Jul 10, 2002 4 min read

PITTSBURGH (AP) – After their best start in a decade, the Pittsburgh Pirates have cooled off – and so has the hometown crowd. At the All-Star break, the Pirates (38-49) are on pace for a club-record 10th consecutive losing season and the largest single-season attendance drop – losing one in four fans from last season’s record in the new PNC Park.

The Pirates have drawn 1.1 million fans in 47 home games, down 284,154 from the same point last year. If the team continues to average 22,451 people a game, the Pirates home crowd will total 1.8 million – a 25-percent drop from last season’s 2.4 million fans.

Pirates officials say they expected a second-season attendance slump, especially after 100 losses last year, but didn’t anticipate so many empty seats.

“Being the guy who is most responsible for the product on the field at this point, we have to do a better job as far as wins and losses,” said Pirates General Manager Dave Littlefield. “It has been proven that the fans will come out – we had 2.4 million fans last year. We have to improve the team.”

The team also hasn’t been helped by weather more suited for football, 40- and 50-degree temperatures and a dozen games delayed by rain, fan unrest caused by a $1- to $2-hike on seats and a massive highway construction project that has closed a portion of the Fort Pitt Bridge and Tunnel, the most traveled and familiar route in and out of the city.

Owners of bars and restaurants around the ballpark say they’ve also noticed fewer fans.

At the 222 Bar, about two blocks from the ballpark, owner Jerry Reese said his game day business has dropped about one-third from last season.

“Each game is different. If you have a bobblehead doll night, people will come in, get the bobblehead and leave,” Reese said.

Despite the Pirates’ struggles on the field, the team’s attendance slump isn’t unusual, said Alan Sanderson, a sports economist at the University of Chicago.

All things equal, teams typically lose as much as 25 percent of their home crowds in the second year as the novelty of a new field fades and fans get tired of costlier tickets and concessions.

But losing doesn’t help.

“If you put a better team in a new facility they will draw well, with an unsuccessful team the honeymoon period is much shorter,” Sanderson said. “The die-hard fan, who goes to a dozen games a year, in part he likes baseball, but he wants the home team to win.”

It hasn’t been all bad for the Pirates.

Despite the drop, the Pirates are five games ahead of where they were last All-Star break. They and are on pace for their fifth-largest home crowd and sold 10,000 season tickets this year, their fourth highest total.

The home crowd is also better than it was at former Three Rivers Stadium, which drew 985,000 during the first 47 games of its farewell season. This year’s home crowd should also top the 1.7 million fans Three Rivers’ lured in its last year.

Businesses around PNC Ballpark have also realized last year was likely a one-time event.

“Can you really rely on those numbers? No. It would be tipping the scale. They were selling out almost every game,” said Pete Shaffalo, general manager of Firewaters’, a bar across the street from the park. “This year and next year should be the years for comparison.”

The Pirates are hoping to end their slump, both on the field and in the stands, after the All-Star break.

“We’ve had streaks where we have played fairly well and won some games in the first half. We hope to get back more to that,” Littlefield said.