The Great North American Pastime?

The San Diego Padres want to take sports fans in Tijuana out to the ballgame.

The club is selling discount tickets in Mexico and, once the regular season begins, will sponsor bus trips to games as part of an ambitious cross-border marketing program.

The Padres are looking to Mexico because other big markets are taken. Points north of San Diego are in Anaheim Angels or Los Angeles Dodgers territory.

Meanwhile, the region east of San Diego is sparsely populated.

“We decided to go where the people are,” said Don Johnson, Padres marketing vice president.

The club, which experimented with bus trips last year, has taken steps to strengthen the program. It has formed marketing partnerships with businesses in Tijuana. The brewer of Tecate beer, Blockbuster video stores and a Baja California-based convenience store chain are sponsoring Padres promotions or selling tickets locally.

The Padres also directed their ad agencies on either side of the border to work together so the team will have a consistent image.

The program is one of several steps the Padres are taking to boost attendance. The club last year initiated a frequent-fan program, in which people attending home games earn such rewards as free food and merchandise.

The club isn’t unknown in Tijuana, a city of 1.5 million. Padres games are broadcast on Televisa, the Spanish-language TV station.

The club is further building its image with advertising from Alvarez Hoyodan y Asociados, an agency in Baja. It is using the same friar symbol and “Keep the Faith” slogan developed by Di Zinno Thompson advertising for San Diego.

Mexican fans interpret the advertising in a more personal way than Americans, said advertising executive Tom Di Zinno. They reason that “if you believe in yourself, then this is the team to follow because they are like you,” Di Zinno said.

The Padres are using discounts to entice Mexican fans to attend weekend games. The club is selling $12 tickets at half-price as part of a $16 package that includes a $10 round-trip bus ticket. It remains to be seen how many people will find the deal attractive, given Mexico’s weak economy.

“We’re limited by how many people can cross the border and by how many of them can afford to come,” Johnson acknowledged.

The Padres are working with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to ensure fast processing of buses en route to games. Those efforts won’t help fans who choose to make the 10-mile ride from downtown Tijuana to Jack Murphy Stadium by car.

*

Denise Gellene can be reached via e-mail at [email protected] or fax at (213) 237-7837.