Plenty of empty seats to greet Cubs, Sox

Four years ago, the Cubs and White Sox arrived at the first game of their annual interleague series with both teams in first place.

Each team swept at home — and both teams reached the playoffs for the first time since 1906, capping off an exciting summer on both sides of town.

This May, it was a different story when the City Series series opened with both teams suffering losing record for the fourth straight year. The drop-off in on-field performance has led to a decline in ticket sales and prices as fans are less willing to fork over top dollar for a series they once flocked to witness.

Although the White Sox have surged into first place, seats are available throughout U.S. Cellular Field for each game of the upcoming series, Monday through Wednesday.

White Sox VP of Marketing Brooks Boyer said Thursday that On StubHub.com, a ticket resale site, between 1,300 and 1,700 tickets were available for each game, starting at about $50 for upper-deck seats. Boyer linked the slow ticket sales to the slumping economy.

“When you look at what's happened to the economy, I think a lot of people were affected by that,” he said, “I think you can still see the intensity of the fans.”

When the White Sox visited Wrigley Field on May 18, the attendance of 34,947 was the smallest announced crowd for any game in the rivalry's history. The Cubs nearly sold out the Saturday night game and drew more than 38,000 for Sunday's matinee finale.

Julian Green, Cubs VP of Communications and Community Affairs, said the team wasn't concerned about drawing fans for the matchup.

“Keep in mind that during that same weekend, we were in the midst of a NATO conference,” Green said. “I think that there were a number of Chicagoans that may have opted to either take a vacation and try to get out of town, or do a ‘staycation' and stay at home. The novelty hasn't worn off for the series.”

Max Waisvisz, owner of Gold Coast Tickets, disagrees. He said the series in May was the worst Cubs-White Sox series ever for his company and the fourth straight year in which his profits from the series have declined.

Waisvisz has about 100 tickets left for each game of the series next week, which he said is “not too much for us,” but noted that the company didn't purchase as many tickets as it has in past years.

“It just seems like people are not buying the tickets,” he said. “I think the problem is because of the Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday series. If it was on the weekend, more working-class people could have made it.”

With the Cubs enduring one of their worst seasons ever, Waisvisz blamed the Cubs' high ticket prices for the lower turnout.

Jon Greenberg, executive editor of Team Marketing Report, a sports marketing research company, noted that bleacher seats for the series at Wrigley Field were more than $100 each.

“For the Cubs, I think it was kind of a pricing issue,” he said. “If the Cubs were good, it wouldn't be a pricing issue. I don't think they were quite happy about it, but their excuse is going to be, if there's a better product on the field, we won't have these problems.”

With the prime summer months beginning, the Cubs are likely to see large crowds from tourists and others attending to enjoy Wrigley Field. Many Detroit fans were among the 41,263 who watched Wednesday night's game at Wrigley, the biggest crowd of the season. Green also said the Cubs are expecting a large contingent of Red Sox fans for this weekend's games.

For the White Sox, the problem runs deeper, as the team has failed to draw fans despite exceeding preseason expectations. Greenberg pointed out that White Sox fans have added incentive to turn out this week. The Sox have a chance to sweep the six-game series — which has never been done. Beating the Cubs will also help the Sox remain first in the AL Central.

With fewer fans filling the seats at each park, more Cubs and White Sox fans are parking themselves on the couch. Comcast SportsNet spokesman Jeff Nuich said the ratings for White Sox games have seen a “solid uptick” as the team has gone 16-6 since the last crosstown series.

Last year, the Cubs-White Sox games on Monday and Wednesday nights at U.S. Cellular Field were the network's highest-rated games of the 2011 season. The network also provides lengthy pregame shows every day of the series, presenting coverage of both teams.

Greenberg believes fans will be more motivated to watch in person when the games are relevant in the standings and not just for bragging rights.

“As bad as these teams have been since 2008, there hasn't been much excitement,” Greenberg said. “I think it'll pick up again when we have both teams competitive.”