Nats 2nd home game in new stadium: 20,497 fans

[dkdc]

If MLB put a NL team in Brooklyn or Manhattan, I'd root for them as my second team and go to 15 games a season. There are plenty of transplants in New York.

[NewMarketSean]

Now you're talking about something completely different. Drungo was talking about a team building a stadium across the street from Yankee Stadium. If you give Jersey a team (like they did in the NHL and NBA) I think you'd be able to do that, even though a lot of fans are already linked to the Yanks and Mets because of vicinity. Plus Jersey has it's own identity and it's citizens have a lot of pride in their state and are tired of being called NYC's suburbs. It could work there.

But I know it wouldn't work in NYC and definitely not in Boston and maybe not anywhere in NE...

[PeteU]

What about the Knicks fans when the Nets came to Jersey? Rangers fans to the Devils (and Islanders!)? Giants fans to the Jets?

Orioles fans to Nationals?

People root for teams in their area.

If Baltimore got an NBA team, would the Wizards fans in the area not switch allegiances?

Typically people who have strong allegiances to a team don't drop allegiances at the drop of a hat.

It's heartening to know that at least from what I've observed in Southern Maryland, the majority of baseball fans are still Orioles fans, despite the fact that the Nationals are somewhat closer.

Across the Potomac, it's a different situation, but then again, I doubt that a lot of Northern Virginians were strong Orioles fans to begin with.

[DrungoHazewood]

I know I wouldn't. In fact, as much as it pains me to say, the Baltimore team would probably be a Wizards' rival and I'd have to root against them.

I know it took a good 45 seconds after the Expos moved to DC for a sizable number of die hard O's fans in Southern Maryland to switch allegiances. My father-in-law, and my sister-in-law's father-in-law (say that three times fast) both talked O's with me all the time, right up to the point the Nats came to town.

[PeteU]

I know it took a good 45 seconds after the Expos moved to DC for a sizable number of die hard O's fans in Southern Maryland to switch allegiances. My father-in-law, and my sister-in-law's father-in-law (say that three times fast) both talked O's with me all the time, right up to the point the Nats came to town.

Really?

All my Southern Maryland friends have stayed very loyal to the O's. Course, I'm Calvert side. Don't know how it is in Charles or St. Mary's.

They are also diehard Redskins fans. I of course started rooting for the Ravens from Game 1 in 1996, but then again I was never a Redskins fan to begin with and have always had exclusive ties with Baltimore as opposed to DC.

And from the looks of the Nationals attendance numbers the past three years and the first part of the fourth, I don't think the Nationals have done as much chipping in Southern Maryland or the Maryland suburbs as one may have thought.

[DrungoHazewood]

Now you're talking about something completely different. Drungo was talking about a team building a stadium across the street from Yankee Stadium. If you give Jersey a team (like they did in the NHL and NBA) I think you'd be able to do that, even though a lot of fans are already linked to the Yanks and Mets because of vicinity. Plus Jersey has it's own identity and it's citizens have a lot of pride in their state and are tired of being called NYC's suburbs. It could work there.

But I know it wouldn't work in NYC and definitely not in Boston and maybe not anywhere in NE...

I was just saying that the culture or rules that allow a team to set up shop across the street from Yankee Stadium had led, in the UK, to dozens of teams being in the biggest markets.

I think it could work here, too. You may be overestimating the number of people who think it's a mortal sin to switch teams. We're the die hards, for us it's unthinkable. For a lot of casual fans, and that's most fans, they'll go wherever it's cool, or cheap, or trendy, or convenient.

[BaltimoreTerp]

Now you're talking about something completely different. Drungo was talking about a team building a stadium across the street from Yankee Stadium. If you give Jersey a team (like they did in the NHL and NBA) I think you'd be able to do that, even though a lot of fans are already linked to the Yanks and Mets because of vicinity. Plus Jersey has it's own identity and it's citizens have a lot of pride in their state and are tired of being called NYC's suburbs. It could work there.

But I know it wouldn't work in NYC and definitely not in Boston and maybe not anywhere in NE...

Obviously he was exaggerating with the "Building a stadium across the street" part

But the point is that over there, they don't have territorial restrictions. So you can have many teams in London.

Imagine having the Baltimore Orioles, and then a series of minor-league teams both in the city and the nearby suburbs (Towson, Columbia, White Marsh).

[BaltimoreTerp]

I was just saying that the culture or rules that allow a team to set up shop across the street from Yankee Stadium had led, in the UK, to dozens of teams being in the biggest markets.

I think it could work here, too. You may be overestimating the number of people who think it's a mortal sin to switch teams. We're the die hards, for us it's unthinkable. For a lot of casual fans, and that's most fans, they'll go wherever it's cool, or cheap, or trendy, or convenient.

Especially since many of the teams are at lower levels, so you can, in theory, root for and support several teams.

[TonySoprano]

Not to mention he was a racist who saw that Minnesota was full of friendly blond haired white people.

He was the reason, not D.C., why the team left town, a fact that is conveniently overlooked in the DC bashing. Major league baseball was played in Washington for seventy-one seasons prior to the Nationals move.

[BaltimoreTerp]

He was the reason, not D.C., why the team left town, a fact that is conveniently overlooked in the DC bashing. Major league baseball was played in Washington for seventy-one seasons prior to the Nationals move.

Baseball had been played in Brooklyn for just as long. Two teams in Philadelphia, St. Louis and Boston.

[PeteU]

He was the reason, not D.C., why the team left town, a fact that is conveniently overlooked in the DC bashing. Major league baseball was played in Washington for seventy-one seasons prior to the Nationals move.

And from 1920-1961, the Senators drew above the league average exactly six years out of 41.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teams/minnatte.shtml

[RShack]

Or Long Island 'Burbs. Or Red Bank Mallrats. Or Hartford Whalers (the Whale!).

Hell, Hartford would be an interesting place, taking away both Boston and Yankee/Met fans (and has the historical value of being an original NL team in 1976 )

Great idea. Plus, it's close to Bristol. In just a few years, the MFY and BOS fans would be crying about how ESPN ignores them ;-)

[RShack]

He was the reason, not D.C., why the team left town, a fact that is conveniently overlooked in the DC bashing. Major league baseball was played in Washington for seventy-one seasons prior to the Nationals move.

And they drew like crap most of those 71 years. Face it, DC teams left for greener pastures... twice. You can't blame that on one owner.

Now, DC isn't the same place as it was back then... the DC metro area's grown like a weed... so I'm not saying they won't do OK now (I have no idea how they'll do)... but it wasn't a very good baseball town before...

[DrungoHazewood]

He was the reason, not D.C., why the team left town, a fact that is conveniently overlooked in the DC bashing. Major league baseball was played in Washington for seventy-one seasons prior to the Nationals move.

Longer than that. Washington had a team in the original professional sports league, the National Association, in 1871. Nineteenth century teams sprouted up and folded constantly, but Washington had teams in various leagues now considered major for most of the 1879-1899 period. They had two quasi-major league teams in 1884 in the AA and the Union Association. And, of course, they had a team in the AL from 1901-71.

[NewMarketSean]

Personally, I want it to stay the way it is. The talent pool was stretched thin enough with expansion. I don't want each city to have 2-3 teams.