Disappointed in attendance?

[McNulty]

For me, the hardest part is just getting beyond the DC Beltway. On a weeknight, it often will take me an hour to get from my office (near Georgetown) to the spot in NE Washington where the BW Parkway begins, and then another 20 minutes from there to where the Parkway intersects with the DC Beltway. I've tried every imaginable alternative route and there's just no way to guarantee the 42-mile trip will take less than 2 hours. It's really aggravating.

Dude, use the trains. Amtrak is a great alternative, and the light rail connects to Penn Station.

[Frobby]

Dude, use the trains. Amtrak is a great alternative, and the light rail connects to Penn Station.

But that's not a good alternative on the way home. I can be home in 45 minutes by car; it would probably take double that by train considering where I live.

[ShaneDawg85]

Opposing teams shouldn't be the reason we have high attendance. People don't flock to Boston, Texas, and San Fran games to see the Yankees, Angels, and Dodgers (well most of them don't). They go to see the Red Sox, Rangers, and Giants.

It'll probably a deep playoff run/championship to get there though. A lot of scorned hearts over the past 15 years.

Read my previous posts about Tampa Bay and tell me the opponent doesn't matter. If it's not in the midst of a playoff run, a weekend series, or a holiday/special event, people aren't going to just turn out to watch the O's play anybody. Heck, Toronto has more names on their team this year, and right now they're looking at the same attendance figures they had at this same time last year in a series against Toronto at home:

April 24: 11,058

April 25: 10,415

April 26: 13,725

Whether or not the opponent should matter is debatable, but the fact is that it does. People aren't going to be drawn to the opponent if they aren't a national team, the weather is nicer, or the implications are raised.

[Frobby]

Read my previous posts about Tampa Bay and tell me the opponent doesn't matter. If it's not in the midst of a playoff run, a weekend series, or a holiday/special event, people aren't going to just turn out to watch the O's play anybody. Heck, Toronto has more names on their team this year, and right now they're looking at the same attendance figures they had at this same time last year in a series against Toronto at home:

April 24: 11,058

April 25: 10,415

April 26: 13,725

Whether or not the opponent should matter is debatable, but the fact is that it does. People aren't going to be drawn to the opponent if they aren't a national team, the weather is nicer, or the implications are raised.

There is something to this. I thought attendance for these early weekday games would be better, mainly because I thought the season ticket sales would set a higher "floor" for games like these. Either they didn't sell as many season tickets as I would have thought, or their very liberal ticket-switching policy is causing a lot of people to dump these games in favor of games that are during warmer weather or on the weekends. The weekend crowds have been up impressively from last year so far.

[Frobby]

By the way, this is one of those rare times when the Orioles and Nats are playing at home at the same time. The Nats drew 27,273 for their game with the Cardinals yesterday, and haven't drawn a crowd smaller than 24,412 this year, despite having crowds as low as 14,520 last season. It seems the "kids in school, weather is cold" rationale isn't stopping them from drawing fans on weeknights this April. I wouldn't have expected the O's to have as big an increase as the Nats this year, but I am still pretty surprised that weeknight attendance isn't up more substantially than it is.

[BirdGames]

Phillies, managed to pull over 35k last night despite brutal weather,,, averaging 37k to O's 28k. I don't know how comparable the two are outside of fairly close geographical location.

Phillies still have more star power (albeit aging), but there is far more young talent and optimism in Baltimore right now (let alone wins), and I think that trumps a team in the fast decline when it comes to exciting fans.

[NewMarketSean]

I was there last night. Really cold, and the wind made it worse. I saw a lot of people wearing shorts and t-shirts. I don't know how they stayed.

The best I can say is we came close to selling out 2 games this weekend, and a cold Monday night against the Jays isn't going to bring people out.

Good for the Nationals that they had 25K but they have more disposable income down there.

[ShaneDawg85]

Phillies, managed to pull over 35k last night despite brutal weather,,, averaging 37k to O's 28k. I don't know how comparable the two are outside of fairly close geographical location.

Phillies still have more star power (albeit aging), but there is far more young talent and optimism in Baltimore right now (let alone wins), and I think that trumps a team in the fast decline when it comes to exciting fans.

