I found this story interesting

It's from the Grand Rapids Press and it is titled as follows, Whitecaps winning, but fans not coming

COMSTOCK PARK -- There were hopes $1.3 million in offseason improvements to Fifth Third Ballpark might help boost attendance this season.

The results are mixed.

Entering their final eight-game homestand, the West Michigan Whitecaps are on pace to set a club record for the lowest attendance total during the 13-year history of the low Class A minor-league baseball franchise.

...

It should be a close call, management predicted.

The franchise has attracted 315,762 fans in 60 home dates despite fielding a first-place team that has dominated the Midwest League all summer. If that pace continues, the Whitecaps would finish with 357,854 fans this year -- fewer than 4,000 off the all-time low of 361,545 in 2003.

"I think we'll get to 360,000 or 370,000 on this last homestand," Whitecaps vice president Jim Jarecki said. "In year 13, that's still a pretty strong number."

"I'm not really disappointed in the numbers," CEO and managing partner Lew Chamberlin said. "We would've liked to have drawn a little more, but I'm hoping we can pick some of that up in the last eight games It would be nice to equal 2005."

...

The franchise goal remains 400,000 in season attendance.

It topped that figure five times (1994, 1999-2002) and surpassed a half million fans four consecutive seasons (1995-98), but tougher times have made it difficult for the Whitecaps to achieve their goal.

"I do think the economy affects us," said Chamberlin, citing higher gasoline prices. "It'll be up some years, down some years, but I'm not going to accept (350,000). We're going to keep working harder to push attendance up."

I find it interesting for two reasons.

Reason I: Brian Vanochten, the writer of the piece, links winning baseball to stronger walk-up attendance figures. That isn't the case here in Wisconsin. The weather is the main factor in a walk-up crowd.

One of the other big walk-up factors isn't around anymore. The Brewers don't have a farm team in the MWL. In 2003, when Weeks, Fielder, Gwynn, and Parra were on the Beloit Snappers everybody wanted to check them out and they decided to come up from Milwaukee, Madison, or Manitowoc that day.

Reason II: Big market teams face the same challenges that the mid and small market teams in the MWL face. How do you put together the best product together to get people to come out to see the team and enjoy the experience and keep them coming back? I know that we are already working on that for 2007 and I am sure that the rest of the league is, too.