attendance forecast

If you rebuild it, will they come back?

Wrigley vacanciesOn day five of single game ticket sales yesterday it was still possible to buy four seats together for Opening Day.


I suspect the Ricketts gang has taken notice of the fact that spit and polished pee troughs are trumped by a 5th place team and 9% unemployment when folks sit down in February to calculate whether or not they can afford $72 bleacher tickets come summertime.


There are other causes for concern as the bean counters contemplate the 2011 schedule and project the team's prospects at the turnstiles.


The two months with the highest number of home games are April and May with 15 and 17, respectively. Not only is the weather at its poorest then, but the early returns on advance ticket sales indicate that fans are taking a wait and see approach on this year’s edition rather than banking that Mike Quade’s 24-13 audition last year was an accurate forecast of the 2011 winning percentage.


The Yankee series is the only one at home over a weekend in June.


Attendance at the first two exhibition games was spotty. Unseasonable weather may be an early factor there, but even subpar Arizona weather is likely to far surpass whatever awaits in Chicago in April and May before Wrigley has a chance to put her face on.


Has the Cub/Wrigley Field brand peaked? It appears right now that the baseball business headquartered at Clark & Addison is in danger of having its streak of three million-plus attendance seasons snapped at seven.


If that happens will the storm sewers outside the Addison Red Line station be able to handle the flood of scalpers’ tears?

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attendance forecast
By Mike Wellman at Wed, 03/02/2011 - 8:31am
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