For the first time in six years, minor league baseball did not set an attendance record.

The economic slowdown proved too great for even the debut of six new ballparks to overcome. Final overall attendance is expected to be announced later this week, but MILB spokesman Steve Densa confirmed today that a new record was not reached in 2009.

Replacing failing markets with new ones, and swapping aging ballparks with state-of-the-art facilities has been at the heart of minor league baseball’s recent growth. Last year, the sport rode the coattails of three new ballparks to overcome the recession and set a new standard by drawing 43,263,740.

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