A little slow on the draw so far

The kids are still in school, the weather still isn’t that great, hockey and basketball playoffs are sucking up the sports consumer dollar, and there are some bad teams. All things to blame for the unsightly empty seats at major league venues this season?But what about St. Petersburg, Fla., where the baseball team might be the most exciting one in the game right now? Attendance for Tuesday night’s 15-5 win over Oakland was a meager 10,825, one of the smallest crowds of the season in Major League Baseball.We certainly know the Tampa Bay story.The Rays play at Tropicana Field, which doesn’t exactly fill the senses with the baseball experience. Yet it’s a comfortable, fan-friendly facility with good sightlines. Oh yeah, it’s in St. Pete, and Tampa Bay folks don’t like driving over the bridge, right? In a recent poll conducted by TBO.com, 65 percent of those voting said a new stadium in Hillsborough County would get them going to Rays games.For a team that already is bleeding money, this is a horrible sign, as the Rays keep having to reduce payroll.The Nationals, so bad for so long, have started playing better, and phenom pitcher Stephen Strasburg probably is not far off from the majors, according to team president Stan Kasten. Kasten, however, dismisses the suggestion that Nationals fans simply won’t come out. They averaged 19,777 through 13 dates, actually an increase of 368 from last year.Kasten has always said that the Nationals will get the attendance they deserve based on their play, but in a pair of games last week, they barely got 11,000 fans.“There’s always a lag between performance and attendance in both directions,’’ Kasten wrote in a text message. “And it’s silly to make judgments based on April games, which are almost exclusively determined by offseason ticket sales. Relax. All signs and trends here are positive. And the fans here will make this market a huge success.’’Other snapshots from Tuesday were alarming. There were 11,613 in Florida to watch Marlins-Padres. There were 14,969 in Kansas City to watch Royals-Mariners. There were 14,589 in Arlington, Texas, to watch Rangers-White Sox. And there were 14,776 in Toronto for a game between division rivals Toronto and Boston.While individual markets are experiencing difficulty, overall the picture isn’t that gloomy. baseball-reference.com has done a terrific job with its daily attendance tracker and comparisons to last year. Through Wednesday, the average attendance was slightly down, from 28,711 to 28,172, after the same number of games.But it seems worse, doesn’t it?Commissioner Bud Selig has said many times that the first thing he looks at in the morning is attendance figures around baseball. He had to cringe Wednesday when he looked at Tampa Bay’s attendance.Selig told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this week, “Some of the teams are struggling [on the field]. Right now our attendance is flat with last year, but we’ve checked, and ticket sales overall are doing well.“It’s way too early to be concerned about attendance figures. I look at it the same way you evaluate a team’s play. You can’t do that in April. You need to wait. Attendance always jumps when school lets out.’’Selig acknowledged that the economy remains a concern, but said, “I’m optimistic again this year.’’The Orioles set a record for smallest attendance at Camden Yards in its 19-season history when 9,129 attended the April 12 game vs. the Rays. That three-game series drew just over 33,000.The Orioles didn’t draw 2 million last year. And if this month is any indication, they won’t again this year. Camden Yards was once one of the toughest places to get a ticket, but it was less than half-full for Tuesday night’s game against the Yankees.The consensus on why this is happening: The Orioles stink.During their opening homestand, the Mariners drew three of the four smallest crowds in the history of Safeco Field (opened in July 1999), including the smallest (14,528 on April 19 vs. the Orioles).According to baseball-reference.com, 18 of the 30 teams are showing a decline in attendance.The sharpest decline is in New York for the Mets, who are down 8,855 per game despite being in first place and having one of the newer stadiums. Three seasons of poor play seem to have taken their toll.The Marlins are down 6,400 per game — do you sense a Florida theme? — for a franchise that has won two championships and always has very good talent. The Marlins also have a new stadium ready to roll by 2012.San Diego, despite an eight-game winning streak, is down 6,318 per game. Toronto, without Roy Halladay, is down 4,281. Tampa Bay is down 4,245. Even Boston is down 261. The Angels, always a good draw, are down 1,762.Some A’s players are dejected about playing before only a few of their close friends.“It’s not much fun to play in front of an empty stadium in your home park,’’ wrote reliever Brad Ziegler on his Twitter page.The overall bottom line in attendance has been improved by the new Target Field in Minneapolis, where the Twins have drawn 15,766 more per game than they did last season at this time in the Metrodome.The Braves have also seen an upswing — some say because of the advent of young phenom Jason Heyward. They’re up some 5,792 per game from last season, though for a midweek series against the Phillies, the crowds were 18,032, 21,171, and 22,476. (The reason given for that is that the kids in the Atlanta area were undergoing standardized testing that week.)Kasten and Selig believe April traditionally is a bad month, and not a good gauge of things to come. Even the Mets project better attendance as the season moves into summer.You just wonder, though, whether at some point the attendance swoon in some of these markets will spill into June, July, and August. That would be a sign that something isn’t right.Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickcafardo.