Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.Despite a successful first year of attendance at Werner Park, crowds for Rosenblatt Stadium's 2010 baseball swan song might be hard to beat for the Omaha Storm Chasers.
But it's a challenge the franchise expects to overcome.
The Chasers, who return for an eight-game homestand Friday that starts a stretch of 16 home games in 20 days, have drawn 256,996 fans for an average of 5,711 per opening this season — up 2.6 percent through a similar point last year.
Yet, with 24 home dates remaining, Omaha still needs to average 6,221 to finish ahead of last season's totals: 406,276 overall and a 5,888 average.
Part of the reason is that the paid crowd of 23,795 that turned out for the final baseball game played at Rosenblatt last summer is the equivalent of about four solid nights of attendance at the Class AAA level.
Still, Omaha General Manager Martie Cordaro said the club is on track to surpass last year's attendance figures.
"We're on pace, with our pre-sale numbers, to do it," he said. "The (cold) weather we had in April and the heat we had last weekend hasn't helped, but we're still confident we can."
The final 24 dates last season drew an average of 6,494. While the run-up to the end of Rosenblatt featured some other large crowds (eight of 8,000 or more, including four greater than Werner Park's capacity of 9,023), it also had six games with attendance of fewer than 3,000. For comparison to a more normal season, Omaha needs to average 4,759 fans to surpass the attendance totals of 2009.
Omaha already has had six crowds of 8,000 or more this season and has drawn 4,000 or more 40 times, including the past 21 dates. During its past 24 dates, Omaha has averaged 6,641.
Recent trends indicate that Omaha could deliver its highest average attendance since 2000, when a higher percentage of fans used discounted or free tickets to produce an average crowd of 6,084.
The Chasers had drawn a franchise record of 10 consecutive crowds of 6,500 or more before their games Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Those games, played with the heat index well over 100 degrees, broke the streak in drawing 5,119 and 4,554.
"Our walk-up (tickets sold just before game time) for those two games was about half of what it has been for comparable days," Cordaro said. "There were a lot of diehards there because it ... was ... warm."
Werner Park has 6,434 fixed seats (it has topped that number in attendance for 15 of its 45 home dates) and can accommodate 9,023 including berm seating.
Cordaro said the 2011 turnstile count — the number of people who actually use the tickets — is up 17 percent, though he declined to divulge the exact numbers.
Still, the move to Werner Park is about more than just attendance for the franchise.
"We just had our first-ever season-ticket holder batting practice and sponsor batting practice, and things like that you can't put a value on," Cordaro said. "We're able to control special events and off-day events and have a chance for people to interact with our staff — things that we haven't had the luxury of doing in the past."
In addition to off-day events and offering more fan amenities inside the ballpark, the Storm Chasers also have less overhead to deal with outside it.
"Comparing same events, even with the same amount of tickets sold, it has definitely helped our bottom line," Cordaro said.
• CHASERS NOTES: Omaha expects to reach 12 million in all-time attendance, dating to 1969, sometime in early August.
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