When you've had ten consecutive seasons of .500 or above baseball, I would think people would have far more reason to go to games. Plus, after looking at their website, it was dollar hot dog night. People like cheap or close to free promotions.

[BirdGames]

When you've had ten consecutive seasons of .500 or above baseball, I would think people would have far more reason to go to games. Plus, after looking at their website, it was dollar hot dog night. People like cheap or close to free promotions.

Yeah with the Phillies I would imagine the dynasty / continued success is more indicative than the dollar hotdog night. Their fans are still watching some of the core stars that one them all those division titles and a World Series,,, you're right, makes sense.

[NewMarketSean]

I do think attendance will go up when the weather is consistently nicer, combined with (hopefully) the O's winning in May and June. Until then, maybe the O's could consider some beer discounts. $7.75 for a 16 ounce beer is highway robbery. Knock it down to $6 or $5 (gasp!) and people will come out.

[Frobby]

I was there last night. Really cold, and the wind made it worse. I saw a lot of people wearing shorts and t-shirts. I don't know how they stayed.

The best I can say is we came close to selling out 2 games this weekend, and a cold Monday night against the Jays isn't going to bring people out.

Good for the Nationals that they had 25K but they have more disposable income down there.

That's not really the issue. The question is, why has their weekday attendance gone up so much compared to last year, while ours has barely moved? Their fans had lots of disposable income last year, too.

It's not that the Orioles' attendance isn't up -- it is. It's that almost 100% of the increase is occurring on the weekends in the early going. Why would that pattern exist in Baltimore but not in DC? I find it odd. That said, I personally far prefer to go on the weekends, because of the problems getting to Baltimore from DC during the week.

[NewMarketSean]

Maybe an influx of Cardinals fans?

[waroriole]

Phillies, managed to pull over 35k last night despite brutal weather,,, averaging 37k to O's 28k. I don't know how comparable the two are outside of fairly close geographical location.

Phillies still have more star power (albeit aging), but there is far more young talent and optimism in Baltimore right now (let alone wins), and I think that trumps a team in the fast decline when it comes to exciting fans.

There is only 1 team in the Philly area, plus they've been good for a long time.

[Trackmaster]

I do think attendance will go up when the weather is consistently nicer, combined with (hopefully) the O's winning in May and June. Until then, maybe the O's could consider some beer discounts. $7.75 for a 16 ounce beer is highway robbery. Knock it down to $6 or $5 (gasp!) and people will come out.

I feel like in a lot of ways baseball attendance is pretty price inelastic, especially on the weekdays, and especially on weekdays in April-May and September (unless the team is in a pennant race). It's hard for families to come out and school nights, and it's hard for M-F 9-5 workers to come out during the week unless they live in the city. So my comment about the inelasticity comes from my argument that price has little to with people coming staying home from games in the middle of the week. You could make tickets free, and they would still be hesitant to come out when they have to get up early when they get watch it on TV. However, if a team is doing well, and has a product that people really want to watch, they'll still come out during the week, and pay top dollar. As you can probably forget about getting tickets on Friday through Sunday unless you buy them through Stubhub or have season tickets.

For a team like the Orioles, if we keep winning for a few years, we'll have strong attendance figures during the week, but for now, it's mostly going to be the season ticket holders, diehard fans, people who live within a few miles of the stadium, and maybe college students. Most families and less than rabid fans now don't see the point of venturing into the city for a game when they can just as easily get weekend tickets.

[Trackmaster]

Phillies, managed to pull over 35k last night despite brutal weather,,, averaging 37k to O's 28k. I don't know how comparable the two are outside of fairly close geographical location.

Phillies still have more star power (albeit aging), but there is far more young talent and optimism in Baltimore right now (let alone wins), and I think that trumps a team in the fast decline when it comes to exciting fans.

It's funny, because while Philadelphia may be seen as a big market team at first glance, they kind of have the same problem that we do, of being landlocked by other popular teams. They have the various NY teams (and sometimes NJ teams) taking away NY and 2/3 of NJ, they have the Pittsburgh teams taking away half of PA, and they have Baltimore and Washington holding down the fort in Maryland, and parts of Delaware. I just think that it shows that if you win a lot, and have a halfway respectable market, you can draw big market crowds.

I think that I've read somewhere that they have the most amount of losses of any franchise. That may have changed though. They historically have been a door mat until recently.