Bob Smizik's Blog
Coonelly wants higher attendance before Pirates do more spending
Thursday, February 24, 2011 12:30 AM
Written by Bob Smizik

In the 1989 oh, so sweet, slightly preposterous baseball movie, "Field of Dreams," the main character, played by Kevin Costner, is walking through his Iowa cornfield when he hears a voice:

"If you build it, he will come.''

So motivated, Costner's character builds a field on his farm and he (Shoeless Joe Jackson) comes to play ball on it.

In the 2011 oh, so sour, completely preposterous upcoming Pirates season, "Field of Screams," the team president, played by Frank Coonelly, is walking among the fan base and, stuck for a good line, does a Costner takeoff:

"If you come, we will build it," he tells the crowd.

Yep, Frank Coonelly is back issuing ultimatums to Pirates fans. In a recent interview, Connelly so much as said the team’s payroll, usually at or near the bottom among the 30 MLB franchises, will remain there until more fans start coming to games.

And there you have it, the Pirates latest promotion to get fans to PNC Park: Blackmail.

Instead of being grateful for the fine support fans give the worst team in baseball, Coonelly is telling them they need to do more. If they don’t, the not-so subtle message is that there will be more years of low payrolls and -- since mismanagement is built in -- more losing teams.

Here’s Coonelly in an interview with the web site piratesprospects.com:

Pirates prospects: "Would the Pirates be able to afford a $70M to $80M payroll, in present-day worth, if this current group of players were competitive enough to merit additional outside free agents?"

Coonelly: "Today, no, but we will be able to support that payroll very soon if our fans believe that we now have a group of players in Pittsburgh and on its way here in the near future that is competitive. We need to take a meaningful step forward in terms of attendance to reach that payroll number while continuing to invest heavily in our future, but I am convinced that the attendance will move quickly once we convince our fans that we are on the right track."

Incredible! Coonelly was asked the question Pirates fans had long been asking: Will ownership upgrade payroll to support a winner? It's a question owner Bob Nutting always has ducked. Coonelly did not duck. He took the large softball thrown up by piratesprospects.com and . . . swung and missed.

James Krug of isports.com had a response to Coonelly's bewildering statement that is reproduced here because he said it far better than I could.

"Sadly, Coonelly does not place the immediate onus on the Pirates themselves to build a better, more competitive team that fans would WANT to see. Rather -- as has been a consistent message from Pirates' ownership -- they desire to see a significant increase in attendance PRIOR to the team actually getting good! It's maddening. From a purely business perspective, it is a backwards approach. You could liken it to a car company telling its customers:

"'We really want to build better cars for you. But before we do, we need you to start buying our lower-quality, underperforming cars in a much higher volume.'

"While many aspects of running a multi-million dollar business are highly complex, appeasing a fan base is not. Offer them a consistently competitive team, and they will show up in droves. Bobbleheads and fireworks only mask an inferior on-the-field product for so long. The Pirates were provided a jewel of a stadium in PNC Park that was almost entirely publicly financed. They are handed tens of millions of dollars every year in MLB revenue sharing and the MLB TV contract- to the point that it could cover their ENTIRE payroll most years!"

This is so typical of how the Pirates operate. They should be groveling at the feet of their loyal fan base and not threatening to raise ticket prices, as they've done, and not threatening to withhold a good team until more fans pay good money to see a bad team.

Not even Hollywood could make up this story.