Why the reluctance to accept that gas prices and the economy affect baseball attendance?

A depression era economy with worse ahead isn't 'spin' or a 'convenient excuse' to explain low baseball attendance. Americans have cut out billions of discretionary driving miles like driving to baseball games. Baseball owners apparently don't want to hear these things as they aren't examined in this article about lack of attendance. The economy is mentioned but dismissed, moving on to football's popularity, or baseball fans getting tired of new stadiums, or the 'moneyed' class preferring football. Even if one can afford discretionary driving, MLB itself promotes global warming theory which believes American motorized activities like driving cause sinking islands in the Indian Ocean, African Civil Wars, etc. In promoting global warming (which includes 'sustainables' and 'renewables') MLB encourages its own demise.

• 4/25/11, "Inside the offices of Major League Baseball,

the suits are trying to figure out what is happening to their disappearing fan. It goes beyond the spin of bad weather and economic strife and whatever other convenient excuses sound good....Barring a bountiful summer, MLB is going to bleed fans for the

• fourth consecutive year.

• Chart: Unemployed for over 26 weeks

• Unemployed over 26 weeks, Jan. 1969-Jan. 2011, calculatedriskblog.com

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• Change in US employment following 10 post war recessions, (bottom red line is current), Fed. Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

Both above charts via Real-World Economics Review blog

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"MLB is unsure whether to regard the dip as a blip or something signaling a greater concern – the reckoning of baseball’s gradual ceding of national pastime status to football, and a now-moneyed generation that grew up with baseball playing second fiddle ignoring the sport. In 2009, when ticket sales dropped 6.65 percent, MLB blamed the economy, an argument that might’ve held more water had the NFL’s ticket sales not dropped just 1.08 percent....

Certainly the prospect of drawing more than 70 million people this year in the face of the greatest economic downturn in 80 years is nothing to spit at."...

• Passan acknowledges the great economic downturn but does not pursue it. Moving on:

(continuing, Yahoo Sports): "Still, the relative change in baseball economics is crippling some franchises financially."...

• Then Passan says fans tired of wonderful new stadiums:

"Baseball’s stadium boom led to attendance jumping from just over 43 million in 1980 to more than 71 million in 2000. ...Fans flocked at first, then the luster wore off, and now so many of the new stadiums look barren on a nightly basis, barely able to fill to 50 percent capacity."...

• Then the author essentially says the heck with this whole topic:

"The great thing about teams with history: All it takes is a playoff run to reinvigorate the base …"...

• 4/25/11, "Declining crowds have teams seeking solutions," Yahoo Sports, Jeff Passan

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• 4/25/11, "High gas prices cut into driving habits — and Obama’s approval rating," Washington Post, Mufson and Cohen

"About six in 10 respondents said they had cut back on driving because of rising fuel prices, and seven in 10 said that high pump prices are causing financial hardship....

Evidence of motorists’ hardships are littering the roads. The Automobile Association of America says the number of motorists running out of gas has been surging. John Townsend, a AAA spokesman, said that cash-strapped members “are pushing the envelope” and that emergency gas deliveries to stranded members jumped nationwide, including by 40 percent in the District."...

• (Mini-bus enterprises and car pooling can help but in a nation of 300 million people some will be left out).

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4/21/2008, "Shea, Meadowlands among facilities helping spread green message," NY Daily News, Filip Bondy

• Above article cites MLB co-sponsored a Redford video played to fans in Fenway Park promoting his views on the environment.

"It was at a 2003 meeting of the NRDC board meeting at Sundance that actor and conservationist Robert Redford first devised this new strategy.

• "We have to go to sports," Redford said."...

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We all want clean air and water and to preserve our environment. We don't need the new political system being advanced by NRDC trustee Robert Redford. The stated goal of NRDC is social justice. It's one enjoyed greatly by corporate interests.

• An NRDC trader says trillions of dollars will be needed in the global warming transition.

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• 4/22/11, "Earth Day is global affair across baseball," MLB.com, Mark Newman

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• 3/29/11, "Home price declines deepen in major US markets," AP, Herron and Kravitz

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• 1/11/11, "Housing Market Slips Into Depression Territory," CNBC, Cindy Perman, Staff writer

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• 3/24/11, "CBO: Taxing mileage a 'practical option' for revenue enhancement," The Hill

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• NRDC is among groups seeking to change America into a place where walking and biking are primary mode of transport.

2/23/11, "New Study by NRDC’s Smarter Cities Project Identifies Top 15 U.S. Metro Regions Leading in Transportation Innovation," Sustainable Communities

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