CARDINALS CHIEF DISCUSSES FUTURE OF MAJOR LEAGUES

Mark McGwire alone won't send major league baseball into a sound financial orbit.

That's the view of McGwire's boss, St. Louis Cardinals president Mark Lamping.

Major league baseball must address its "no hoper" franchises and help get financially struggling teams back on their feet, Lamping said during a Common Hour speech Wednesday at Southeast Missouri State University.

Lamping said some baseball teams don't have the money to compete with baseball's big spenders. "We have a number of no hopers," he said.

"There is no question that the teams with the highest payrolls have the best opportunity to win," Lamping told the crowd of about 40 people at Dempster Hall's Glenn Auditorium. Teams with payrolls of less than $50 million don't have a chance to win, he said.

Lamping said there needs to be greater revenue sharing between the haves and have-nots in baseball.

Much of the financial disparity centers on revenue that teams receive for radio and local television broadcast rights. The New York Yankees, for example, generate close to $50 million in radio and television revenue.

Lamping said revenue sharing alone won't solve the problem. He said the league needs to have some controls on labor costs. Slashing payrolls, however, isn't the answer, he said. Low-budget teams won't put people in the seats, he said.

Lamping said the Cardinals and other teams have to market baseball to appeal to young fans.

Today, baseball faces competition from computers, video games and other sports for people's free time.

Baseball has an aging fan base. "If you have an aging customer base, you better feed the baseball pipeline behind it," he said.

The St. Louis ball club has tried to reach out to a younger audience, said Lamping, who has run the club for five years.

In 1995, the Cardinals introduced low-priced children's tickets for fans 15 and younger. Such fans could go to a ball game for $2. This year, the cost is $3.

A family of four with two young children can enter the ball park for as little as $18, Lamping said.

He acknowledged that stadium food isn't cheap. But he said fans are allowed to bring in food and non-alcoholic beverages.

Busch Stadium has been renovated with a new paint job and real grass in recent years. Other improvements include an area with video games that appeal to the younger fans, more pre-recorded music in place of the organ, and what Lamping says is "more goofy stuff" on the stadium's video screen.

The goal is to get youngsters to come back to the ball park.

"What you have to do is hopefully serve it up in small doses," he said. "You give them an opportunity to sample baseball."