Major League Baseball had a record year in 2009 with $6.6 billion in revenue, but attendance was still down for over two-thirds of the franchises out there, with a 6.6 percent drop overall. Because of this, franchises are doing more of their own advertising to get fans in the parks.

“They have to,” says Robert Boland, marketing professor at New York University to Ad Age {link no longer active}. “They have to sell more of their individual stadium seating inventory than in recent years. In better economic times, teams struggled to sell only certain games, and their more marginal inventory — think upper deck seats. Now every team has to work harder to sell what would be considered prime seating inventory.”

The MLB actually tied the NFL for most loyal fans according to the Brand Keys Sports Loyalty Index, so now is a good time for teams to take advantage. The Oakland Athletics, for instance, are using their primary color as a lead off for their “Green Collar Baseball” campaign on radio, print, outdoor and digital.

“These insights allow leagues and teams to identify areas that need strategic reinforcement,” said Robert Passikoff, president of New York-based Brand Keys, Inc. “Done correctly, an increase in broadcast viewership, merchandise purchase and ticket revenue will follow.”

Even the Red Sox, with one of the most loyal fanbases in the country, have been scambling for ways to get new revenue. They’ve discussed letting season ticket holders on the field during batting practice. “[This] is just a fact of the climate right now,” said Robert Tuchman, exec VP of sports and entertainment marketing firm Premiere Global Sports, New York. “I do think that MLB is actually going to have a solid year in terms of attendance numbers. I think they will see an increase over last year. A lot of that was due to the economic climate. I also think teams being more aggressive will lead to more fans at the park this year. It’s a better economy this year.”

The Tampa Bay Rays are a notable example, reaching out to high schools to record high-school drum lines for ads . While the Rays reached the World Series in 2008, the club’s attendance is a half million below the 2.5 million season average of other clubs. “We want to incorporate these unique sounds in various ways throughout the season to create a connection across the Tampa Bay region,” said Rays VP-marketing/community relations Tom Hoof.

“This is really a function of team pricing having gone up dramatically — in many cases to pay for new stadiums or stadium renovations — while consumer discretionary spending, especially business entertainment spending, has tightened dramatically,” said Boland, who noted that while players’ salaries added up to a combined $2.648 billion last year, the economic model of the league may have to change. “If they can’t plug the leaks at the turnstiles,” he added, “look for the owners to turn to the union and demand salary cuts the way the NFL, NBA and NHL are.”