Big Shock: D.C. a bad baseball town

[mojmann]

I posted this on one the websites given in the lead post.

Two big mistakes were made, one by MLB and one by the politicians in DC.

(1) Despite two previous franchaise failures, and a thriving baseball team only 30 miles away in Baltimore, MLB wrongly believed that a team would also thrive in the DC area. This was Selig’s desire, and he should be strung up for encouraging the other owners to go along with such an incredibly bad decision.

(2) The political powers that be in DC refused to swallow their pride and demanded a new stadium be built within the city. And then to compound there mistake, they chose one of the most horrid sections of DC for the location. This is a prime example of building a palace in the middle of a slum. A majority of people will not go there. A stadium built in No. VA would have at least given the team a better chance to survive.

I truly believe that both the O's and the Nat's will suffer for quite a few years as a result of the MLB decision. The O's will survive because they have a solid, long-time base of fans who will return when the team starts winning. The Nat's have no such base, and history has already proven that DC, for whatever reasons, will not support a ML baseball team. I don't think that will change.

You are absolutely correct on both points.

[orayole]

Don't forget Baltimore had a mega star in Cal Ripken Jr to boost attendance.