Why are the Orioles games not sold out right now?

[Spoonless]

Attendance is up a significant percentage over last year, and with school starting up it's really not that shocking to have a low amount of people in the park. This whole deal with calling everyone out for not going to games is a bit stale, in my opinion. You don't go from 14 years of terribadocity to packing the house overnight. It's fallacious to think it's an instantaneous reaction. You have an entire generation of young people who grew up with losing Orioles baseball. Many of these young people are probably disinterested with baseball in general because of it, and one winning season does not a convert make.

[weams]

10k is more than St Petersburg draws on average.

[notfast]

Attendance is up a significant percentage over last year, and with school starting up it's really not that shocking to have a low amount of people in the park. This whole deal with calling everyone out for not going to games is a bit stale, in my opinion. You don't go from 14 years of terribadocity to packing the house overnight. It's fallacious to think it's an instantaneous reaction. You have an entire generation of young people who grew up with losing Orioles baseball. Many of these young people are probably disinterested with baseball in general because of it, and one winning season does not a convert make.

This.

I was there tonite. Took a friend who has went from not caring about baseball at all to buying O's gear and watching games nightly, to his first game.

I'll be back tomorrow with another friend. Probably the only person I know who's under 25 that has followed the team during the "bad" years.

[barnanimal]

I've been to 16-19 games this season (didn't save all my ticket stubs). I'm going to try and make it to as many more home games as I can.

I'm more frustrated by the people who HAVE tickets but can't go for whatever reason. I check Craigslist every afternoon looking for a great deal and I know there are TONS of tickets out there that go unused.

I know you take a loss on them, but sell them dirt cheap, or give them to a friend, a co-worker, or a stranger. It's better than seeing an empty seat.

[wlaw422]

Anyone know if MASN ratings have increased substantially?

Someone asked Roch the same question on Twitter and he said "Ratings are way up"

https://twitter.com/masnRoch/status/240257180341768192

[Ransom]

I've been to about twenty games, but I avoided this series because of the Grand Pre race. I got stuck in traffic several times last year as a result of the mess and made a note to avoid the city during the week. It amazes me that the City does that thing when it loses money and hurts local business outside of downtown.

The combination of first day of school and Grand Pre clearly effected the turn-out.

Who cares who turns up, lets enjoy the great win and the fact that I’m sending my check in for playoff tickets, how cool is that?

[Great8]

Nothing markets a team more than winning games.

Tell that to the Tampa Bay Rays.

[OFFNY]

Tell that to the Tampa Bay Rays.

We're not the Tampa Bay Rays. We're the Baltimore Orioles, and you know as well as I do that if the Orioles keep winning (as I stated in the rest of my post, but which you chose not to acknowledge), the fans will come out to the ballpark more, as well as follow the team with a much higher interest on television.

[Great8]

Attendance is up a significant percentage over last year, and with school starting up it's really not that shocking to have a low amount of people in the park. This whole deal with calling everyone out for not going to games is a bit stale, in my opinion. You don't go from 14 years of terribadocity to packing the house overnight. It's fallacious to think it's an instantaneous reaction. You have an entire generation of young people who grew up with losing Orioles baseball. Many of these young people are probably disinterested with baseball in general because of it, and one winning season does not a convert make.

Yep. And not just kids, either. You have 25-year-olds with expendable income who can't remember the last winning O's team. They're not going, either, because they don't have an attachment to the team like older people do. This is going to take a while to shake the stink off this franchise. And not to be a downer, but there are also going to be people who will view this season as a fluke. They'll wait to see how things go this year and the next.

[VeveJones007]

they draw less than we do despite having waaay more population available.

The casual fans go to Cubs games. Cubs fans outnumber Sox fans 2-to-1 in and around Chicago.

The Sox have had attendance issues for years.

[TradeAngelos]

I've been to close to 15 games this year and I'll probably end up going tomorrow.

I'll say it again...the Texas Rangers, looking at trying to win their third straight AL pennant, have countless empty sections at their ballpark every night.

They were there tonight, watched last inning on MLBN and the stands were packed.

[Great8]

We're not the Tampa Bay Rays. We're the Baltimore Orioles, and you know as well as I do that if the Orioles keep winning (as I stated in the rest of my post, but which you chose not to acknowledge), the fans will come out to the ballpark, as well as follow the team with a much higher interest on television.

We're the Baltimore Orioles, a team that's lost a whole generation of fans to losing. We have the tradition that Tampa doesn't have, but we have a chasm of 15 years that was filled with suckage. To ignore that, as the O's marketing team seems to have, is a huge mistake.

[TonySoprano]

Nothing markets a team more than winning games.

If the Orioles keep winning games this season, next season, and beyond, they won't need commercials and/or other marketing gimmicks to promote their success. Oriole fever will be all over the Maryland/Northern VA/Washington D.C area.

Except that the Nats are winning too, and NoVa and D.C. are theirs, not ours.

[OFFNY]

Except that the Nats are winning too, and NoVa and D.C. are theirs, not ours.

Not quite. Northern VA and (and even Washington to an extent) is as much Oriole land as it is National land now, and as it was once Senator land in the past. This will be the first winning season that the Nationals will have since they moved from Montreal. Oriole attendance is already up, and MASN viewership is way up.

[Great8]

We're the Baltimore Orioles, a team that's lost a whole generation of fans to losing. We have the tradition that Tampa doesn't have, but we have a chasm of 15 years that was filled with suckage. To ignore that, as the O's marketing team seems to have, is a huge mistake.

To follow up on that - I didn't renew my partial ticket package this year for a variety of reasons. My ticket rep didn't even counter with an "Are you sure?" when I said we didn't want to renew. He said, "I understand." He gave up without a fight. I'm sure he's beaten down, but damn, show a little fight. Throw in some free hats or something. Work for it a bit. This is typical of the sales and marketing team, IMO.