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The "Clip" hasn't always been bursting at the seams this summer.
But compared to what's happening elsewhere in minor-league or even Major League baseball, it isn't doing too shabby in its fifth season.
In the first half of the 2009 season, the Lancaster Barnstormers have averaged 4,818 fans per date — third-best in the eight-team Atlantic League.
There's good news and bad news in that figure.
The down side is that the average turnout at Clipper Magazine Stadium is off about 2 percent from last year, when it was 4,902 per game after the same 32 games.
But with the country's economic slump and after "one of the worst springs I've seen in my 18 years in baseball," the team's president said the Barnstormers are doing better, attendance-wise, than he could have guessed three months ago.
"We were prepared for a really difficult, challenging season, given the global economic mess," Jon Danos said this week.
"Sure, it's down slightly (in attendance) per game," and places like the stadium corporate boxes and picnic areas are seeing "less activity, fewer corporations entertaining customers and employees" at the ballpark as in past years, he said.
"But while we were preparing for a worst-case scenario, I'm happy to report that we haven't seen any (major) setbacks."
The team is a solid third in the league in attendance behind the two traditional leaders, Long Island, with 5,789 fans per game, and Somerset, in Bridgewater, N.J., which is averaging 5,099. And the Barnstormers are well ahead of fourth-place York, which has drawn 4,005 per date.
Barnstormer fans this week said they feel as excited to be at the ballpark as ever. They cited the affordable prices and family entertainment as main reasons they come.
One said a few more wins on the field would help produce more excitement, and more fans.
One of the fans, new transplant to Lancaster Karl Wilkerson, sang the praises of the stadium as he left the ballpark Sunday with his family.
"We always have a blast here. … It's family-oriented, with plenty of things for all of us to do," the Manheim Township resident said, after watching the game with his wife, Sarai, 14-year-old daughter Natasha and 8-year-old son Kody.
"And it's a lot better and easier than trying to take your kids down to Baltimore" and paying a lot more to see the Orioles, he said.
Matt Hoffman of Mulberry Street, playing catch Sunday out on the park's left-field grass hillside with his 7-year-old son Zelig, agreed that the North Prince Street ballpark is a great place to catch a game.
"And you can play catch and hang out while you enjoy the game … and it's so affordable."
Today marks the end of the season's first half, and the Barnstormers finished with 32-38 record.
In the ballpark's first season, 2005, the Barnstormers, after a similar 32 home dates, were averaging a whopping 5,363 fans per game at the new park.
In 2006, when the team captured the Atlantic League championship, it was averaging 5,201 at the midway point (35 games).
Despite all the problems so far in 2009 with the economy and the weather, this year's first half is ahead of 2007, which was 4,752 per date after 35 contests.
Danos is eagerly looking forward to the second half of 2009: "Lancaster remains one of the best minor-league baseball markets I've ever seen. … It's really a tremendous operation, and well-deserving of a winning team.
"In talking with other team owners and operators, I know that everybody is in the same boat nationwide, and nearly all of us in the industry are feeling it.
"I'm not naive about it, believe me … we had a challenging offseason, some areas are certainly down, but we're very encouraged that we're holding our own."
The Barnstormers start the second half of the season at home against the York Revolution on Friday, July 17.
Before that, the stadium will play host to another sport … soccer.
Well-known English team Crystal Palace, from London, will play at the Clip on Thursday, July 16, in a 7 p.m. match against the Harrisburg City Islanders.
There are no concerts on tap, however, for the rest of this summer. Team officials have said they would welcome shows like the Willie Nelson/Bob Dylan concert held in the park's first year, but have cited the difficulty of lining up performers' dates with non-baseball nights.
Barnstormer fan Samuel Goss of East Lampeter Township, who typically makes it to 50 of the 70 home games, agrees with Danos that the team had bad luck weather-wise early this season.
"In the five years I've been coming, this was easily the worst spring I've seen," said Goss, adding that the bad luck "seems to have been following our team" on the field as well, with a series of injuries for the second year in a row.
Change that, get the players healthy, "and I think we'd be excellent."
The off-the-field and between-innings entertainment is "I'd say just OK," said Goss, 56, a member of the team's booster club.
"I think some of it, as far as the entertainment, needs to be freshened up," said Goss, who usually comes to the games with his 13-year-old daughter Lindsey.
One area that has been a tremendous success in 2009, Danos said, is a new fundraising plan that yields money for charitable organizations for each ticket sold.
"The fundraising has been sensational," he said.
"A quarter-million dollars (raised) was our goal before the season started, and I think we're well on the way. We've written a whole lot of checks to a whole lot of organizations."
The Barnstormers lost the single-game Atlantic League attendance record just last week.
The Somerset Patriots set the new single-game record with a crowd of 8,537 at their July 3 game, breaking the record set in Lancaster in 2008, when the Barnstormers drew 8,485 for their home opener.
The man in charge of the off-the-field "product" for the Barnstormers, team General Manager Vince Bulik, remains "excited and upbeat" after his first half-season at the helm.
There are many reasons for his optimism, he pointed out — kids are out of school for July and most of August, there are strong advance sales for the second-half-kickoff York series next week (in the 5,000 range for each game), and plenty of other promotions to attract fans.
He also figures the weather, out of his control, will improve.
Bulik, before each game, walks around and talks to fans, and is constantly asking them if there's anything the team and the staff can do to better the overall ballpark experience.
"That's the only way we know what fans would like to see us do better … and that allows my staff and I to brainstorm and come up with ideas," he said Wednesday.
Bulik is so committed to hearing from fans he wants them to write to him at vbulik@lancasterbarnstormers.com with suggestions.
Bulik remembers the nice note he got from a fan, who also goes to Reading Phillies games in their picturesque ballpark. The fan told Bulik that he likes Lancaster a little better.
And while the majors and some minor leagues are seeing the economy hurt their attendance, the Atlantic League as a whole seems to be weathering the storm … despite the weather.
League executive Joe Klein said Wednesday the first-half attendance is on par with last season's, at around 1,050,000 for all games.
"We're just about where we were last year. … We have great fans who love baseball," he said.
Klein, the league's executive director and a well-regarded former Major League GM, credits GMs like Bulik for the league's showing.
"And, tongue-in-cheek, I also have to give credit to our groundskeepers. … We've played some games where in another situation we wouldn't have been able to play. … They're the unsung heroes."
The Atlantic League has now drawn more than 19 million fans in its 13-year history.
The league is also looking at expansion, and Klein has said in published reports that the league is in talks with Yonkers, N.Y., northern Virginia and New Jersey about establishing franchises.
He could have an announcement on that front later in the season, he said Wednesday.
E-mail: doconnor@lnpnews.com
