BY JOHN ERARDI
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Attendance at Comiskey Park in Chicago and The Ballpark at Arlington in Texas has dropped off significantly after first-year honeymoons.

Cleveland, Denver and Baltimore, however, have maintained their momentum.

Analysts caution that the Denver region is baseball crazy with a 4-year-old franchise, and Cleveland hadn't experienced a baseball winner in 40 years until it fled its cavernous home on the waterfront and opened the gates to Jacobs Field in 1994. Both clubs' gate success is more easily understood in that light.

But Baltimore's Camden Yards has drawn huge crowds since its opening in 1992, even though the Orioles didn't win their first pennant of the five-year period until last year.

Analysts say that what makes Camden Yards work is the fan-friendly warmth and ''old feel'' of the ballpark itself. The downtown location creates the sense of a green oasis in an urban setting that was the soul of so many old ballparks.

The Reds - who were averaging 31,628 fans a game as recently as 1994 - averaged 24,492 fans last year (a 23 percent drop in two years). A number of factors may have contributed to the drop in attendance, including a players strike/lockout in 1994/'95. But the team still outdrew the Chicago White Sox (averaging 20,691 fans), who have a 6-year-old ballpark.

Things have gotten so bad in Chicago that the Sox are contemplating allowing tailgating so they can compete with the ambiance of neighborly Wrigley Field across town.

The club will pay a $10 million salary to free agent Albert Belle this season to not only try to win a championship, but to try to fill a park. Two summer weekends that always sell out at Wrigley are the Reds and Cardinals, because so many residents of Cincinnati and St. Louis drive up for the games, say Cubs officials.

Texas' 3-year-old Ballpark at Arlington drew well in its first year (average of 40,371 fans in the 49,292-seat stadium), but dropped significantly in year two (27,583) and didn't do as well as expected with a division winner last year (35,667), although the labor dispute and ensuing bad feelings all around may have played a part there, too.

FINDING A PLACE TO PLAY
NEIGHBORHOOD A BIG PART OF BALLPARK
REDS HAVE HURDLES, HELP IN SITE HUNT
KENTUCKY DESERVES REDS, TOO
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