The Nationals announced Friday the creation of the Grand Slam E-Z Payment Plan, which allows fans to pay off their season tickets in monthly installments on their credit cards over six months.
The move is the latest among several measures the Nationals hope will attract fans during the tough economic climate. In September, they announced they were lowering season-ticket prices for 7,500 seats, and on Thursday they lowered individual-sale ticket prices on 14,000 seats.
Filling Nationals Park could be a struggle this season. Last year, the team ranked 13th in the National League and 19th in the major leagues in attendance, even though it was the inaugural season in the new ballpark. The team finished 59-102, the worst record in baseball, and has not made any major player acquisitions during the offseason.
Nationals president Stan Kasten declined to give an update on season-ticket sales, but the team's news release said "excellent season ticket locations are still available throughout the ballpark."
Kasten said the economic meltdown "is definitely having an impact" on the team.
"We see some impact on tickets, but some of that is kind of an inevitable byproduct of the second year in the new stadium and all of that," Kasten told fans at a lunch for season-ticket holders. "We are seeing it in sponsorships. There are whole categories of sponsors that aren't playing right now
- the auto category, the bank category - so this has changed some of the ways we go about it."
