51s hold fan interest despite struggles

Nick Christensen

Tuesday, July 12, 2005 | 10:23 a.m.

With two months left in this baseball season, the Las Vegas 51s' front office has something to be very excited about - a 15 percent increase in attendance from last year.

An average of 4,919 fans have come out to 51s games at Cashman Field this year, and with seven of the remaining 28 home games coming on weekends and three of those weekend nights involving fireworks, there's a good chance that number will stay relatively solid through the season.

The 51s have the 19th best attendance in Triple-A, impressive considering that all but one of the teams ahead of the 51s are playing in lush new stadiums built in the past decade.

In fact, if the attendance figures hold for the rest of the year, the Las Vegas franchise would have its third-best season at the gate since moving from Spokane in 1983. The Las Vegas Stars announced an average gate of 5,386 and 5,441 fans in 1992 and 1993, respectively. Only three times did the Stars eclipse 4,800 fans a game, never since 1998.

Why the change of fortunes? Las Vegas general manager Don Logan credited his sales staff and a recent renaissance in team marketing for the rise in attendance at 22-year-old Cashman Field.

Much of the 51s staff, including Logan, are at Sacramento this week for the Triple-A All Star Game. He was touring the Napa Valley with some of his front office personnel on Monday.

"The biggest thing we did was the marketing effort," Logan said. "We're on the radio, we're doing promotions with the television stations."

For several years, the 51s did little to no advertising, relying simply on direct sales and media exposure to generate awareness of the team.

After four years of sagging attendance, however, the 51s brought back radio advertising last season.

"We're trying to connect in a form we hadn't in a few years," Logan said.