Shrinking Ballparks

Some major league baseball park officials are using the “less is more” approach to get fans to fill seats and secure much-needed income for the lean times.

The trend to cut seating capacity, patterned after historic revival ballparks, gives patrons a more intimate stadium with better sight lines but reduces the amount of available tickets. In turn, the ticket shortage inspires fans to buy earlier as well as plunk down the cash for season tickets, according to The Boston Globe.

In the last 11 years, average seating capacity at major league parks has fallen 11 percent, from 51,106 to 45,395, while the average per-game attendance has risen 22 percent to 30,936. Meanwhile, ticket prices have more than doubled to the current average of $22.21, the paper said.

Teams implementing the change include the Oakland Athletics, the Boston Red Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Mets and Yankees, and the Philadelphia Phillies .