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Baseball and Depression/Recession
The economy is hammering all facets of American life, even the most sacred of them all: baseball.
I went over to Tampa last week for the first game of spring training. On the bill were the Yankees and the Rays. In some respects, it was as expected. Yogi Berra, Reggie Jackson and Ron Guidry were all there. (Where was Whitey Ford?) Bernie Williams threw out the first pitch, and the Yankees won because Jorge Posada was in mid-season form, while everybody else was flopping around trying to avoid breaking a sweat.
But the shocker was the attendance. Maybe 75% of the seats were filled, where there would have been standing room only a few years ago.
I looked at my ticket: $31.50. Figure two tickets, some food, parking, and you’re talking about a $100 afternoon, and that’s without buying anything in the souvenir shop. That’s a lot of money in a low, mean time.
Football might skate past this particular abyss because there are only 16 games in the schedule, but I’ll be very surprised if baseball attendance isn’t affected.
Movies are cheap; sports are expensive.
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