A bad season for the Los Angeles Dodgers gets worse, as a significant drop in attendance could end up costing the team some $27 million in decreased game-day revenues — or even more.
The Dodgers have experienced a significant drop in attendance this season to 36,706 a game, some 16 percent this season versus the first 60 games of the 2010 season. That’s the announced attendance; the actual turnstile counts are probably lower.
The Los Angeles Times estimates that the attendance drop is costing the team some $27 million in lost game-day revenues, based on 2009 financial figures submitted as evidence in the McCourt divorce proceedings. We won’t go into all the specifics of how the newspaper arrived at these figures — the calculations are pretty exhaustive — but they’re certainly plausible. And they may end up being on the conservative end, says Steve Dilbeck.
Perhaps that’s why owner Frank McCourt smartly called for a cease-fire of sorts with Major League Baseball and negotiated a loan with MLB for $50 million at 7 percent interest, complete with a pledge from MLB not to seize the team in case of default. The McCourt-MLB relationship has been strained, to say the least, but with an agreement in place, McCourt can turn his attention back to running the team and untangling his marital assets.
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