said D.C. is necessary for the Orioles? fan-base growth.
“Two-point-five [million fans] was a big deal,” Leffler said. “I?m thinking, ?Three [million]? In this town? Never.? It was all about the new market. It was all about expanding southward. That?s what made this the way it is. It?s absolutely gone.”
Many around town have said there is a disconnect between the town and the organization, something Orioles officials deny. There has been a vocal group that believes believe the Orioles could bring fans back into the fold if they simply put “Baltimore” on their road jerseys, something that ended during the 1970s.
“And nobody has ever said that?s not going to happen,” Alafassos said. “There are bigger issues to deal with than putting Baltimore [on the jersey], and we admit there are issues we need to fix.”
Players, though, said it ultimately rests on their shoulders.
“I don?t blame the fans ? I don?t blame anybody ? but we?ve got to go out there and produce,” Millar said.
The question is, when they finally do produce, will the fans be there?
Examiner Staff Writer Sean Welsh contributed to this report.
