A couple days into his new position as general manager of the Syracuse Chiefs, Jason Smorol obviously is knee-deep.

I caught Smorol with CNY Central sports anchor Niko Tamurian on last night’s news. They stood in the parking lot outside NBT Bank Stadium, the big ballpark serving as the backdrop as Smorol explained that it really is a pretty darn good place to see a game.

Smorol is starting the big fix.

After some board games that included a winning pitch, there’s a new regime up there on the north side. The Simone family has been unseated. First patriarch Tex — the guy whose name is on the street sign outside the ballpark — announced his retirement. Tex Simone’s tie to the Chiefs went back to 1961. But at 86, Tex was given an emeritus title and promised an office. No so with John, his son, the man who’d replaced his father as the guy who ran the community-owned club’s day-to-day operations in 1997.

Simply put, the top of the board had seen enough, capped by the news that the Chiefs had lost $500,000 this past baseball season.

To say Smorol has a big job ahead of him is a massive understatement.

Attendance is way down, lowest in the International League. Pathetic, really. You could walk up to the box office on game night and buy seats anywhere in the park you’d like to sit. Still hardly anybody was walking up to the box office. The team’s games were broadcast on the Internet only this past season, infuriating the few fans who’d tuned in on the radio for decades.

No buzz. No clout. No interest.

Too much bitterness remained from that time two decades ago that politicians and board members came together on the decision to build this new ballpark a bounced curveball away from old MacArthur Stadium, instead of putting up a new place downtown to serve as a cornerstone of an urban revival.

Smorol looked around the lot as he talked with Tamurian. The Syracuse native has done this before, leading the Auburn Class A team to big attendance gains and a nice buzz some 30 miles to the west.

He thrummed with enthusiasm. It was obvious that Smorol knows what he’s got in front of him.

He talked about how good this location is, what with Destiny USA right there, the Regional Market at the other end of the parking lot, the transportation center as a next-door neighbor. He cited all the parking spots available and noted the lack of the same downtown.

Smorol paddled furiously. He knows he has to change the direction of the Chiefs’ current in the Central New York community. He needs to change perceptions. Tricky, that.

Opening day is in April. Next season is the final in the club’s affiliation contract with the Washington Nationals. Folks in the community already have noted that the New York Mets’ agreement with the Las Vegas Triple-A team expires at the same time.

Decisions loom.

Wouldn’t it be nice to go to full ballpark where the fans were happy to be at a baseball game? It can happen. I took my wife an daughter to pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg’s first appearance as a Syracuse Chief in 2010. The joint was hopping. Sold out. Strasburg got called up and the attendance went back down.

Here’s my first free suggestion for Smorol. Find a way to keep that restaurant and bar out in right field open for every game. Section off some of the surrounding seats and provide waitress service. To find that spot shuttered during a game was an eyebrow-raiser.