Wait until the trade deadline approaches during the summer... as teams have battled through poor attendance, dwindling jersey sales, and so forth. Teams like the Detroit Tigers (payroll of $138m in 2008 - third behind the Yankees and Mets) will have fire sales to cope with the economic struggles.
In the last two days, local papers have covered struggling ticket sales for two high budget teams:
Detroit Tigers - 2008 Payroll of $138m, 3rd highest payroll in MLB - Season ticket woes (Free Press):
Last year, the Tigers had sold some 27,000 season tickets at this time. This year, that number has dropped to roughly 15,000. Ron Colangelo, the Tigers' vice president of communications, would not confirm or deny the 15,000 figure, saying: "We're going to let our sales and marketing efforts continue through Opening Day."
San Francisco Giants - 2008 Payroll of $76m, 16th highest payroll in MLB - Season ticket woes (Mercury News):
The Giants say they have sold fewer than 20,000 season-ticket plans, off nearly 25 percent from their All-Star Game season in 2007. But club officials believe they will avoid the catastrophic projections that are haunting other major league cities, and through walk-up sales and promotions, they are hopeful their season attendance will come close to matching the 2.8 million fans they drew last season.
"We're hanging tough," said Staci Slaughter, the club's vice president of communications. "We're in a much better position than a lot of teams."
