Attendance Down at Dodger Stadium

Dodger Stadium - The sharp drop in attendance at Dodger Stadium this year is likely to cost the Dodgers at least $27 million in reduced ticket sales, concession and parking revenue for the 2011 season, it was reported today.

Based on the Dodgers' $286 million of total revenue in 2009, the most recent year for which public figures are available, this season's attendance-related declines would amount to at least a 9.4 percent drop in the Dodgers' total annual revenue, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Announced paid attendance is down an average of 7,902 a game so far this season at Chavez Ravine amid the ownership fight between owner Frank McCourt and Major League Baseball, and the team's sub-.500 play, according to the newspaper.

That is the biggest per-game drop this season among the 30 Major League teams; the next-biggest is 4,213 for the Seattle Mariners, and baseball overall is averaging a per-game attendance decline of 91, The Times reported.

Average paid attendance at the Dodgers' 59 home games so far this year was 36,731, a decline of 7,902 (or 17.7 percent), compared with its per-game average for the first 59 home games in 2010, according to The Times.

With the Dodgers burdened by more than $500 million of debt, and with the attendance drop helping erode the team's ability to cover payments on that debt, McCourt had hoped to sign a new television contract with Fox to make ends meet. But after the TV deal was rejected by MLB Commissioner Bud Selig on June 20, McCourt opted to put the Dodgers in bankruptcy proceedings a week later. There is no telling when the team will emerge from Chapter 11.