An attempt at a positive spin on what will be the Pittsburgh Pirates’ seventeenth consecutive losing season-the longest in major professional sports history-is that attendance is running slightly above last year’s level. A newspaper report notes that through 39 games in 2009, attendance is up 2.4 percent over last season and that Pittsburgh is only one of ten teams to have drawn more fans to date than last year. Overall, attendance across major league teams is down about six percent. But before we start singing "We Are Family", let’s take a more careful look at these figures.

While running ahead of last year’s pace, the team’s attendance still ranks 28^th out of 30 major league teams andis doingbetter only because of strong numbers in June. Consider that on May 29^th, the team’s attendance was running 22 percent behind last year’s pace. Fortunately, June’s schedule included inter-league teams Detroit, Kansas City, and Cleveland. Piggybacking on the Penguins’ Stanley Cup win over Detroit’s hockey team certainly helped as did two fireworks nights that month. Before May 29^th, in 21 games the team had one fireworks night. Since May 30^th there were two over the next 18 games. There are four scheduled over the remaining 42 games, which should bolster attendance. And it will take a lot of bolstering just to reach the dreadful numbers of 2007 or 2008-dreadful that is for a major league franchise.

We are seeing a pattern in the region that mirrors the Pirates’ story. Things are so bad that any vaguely good news is touted as great news. The fact is the Pirates have never been a consistently strong fan draw compared to places like St. Louis and in recent years Milwaukee. As we have pointed out before, the Pirates have not been able to attract 2 million fans in a year since the opening season in PNC Park. In the two most recent years attendance has been 1.6 million and 1.7 million, making the Pirates one of the lowest attended teams in the league. And notwithstanding the small increase thus far this season, they are still near the bottom and likely to remain there.

With a team trading away its marquee type players year after year and piling up losing seasons, the enthusiasm for baseball has undoubtedly started to wane as will attendance. Here’s an idea. Instead of worrying about building a winning team, the Pirates should quit pretending they care about winning, go with whatever players they have and spend their money on having more fireworks and free concert nights. It is obvious that a very large share of attendance is not there primarily to see the Pirates play baseball.