Where is everyone?...

[madinmaryland]

Commissioner Bud Selig has an attendance problem. It's not a problem with the actual attendance, but a problem with perception people take from the snapshot of a wet, dreary April and extrapolate into doom and gloom for the sport. Far from worried, Selig offered a bold promise to SI.com: major league attendance will rise this year.

"Do I have any concerns? No. None whatsoever," he said. "We'll be up. All I can tell you is I'm bullish where we are and where we'll finish."

Selig has real ownership issues with the Dodgers and Mets and stadium problems with the A's and Rays that require his attention. But attendance is not a major worry, at least not as a flagging vital sign of the game's health or cultural importance.

"It's like a general manager once told me, 'I can never understand how people get upset about a team in April. There are five months to go. Don't draw any conclusions now,'" Selig said. "It's the same with attendance. Cleveland will be up, Kansas City will do much better . . . We lost 13 games . Look, I've been watching these things for 40 years. Overall, I know the ticket business. We're off to a beautiful start."

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/tom_verducci/05/03/bud.selig.attendance/index.html#ixzz1LKQ7eDSZ

I'm so happy that $elig is confident and has everything under control.