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Everyone knows that gas prices are out of control. The good news is that there may be some relief on the horizon.

In Southwest Florida, at least one attraction is using the high gasoline prices to drum up more business.

Amid the crack of baseball bats and the smell of foot-long hot dogs and bratwurst cooking on the grill, America’s national pastime met America’s national headache at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers on Monday night.

In direct response to the skyrocketing gas prices, The Fort Myers Miracle held the first of its “Cheaper by the Gallon” promotions Monday — a promotion that will continue every Monday home game until the end of the season.

It works like this: Instead of paying the regular $7 admission fee for box seats at Hammond Stadium, you simply pay the same price as the lowest recorded price for a gallon of regular gasoline in South Fort Myers that day.

That goes for the hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches and beer, too. Whatever the lowest price for a gallon of regular gas is that day, that’s exactly what you’ll pay for your tickets and food.

On Monday, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in AAA’s Fort Myers-Cape Coral survey area was $3.959, slightly below the state average of $3.961, and up from $3.672 a month ago.

One year ago, the average price in the survey area checked in at $3.110 a gallon.

In the contiguous 48 states, the highest average price recorded Monday was in Connecticut, where consumers paid an average of $4.259 for a gallon of regular gasoline. The lowest average price could be found in South Carolina, where consumers paid an average of $3.794 a gallon.

Tampa-based AAA spokesman Greg Laskoski said he believes prices at the pump may have hit their peak.

“The national average price remained even over the past 24 hours, and the price in Florida actually went down slightly,” Laskoski said. “It’s not quite enough data to make a determination, but the basic fundamentals are favorable. The current demand from consumers is down from last year, and the supply is strong. There’s plenty of gasoline right now.”

Laskoski said his office would be watching crude oil prices and the strength of the dollar over the coming weeks, since those factors are key indicators of how much consumers can expect to pay for gas.

“What’s going to be key is the value of the dollar and the price of crude oil — those are the things that are driving retail prices right now,” Laskoski said. “On Monday, crude oil prices weren’t terribly significant, trading at around $127 a barrel, and we saw the dollar make gains at the end of last week. We believe that if the dollar can sustain its gains, then we’ll start to see gas prices coming down soon.”

On Monday, Miracle Promotions Director Gary Sharp said the lowest price could be found at a Circle K gas station about half a mile from the stadium, thus establishing promotional prices for the day at $3.90.

“We’ll post the price on our Web site every Monday at noon,” Sharp said, adding that the process involves “a staff member driving around our general vicinity, in our ZIP code, to check out gasoline prices.”

In addition to the reduced ticket and food prices, the Miracle also will be giving away items that can be measured in gallons, including water, maple syrup, sour cream and pickles.

Also, since there are four quarts in a gallon, if there are four people in your vehicle when you arrive at Hammond Stadium, your parking is free on Monday nights.

Appropriately enough, every fan who attends a Monday night game also will be entered into a drawing for free gas.

“With the gas prices and everything else going up, we thought this would be a good way to get people into the ballpark,” Sharp said. “It’s the best deal in Minor League baseball.”

Miracle General Manager Steve Gliner agrees.

“Every day there is disturbing news about how high gas has risen in price,” Gliner said. “We are going to turn a negative into a positive. We have the best fans in the Florida State League, and we want to do our part to lessen the financial burden we are all feeling here in Southwest Florida.”

For her part, baseball fan Sharon Lee of Fort Myers said she appreciated the break on Miracle ticket prices.

“Every little bit helps,” Lee said. “Everybody’s suffering from these gas prices.”

Cape Coral resident Frank Yuengling echoed those sentiments.

“These gas prices have been utterly ridiculous,” Yuengling said as he sipped on his $3.90 beer. “Anything that costs less, I’m all for it.”

For more information on the Fort Myers Miracle’s “Cheaper by the Gallon” promotion, visit www.miraclebaseball.com.

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E-mail John Osborne at johnaosborne@hotmail.com