Darren Rovell of CNBC.com has shown some pretty compelling evidence so far that baseball has the empty seat blues. Fans are being driven away by the economy and some bad baseball clubs--in the Astros case, mostly the latter more than the former, as Houston hasn't been hit too hard by the economy.
↵Nevertheless, your Houston Astros, who we own until they life that terrible slogan, have lost 11.1% of their fans to the gate this season. They're one of seven teams to have lost 10% or more of their attendance so far, although they are doing better at the gate then the rest of those clubs. The Astros are comfortably in the middle tier of actual average attendance figures, although the low cost of their tickets figures to mean the revenue is on par with the smaller market teams.
↵Until fans see a change of direction up top, don't look for a change of direction on the gate sales either. The Astros attendance has slowly declined ever since 2007, and if they don't turn things around quickly, they may be in danger of drawing under two million for the first time in Minute Maid Park's history.
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