It’s hard to understate the new stadium effect, either. With only two exceptions I can think of, every team now plays in a modern “mall park” facility, a trend that started in 1989 with the SkyDome, or in one of the few older ballparks that were classics worth preserving. The only bad parks left are in Oakland and Tampa Bay. And their attendance sucks.
The ballpark plays a huge role in bringing customers in, especially casual customers. I love baseball more than anything else in the world except my child, but if I lived in Oakland I have to admit I wouldn’t go very often; I’ve been once and it was just ugly. And it’s not as bad as ballparks used to be; the old multipurpose stadia were often hideous, filthy, and until the 1980s the crowds had more means drunks and brawling.
This is absolutely true. The ball park makes a huge difference. I got to about 8 games a year in San Diego basically because my wife like the park. We did not go to games when they were playing in Qualcomm Stadium. She doesn’t really care that much about baseball. It is a nice clean park with good food and a good selection of beer and wine to drink. We would probably go to more if we remembered who was playing for the Padres. The lack of an agreement between Time Warner and Fox Sports west means we can’t see them on TV so we kind of loose interest.
