MLB Teams Nervous About Attendance

Have you heard about the economy? It's bad. You've seen this? You've heard about this? (Adjusts tie, looks around, does headlines, steals Conan's thunder.) Anyway, yes, the economy is bad, and sports are not recession-proof. People are going broke. Baseball tends to not be the highest priority when your primary concern is making sure your checking account has enough to pay for utilities each month.

So baseball is expecting a downturn. The question is not whether it will happen, but how bad it will be, and how the teams worst affected will be able to absorb it. According to Peter Gammons, the initial numbers are already coming in. They're not good:

Major League Baseball has warned club businesspeople that attendance is expected to be down 17-20 percent in 2009, and that it could be worse, especially for franchises such as the San Diego Padres, Toronto Blue Jays, Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians, Houston Astros, Colorado Rockies and others that could be seriously impacted by the recession.

Ruh roh. 20 percent? That's not good for anybody -- not for players, not for owners, and not for coaches, either. (Though, to be fair, Lou Piniella doesn't really notice whether there or people in the stadium or not.) The only people it might be good for are fans -- those of us that can (fingers crossed!) still afford to pick up the occasional ticket. If no one is showing up for games, prices are sure to drop, and that's where cheapskates like you and I come in. Cheap tickets are the new bear tech stocks: buy low, people.

That's a free stock tip. The next one will cost you. I'm like Jim Cramer, except I actually admit I have no idea what I'm talking about.