Will the fans show?

[Frobby]

Friday could have 30,000 or more. Saturday 33,000 or more. Sunday could be bad. 25,000 or maybe a little more.

Final home game of the year is only drawing 25,000? That's really sad. I'm going to that game, which I chose from my ticket pool because I like having the opportunity to say goodbye and thank you to my team.

Those caps they are giving away on Sunday that have the Maryland flag colors on the bill look really hideous, but I guess I will take one anyway.

[Shabadoo25]

Because it's a ridiculous idea. OPACY is a draw by itself. Building in the suburbs is a discredited idea from the 70s and 80s. There's usually limited or no mass transit, you're away from the highest population density areas, it's often surrounded by acres of parking and no other draws like local bars or the Inner Harbor. Where would you rather see a game, FedEx or OPACY? I was going to ask "spend the day" but that's silly because no one in their right mind spends any more time at FedEx than they have to, except maybe pounding your own beer in the endless parking lots instead of paying $10-12 each inside.

And if you're going to abandon downtown Baltimore and a beautiful, modern stadium why even stay in the area? Why not go to a booming place like Austin or Portland and build a 28k seat downtown stadium where you can charge $80 a ticket?

We'll be able to see how good of an idea it is from the Braves' experiment with doing exactly what I suggested.

[eddie83]

Sure it is. Way too small a market.

If it is closer to your season ticket base it is a crazy idea? There are many factors here, not saying that. Is Towson as an example in the middle of nowhere?

[weams]

If it is closer to your season ticket base it is a crazy idea? There are many factories here, not saying that. Is Towson as an example in the middle of nowhere?

I'm just saying that Camden Yards is why you still have a team. No one is buying or building a suburban one for a Baltimore team.

[eddie83]

Because it's a ridiculous idea. OPACY is a draw by itself. Building in the suburbs is a discredited idea from the 70s and 80s. There's usually limited or no mass transit, you're away from the highest population density areas, it's often surrounded by acres of parking and no other draws like local bars or the Inner Harbor. Where would you rather see a game, FedEx or OPACY? I was going to ask "spend the day" but that's silly because no one in their right mind spends any more time at FedEx than they have to, except maybe pounding your own beer in the endless parking lots instead of paying $10-12 each inside.

And if you're going to abandon downtown Baltimore and a beautiful, modern stadium why even stay in the area? Why not go to a booming place like Austin or Portland and build a 28k seat downtown stadium where you can charge $80 a ticket?

People in Baltimore city don't go to the games. Fans aren't coming from the city, coming from the suburbs.

[eddie83]

I'm just saying that Camden Yards is why you still have a team. No one is buying or building a suburban one for a Baltimore team.

Not talking about something in my lifetime, maybe not in my children's. I don't think the idea is as crazy as you do.

[schittenden]

Or in another perspective:

[h=1]“If the fans don’t wanna come out to the ballpark, no one can stop ‘em. ”[/h]

― Yogi Berra

Adam was misquoted, he said that it was "not sad" but "eerie." Someone should fix the thread title.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/17606075/baltimore-orioles-outfielder-adam-jones-calls-home-attendance-sad

A previous version of this story had Jones saying the home attendance was "sad," but upon further review he ultimately said the dearth of Orioles fans at Camden Yards felt "eerie."

[schittenden]

Final home game of the year is only drawing 25,000? That's really sad. I'm going to that game, which I chose from my ticket pool because I like having the opportunity to say goodbye and thank you to my team.

Those caps they are giving away on Sunday that have the Maryland flag colors on the bill look really hideous, but I guess I will take one anyway.

I'll be there too.

[DrungoHazewood]

If it is closer to your season ticket base it is a crazy idea? There are many factors here, not saying that. Is Towson as an example in the middle of nowhere?

If you move to Towson you'll cede most of the remaining fans south of Baltimore to the Nats. It's almost two hours in light traffic for me to get to OPACY. Towson is a half-hour farther, more in traffic. A weekday game would go from a rarity to essentially impossible. Plus, I've gone to downtown Baltimore countless times for non-Oriole reasons, and often combined a trip to the Aquarium, Science Center, Fells Point, etc with a game. The only time I ever went to Towson was years ago when my aunt lived there.

It's like when DC United talked about building a stadium in NoVa, you know, where all the fans are. The buddy I have tickets with both immediately agreed that would be the end - no way in heck we're regularly driving all the way out there. Luckily they're building near Nats Park and all kinds of new bars and restaurants and relatively easy access to everything.

[schittenden]

We have Frobby!!

Yeah, we have a handful of DC lawyers who have remained loyal and drive up for some games. DC has almost as many highly paid lawyers as NYC does, but a lot of them are at Nats park. Those of us who have more loyalty, still make the trek.

[weams]

Not talking about something in my lifetime, maybe not in my children's. I don't think the idea is as crazy as you do.

25 years from now? Probably yes. I misunderstood.

[weams]

I'll be there too.

Likewise for justD and myself.

[Trackmaster]

You could pull a Dan Snyder and just start removing seats in the world's most transparent attempt to keep a fake sellout streak going. Although I'd argue that's just the start of the inevitable demolition of the worst sports facility I've seen in modern times. OPACY should be treated with a bit more respect.

Or you mean like they did at OPACY? Capacity used to be over 48K, but now its 46K after the renovations. I agree with the move, I think that no MLB stadium should be at over 38,000. For over half of your existence as a franchise (generally speaking, no one team in mind) you?ll struggle to fill even that besides opening day or a milestone. And in the golden years, you may sell-out, but you?ll at least create some scarcity for the tickets, and have a packed house that you want to go to. Sure, you can sell out 48K tickets for the handful of play-offs games you may host over a 10 year period, but at what cost? 95% of the games you?ll have tones of empty seats where people can be a seat for $10 and move down to the nice seats.

[eddie83]

If you move to Towson you'll cede most of the remaining fans south of Baltimore to the Nats. It's almost two hours in light traffic for me to get to OPACY. Towson is a half-hour farther, more in traffic. A weekday game would go from a rarity to essentially impossible. Plus, I've gone to downtown Baltimore countless times for non-Oriole reasons, and often combined a trip to the Aquarium, Science Center, Fells Point, etc with a game. The only time I ever went to Towson was years ago when my aunt lived there.

It's like when DC United talked about building a stadium in NoVa, you know, where all the fans are. The buddy I have tickets with both immediately agreed that would be the end - no way in heck we're regularly driving all the way out there. Luckily they're building near Nats Park and all kinds of new bars and restaurants and relatively easy access to everything.

I get that. I haven't done some market study here. The Orioles haven't provided me with a map of where their ticket holders live. Obviously if you lose from one area you would have to gain from another to make it work. I just don't think the idea in general is that crazy.

[DrungoHazewood]

People in Baltimore city don't go to the games. Fans aren't coming from the city, coming from the suburbs.

But the suburbs aren't a place. They're a thousand places spread out over hundreds or thousands of square miles. And you have to pick one to build the stadium, probably one that's less convenient for much of your established fanbase. My sister-in-law's company has a block of season tickets, they're in Upper Marlborough. Move to Towson and they buy Nats tickets.