Detroit's economic woes include the Tigers

Thursday, March 26, 2009 | Feedback | Print Entry

There have been rumblings all during the offseason about how teams such as the Padres are having a tough time selling tickets, but here is the biggest red flag to date: The Tigers' season-ticket sales have dropped from 27,000 to 15,000, as Shawn Windsor and Jon Paul Morosi report.

So now we have a clearer understanding of the context in which the Tigers are making their final roster choices. Their ticket sales are awful, making it even more important that Detroit starts its season strongly. If the Tigers get off to a terrible start, as they did last season, fan interest in the team -- already impacted by the economy -- will take a body blow. (Privately, executives with other clubs say the same thing could be said for about 15 to 20 other teams in the big leagues.)  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

    Ask Buster a question: Buster's Mailbag

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